She mesmerised the studio audience and TV viewers up and down the country during her audition at Britain’s Got Talent.
But Susan Boyle also left three of Hollywood’s elite starstruck – with Piers Morgan witnessing the SuBo effect unfolding in the United States.
Speaking to a packed audience in Glasgow on Monday, he said the singer, whose rendition of I dreamed a Dream at the talent show went viral overnight and has been viewed over 650 million times around the world, left some of the biggest stars of the big screen utterly spellbound.
Mr Morgan claimed George Clooney listened to her voice on loop while Robin Williams once burst into his dressing room while belting out her song.
And Ghost-star Demi Moore sat weeping in her hotel suite, clutching the broadcaster’s hand as she spoke about how much Miss Boyle meant to her.
All were bewitched by the shy, then 47-year-old, who once stood nervously on stage and announced to a snickering crowd she wanted to sing the tune from the hit musical, Les Miserables.
Mr Morgan said: ‘I was doing America’s Got Talent and when she became this sort of breakout absolute superstar, three things happened to me which were just completely nuts.
‘The first one, I was doing an interview with George Clooney for CNN with his dad and in the commercial break, George went, “By the way, how’s Susan”.
Piers Morgan has revealed three of Hollywood’s biggest stars were mesmerised by Susan Boyle
Morgan revealed George Clooney loved Susan Boyle’s version of I Dreamed a Dream
Ghost star Demi Moore told the 60-year-old broadcaster how much the Scottish singer meant to her
‘He said, “I’m doing this movie Up in the Air, and all we’re doing is playing it on loop all day long – I Dreamed a Dream”.’
Then came the now late Robin Williams.
Mr Morgan heard a ‘bang on the door’ of his dressing room, and ‘in walks Robin Williams’.
The veteran journalist added: ‘He came in as Mrs Doubtfire and for ten minutes was just Mrs Doubtfire meets Susan Boyle [singing] I Dreamed a Dream.’
The 60-year-old also revealed he was summoned to Demi Moore’s hotel suite.
He said: ‘She held my hand in the middle of her suite for half an hour, crying as she told me how much Susan Boyle meant to her.
‘Thank you, Glasgow.’
For Boyle – the quiet woman who had spent most of her life caring for her late mother in a modest Scottish home – it was the kind of global adoration no one could have predicted.
Yet, Mr Morgan noted, it was entirely earned.
And 16 years on, the singer continues to inspire that same affection.
Boyle, now 64, suffered a stroke in 2022 which left her struggling to speak and sing.
But she made a triumphant return to the red carpet on Monday evening at the Pride of Britain awards, where she showed off her eye-catching new blonde hairstyle as she posed for pictures at London’s Grosvenor House.
Mr Morgan shared his reflections during An Evening with Piers Morgan and Andrew Doyle at Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre, where he discussed his new book, Woke is Dead.
He said despite Scotland’s controversial hate law, pushed through by former First Minister Humza Yousaf, Scots remained ‘straight talking’ and added: ‘I’m afraid you have to tolerate people, who have offensive views.
SuBo’s legendary Britain’s Got Talent audition in 2009
‘You may not like it, but that’s what a democracy is about. It’s about tolerating people’s views you don’t like.
‘You might find them grotesque and offensive and horrible, but if they’re not actually saying, go and shoot you or whatever, or inciting violence or inciting specific racial hatred against people based on their religion or identity, and say, go kill now at this place, if it’s not a direct threat like that, then I am afraid people are allowed to have hateful views in a free democratic society.
‘Churchill said it, he fought for it, he saved us from the Nazis for it. It is so important that we understand what free speech is.’
Mr Doyle asked him: ‘Finally, are you optimistic? You’ve written a book, you’ve said woke is dying…’
And Mr Morgan replied: ‘Look at this audience, how could I not be optimistic.
‘I love Scotland, I loved coming up here for Britain’s Got Talent, I love coming here to play golf, I love the people, I love your attitudes.
‘I think you are the epitome really of the opposite of woke. You’re straight talking, you speak your mind, I love you for it.
‘Fly the flag for free speech, there’s nothing more important.’