The way both the press and public have been carrying on over the past week, you’d think that Susan Boyle had already won this series of Britain’s Got Talent. Already the ‘Scottish spinster’, as the tabloids have delighted in calling her has achieved global fame, performed on the Larry King Show, made Demi Moore cry and landed herself the ultimate accolade – a string of appreciation groups on Facebook, plus a fan page which over 1.2m people have so far signed up to. The social networking site also appears to have a number of people on it who claim to be the lady herself – remarkable for someone who confesses she doesn’t use the Internet and had never even heard of Youtube until she appeared on it. Why do I sense there are imposters at work?

For all our Britain’s Got Talent stuff go here.

But the amount of hysteria that this mild-mannered lady has whipped up with her sensational singing voice might lead you to conclude that the rest of the contestants in the current series might as well forget it and come back next year. The bookies have been swamped with Boyle bets and at this juncture it seems she could turn up to the final, read the West Lothian phonebook on stage or snore through a megaphone for two and a half minutes and still be crowned series champion. Yes, she probably will win Britain’s Got Talent 2009. But the question is – should she really?

Being such a hot favourite of course doesn’t always guarantee a victory. This year’s Eurovision Song Contest, which is due to take place next month, also has its hottest favourite for years in the shape of the Norwegian entry, Fairytale. A Scando/East European-sounding folk tune by musician Alexander Rybak, who sings the winsome ditty as well as playing a mean violin, it’s currently so far ahead of the other countries in the betting that if the contest were held tomorrow there would indeed be little point in anybody else showing up. But even though it has everything going for it (including the fact that Norwegian-raised Rybak was actually born in Belarus, thus doubtless securing votes from the former Soviet Bloc as well as Scandinavia…..) there’s a growing sense that it may have peaked too soon, and come the big night it might just flop instead of fly. Because it might be the most heavily favoured song of the year but it’s not the only good one.

And it could be the same with Susan. After all the series still has several weeks to go, and there are still any number of fabulous acts who could be in contention for the title (although as long as bellydancing drag queen Mamma Trish isn’t one of them I will be happy. And a word of warning to anybody who hasn’t seen Saturday’s show yet – you might not want to watch him while you’re eating…..). This weekend’s show, for example, brought with it saxophonist Julian Smith, who reduced Amanda to tears, dance troupe DCD whom Simon just couldn’t take his eyes off and 12-year-old singer Shaheen Jafargholi, who is reportedly posing a threat to Susan in the betting following his sensational audition.

Yes, Susan is terrific and did a terrific job at her audition. Yes she deserves all the recognition she is getting. But at the end of the day, aren’t we all jumping the gun a bit here? And surely to suggest she has the series all sewn up before we have even seen half of the auditions does a great disservice to the many other talented acts out there who deserve their moment in the spotlight?

Moreover the question remains: does she really need a Britain’s Got Talent victory to cement what will doubtless be a hugely successful career off the back of her new-found fame? While it would obviously be nice to see her take the title, part of me can’t help thinking that Susan Boyle will triumph regardless, and the winner should perhaps be an act who would really benefit from being series champion, someone who without it might not necessarily get the recognition they would deserve.

As they say, it ain’t over until the Scottish lady sings. Again…..