.- Susan Boyle said in an interview on Wednesday that she is "honored and humbled" for the invitation to sing for the Pope in her homeland of Scotland next month. The performances she will make during the Pope's visit are "her greatest dream come true."
Ms. Boyle entered the world music scene in 2009 when she appeared on Britain's Got Talent, a program in which contestants vie for the opportunity to perform for members of the British Monarchy. She blew the judges away with her rendition of "I dreamed a dream" from Les Miserables and, although she didn't win the contest, she became world-famous. Her album, fittingly called “I dreamed a dream,” was the world's best-selling album of 2009.
In a television interview with the Scottish Bishops' communications office which aired on Wednesday, she revealed that she will be singing the song that made her internationally famous, as well as "How great thou art," before the Pope's Mass at Glasgow's Bellahouston Park on Sept. 16.
Then, after joining an 800-member choir to sing the hymns at Mass, she will send Pope Benedict XVI off to the airport with a farewell song.
"To be able to sing for the Pope is a great honor and something I've always dreamed of," she said, adding, "it's indescribable.”
"I think the 16th of September will stand out in my memory as something I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to sing for his Holiness and I can't really put into words my happiness, that this wish has come true at last."
Boyle, who prays the Rosary daily, explained that her faith is the "backbone" of her life.
Of singing at Bellahouston Park, she said, "I am humbled and honored by this invitation and I hope I can do my best."
An estimated 100,000 people will be in attendance for the occasion.
The president of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, was "delighted" at Boyle's inclusion in the program. "I think it is wonderful that she will have this once in a lifetime opportunity," he said, "and as her Bishop I am hugely proud of her."
