She's back! Susan Boyle takes Birmingham by storm.

Susan Boyle (SuBo) is back and what a roller coaster she's been on. Heavily tipped to win the TV reality show Britain's Got Talent (BGT) after her performance in the shows auditions wowed millions of TV viewers across the United Kingdom and the world. Her explosion into the spotlight saw her gathering many celebrity fans including Oprah Winfrey, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher and US President Barack Obama.

As we all know (or should know) there is an ugly side to fame, the lack of privacy, the pressure, the media intrusion, the self-questioning, the critics. All these seemed to come together in an assault on Susan and she reacted badly, allegedly enduring a series of mini-breakdowns in the run up to the finals of the show.

Her mental state, a growing public backlash all seemed to come to a head in BGT final which saw a surprise victory by dance group Diversity with Boyle as runner up. The drama didn't end there as the next day the news came out that Doctors were assessing her under the "mental health act" and she was later admitted to the famed (or should that be infamous) Priory Hospital in North London.

Cue a media frenzy over a whole range of issues, exploitation of reality TV contestants, is Susan Boyle's career over, did the British public build her up just to knock her down, etc.

Last week Susan Boyle was released from the Priory and there were lingering concerns as to whether she'll ever get back onn track and in particular will she make the BGT Winners tour but the woman it seems is more resilient that we have been led to believe as she not only made a appearance at the first date of the 29-venue tour, but put in a show stopping performance.

Reviews of her performance were overwhelmingly positive.

“She came out and did great — she really was fantastic. She performed brilliantly and it was such a good night. After I heard she had come out of rehab, I had no doubts that she wouldn’t turn up.”

“I’m a massive fan, I think she is fantastic and I think she should have won. After the concerns that she might not turn up, everybody was so pleased to see her. She looked more confident than usual, but compared with others out there she didn’t look that comfortable — she still looks very aware of the stardom.

“She was first on after the interval and she got a standing ovation. All in all, it was a really good night.”

Even more importantly after cynical TV bosses had forced her to maintain her dowdy Scottish spinster look through out the competition this was the first opportunity for fans to see what a rejuvenated Susan Boyle could look like and it was an incredible transformation, she si almost unrecognisable.