Susan Boyle taunted by passengers on UK train ride, report says

08/24/2010 by Corinne Heller

Singer Susan Boyle, 49, was reportedly driven to tears after being taunted by several passengers on a recent train ride in the United Kingdom.

Boyle, a Scottish church volunteer who became famous due to an online video of her Britain's Got Talent audition, was heading home to the town of Blackburn and sitting alone during the 30-minute train ride when the incident occurred, the UK newspaper The Sun said. Boyle has not commented on the report.

The newspaper quoted an unnamed passenger as saying the singer was "minding her own business", when people started taking pictures of her and laughing at her. Then Boyle reportedly began sobbing.

"She then turned to the people sitting opposite her and told them off," The Sun quoted the person as saying. "Susan certainly put them in their place - and good for her."

Boyle has said that she was beaten by teachers and taunted for her learning difficulties when she was in school. She told the UK newspaper The Mirror last year: "There's nothing worse than another person having power over you by bullying you and you not knowing how to get rid of that thing."

In 2009, Boyle finished second on Britain's Got Talent, which Simon Cowell of American Idol fame helped judge, singing her audition song that had made her an Internet sensation - "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical Les Miserables.

She later went on to become a top-selling artist and her album, also called I Dreamed A Dream, was one of the United Kingdom's most popular records last year.