Crowds gather as singing sensation Susan Boyle stops off in Blackburn

Published on Thursday 26 November 2009 08:37

IT WAS more dim lights, small town than bright lights, big city as singing sensation Susan Boyle swapped New York for a trip home to her native West Lothian.

The star, who has become one of the most famous faces in the world in little under a year, took time out from her hectic schedule and being the toast of the Big Apple, to sample familiar surroundings in Blackburn yesterday.

Despite her debut album selling speedily in the charts, and having performed a series of high profile concerts, the 48-year-old wandered round shops in the area going fairly unnoticed.

Even sporting a badge of her beloved cat Pebbles – who has become famous in its own right – did not give the game away.

It was only when friends and local school children noticed who it was that the crowds of well-wishers began to form.

The singer also faced some acclimatising as the wind and rain lashed West Lothian, a far cry from the more temperate winter she had been experiencing in New York.

She said: "I got back from America and am a little jet lagged. New York was absolutely brilliant."

Asked how promoting the new album was going, she grinned broadly, and said: "I hope everyone likes it."

The Britain's Got Talent performer protected herself from the elements with a light cream waterproof jacket.

But there was no hiding her new found celebrity when she was spotted by school children eager to take her picture on their phones.

Although she looked tired, the star still took time to talk to the youngsters, before walking home in the rain.

The singer's album, I Dreamed A Dream, sold more than 130,000 copies when it was released on Monday, and broke records for being the album with the most ever advance orders.

It is also proving popular in the US, where she has spent much of her time of late.

The singer, who recently made an appearance on similar reality TV talent show The X Factor, is widely rumoured to be outstripping the rest of the week's top five albums combined.

If she sells more than 363,735 copies by Sunday, she will go down in history as having the fastest selling debut album in UK history.

The record was previously set by the Arctic Monkeys when they released Whatever People Say I Am in January 2006.

As well as television appearances here, she has put in several more hours of air time in the States, where her popularity is as great as it proved to be in Blackburn yesterday.

This week she was pictured in New York's Rockefeller Centre, with some observers saying she appeared to be showing the strains of her rapid rise to stardom.

The singer, who had learning disabilities as a child, has prompted some concern over recent months with her erratic and bizarre behaviour.