Honorary degree for singer Boyle

Another dream has come true for singing sensation Susan Boyle, with the Britain’s Got Talent star receiving an honorary doctorate from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. Boyle was recognised for her “contribution to the creative industries”, reported Scotland’s Daily Record. The degree is for work in society at large, which the university said reflected its commitment to the communities it serves. The singer was honored at the same university where she once studied for a higher education certificate in caring. Boyle, 51, shot to fame in 2009 after she performed the song I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables on the popular television program Britain’s Got Talent. Her first album was released in November 2009 and debuted as the number one best-selling album on charts around the globe. The mezzo-soprano has since sold about 18 million albums worldwide and has 120 platinum and gold albums across 38 countries. She has performed on TV in Britain, the US, Australia, Ireland and Japan, and sung for Pope Benedict XVI and the Queen. Boyle also performed live to half a billion people on the TV show China’s Got Talent. She was raised in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland, by her parents Patrick Boyle, a miner, World War II veteran and singer, and her mother, Bridget. Her mother was a shorthand typist, whose family comes from County Donegal, Ireland.