Music Blogs

Despite the powderpuff efforts of a 12-year-old boy, the Susan Boyle bandwagon shows no sign of stalling, as it crashes its way around every stop on the world's media, adding new celebrity passengers by the day. Although last week's turn by Shaheen Jafargholi has certainly added impetus to this year's barnstorming "Britain's Got Talent" and suggested it may not be such a one-horse race, the 48-year-old unemployed virgin remains the clear favourite and tabloid darling to boot.

The latest news from her camp is that new hairdo, which is reported to have caused consternation in some quarters. Yesterday, she visited the Miss Toner salon in Whitburn, near Blackburn, West Lothian, and shelled-out £35 to leave her frumpy grey mop behind and embrace a bold brown transformation. This comes despite judge Amanda Holden insisting no such styling would take place on her watch. "She needs to stay exactly as she is as that's the reason we love her", she insisted. "She looks like anybody who could live on your street. The minute we turn her into a glamour-puss it's spoilt."

However, a spokeswoman for the programme has retorted, not unreasonably: "Susan's a grown woman and can do what she likes with her hair". It all smacks of the kind of desperate media glory-hunting you might associate with David Beckham, Jade Goody or The Queen even. As if further proof of Boyle's sky-rocketing status were needed, that too has arrived in the shape of an extremely unlikely namecheck on "South Park" this week. You can see the clip below but please remember, it took Kanye West about ten years to get on the show. For Susan, we're talking ten days...