Susan Boyle's Performance Garners Over 60 Million Views in One Week
Susan Boyle has gone from obscurity to a household name in just one week. The Washingon Postreports that Susan Boyle's audition on Britain's Got Talent has now been seen over 66 million times. The Post says this breaks a record for the number of views a video has been seen in a week. Over 30 million of the views are from the YouTube video alone, which appears to be racing for the top of YouTube's most-viewed list.
According to Visible Measures, which tracks videos from YouTube, MySpace and other video-sharing sites, Boyle's audition has generated 66.3 million views. On YouTube alone, it's been viewed more than 30 million times. The 7-minute video that was posted on YouTube last Saturday and then widely circulated online easily eclipsed more high-profile videos that have been around for months. Tina Fey's impersonation of Sarah Palin has clocked in 34.2 million views, said the folks at Visible Measures, while President Obama's victory speech on election night has generated 18.5 million views. In less than a week, Boyle topped them.
But it's not just online video where Boyle, the unassuming woman from a tiny Scottish town, has dominated. Over the weekend, her Facebook fan page was flooded with comments, at some points adding hundreds of new members within a minute. The page listed 150,000 members on 1 p.m. Friday. It grew to 850,000 by 6 a.m. Sunday. Her Wikipedia entry has attracted nearly half a million page views since it was created last Sunday.
It's amazing how Susan's performance has viraled around the Internet so quickly. Services like Twitter and Facebook allow people to share information very quickly and this has really helped the number grow rapidly. Susan Boyle has also been on a number of talk shows including the CBS Early Show (see clip and CNN's Larry King, where she covered Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On." Susan hasn't been on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon yet but he used her video in a skit for his show. These appearances plus people sharing the video on social networks really helped Susan Boyle obtain a massive number of views very quickly.
Susan Boyle has gone from obscurity to a household name in just one week. The Washingon Post 
