THEY ARE calling him the Taiwanese Susan Boyle. Dressed in a blue blazer with a red bow-tie and sporting a pudding-bowl haircut that belies his 24 years, Lin Yu Chun blew away the judges and viewers of Taiwan's American Idolequivalent, Super Star Avenue, with his astonishing rendition of Whitney Houston's version of the Dolly Parton classic, I Will Always Love You.
The chubby singer’s performance has gone wildly viral, and two million people had watched the video on YouTube by yesterday evening. The number of hits was rising fast.
In a perfect soprano, Lin does an awesome version of the song, as featured on the soundtrack to the 1992 film The Bodyguard. Written by Dolly Parton in 1973, the Whitney Houston version became one of the biggest-selling singles of all time. It looks set for a new lease of life from Lin's rendition.
The comparisons with Susan Boyle (SuBo) were almost immediate – a plain-looking but charismatic outsider with the voice of an angel, while the surprise on the faces of the judges echoed the raised eyebrows of judge Simon Cowell on Britain's Got Talent, when the Scottish singer sang I Dreamed A Dreamfrom Les Misérables. She was catapulted to international stardom after her performance, and matched Lady GaGa for popularity in sales last year.
Lin is looking good to win the €750,000 in prize money.
Self-confidence was always a problem for the singer, and singing was always a way of escaping from peers’ taunts about his weight. He would spend hours in his room singing the big, bombastic pop songs of Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, but Whitney Houston really captured his imagination.
“I now have more confidence in pursuing a singing career,” he told Associated Press. “You don’t have to be a good-looking man or woman to succeed. Just be yourself and try your best . . . being fat draws a lot of mockery in our society,” he said.
Previous outings in talent shows have earned him similar scorn in Taiwan, the deeply conservative self-ruled island where the losing side in the Chinese civil war fled to in 1949.
Some judges believe it unmanly of him to sing soprano, while others suggested his looks mean he would make a better comedian than a singer.
Lin looks likely to have the last laugh, however.