She’s been living out her dream since appearing on Britain’s Got Talent and it seems there’s no end to Susan Boyle’s ever-increasing good fortune.
The Scottish singer was all smiles as she arrived in Japan yesterday, where she will perform on the country’s top-rating TV show on New Year’s Eve.
Boyle, 48, will be buoyed by the new that she will sing a duet with opera legend Andrea Bocelli on ITV1’s forthcoming show Pop Star To Opera Star, in which pop singers will be trained to sing arias.
Earlier this month Susan shocked record label executives when her LP I Dreamed A Dream prevented Bocelli’s My Christmas by getting to the number one position in the U.S. Billboard charts.
A source told The Sun newspaper: ‘Susan has held Andrea off the top of the US charts for weeks – it’s incredible.
‘But he holds no grudges – he joked that he “must sing with this amazing woman”.’
Susan’s debut album sold more than 700,000 copies in its first week and broke records on website Amazon, achieving the largest ever pre-sales figures in the site’s history.
Bocelli, 51, who is blind has sold 70million records and has been a mentor on American Idol.
Boyle is said to be joining him on one of his most famous duets – Time to Say Goodbye or The Prayer, which he last sang with Celine Dion.
The collaboration comes after she achieved her lifelong dream by singing I Know Him So Well with her idol Elaine Paige on an ITV1 Christmas special charting Boyle’s rise to fame.
And her popularity shows no signs of abating, with fans in Japan expecting a scintillating performance on New Year’s Eve.
The singer will be appearing on the country’s biggest New Year’s Eve programme, singing a traditional Japanese song.
‘Kohaku Uta Gassen is a massive show watched by millions,’ a source close to the singer said.
‘Susan has been practising a Japanese folk song called Wings To Fly, which she is hoping to perform live for the first time.”
The song originally appeared as a bonus song on the Japanese version of her album I Dreamed A Dream, which is number one in the album charts there despite the fact Boyle has never been to Japan or been promoted there.
Popstars such as Will Young, Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh and former Sugababe Mutya Buena are being touted as possible contestants on Pop Star To Opera Star.
While Paul Potts, who won the first series of Britain’s Got Talent in 2007, has been named as a possible candidate to mentor the pop singers.