Susan Boyle rose to fame on the hit UK TV talent show, Britain's Got Talent. Within nine days of her audition, videos of Susan Boyle had been watched over 100 million times, which was an online record.

In August 2008, Susan Boyle applied for an audition for the third series of Britain's Got Talent and was accepted after a preliminary audition in Glasgow. She aspired to become a musical theatre singer as successful as Elaine Paige. Boyle sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables in the first round of the third series of Britain's Got Talent, which was watched by over 10 million viewers when it aired on 11 April 2009.