Susan Boyle, who wowed people around the world with her performance on Britain's Got Talent, poses at her home in Blackburn, Scotland, where she lives alone with her cat Pebbles. (Associated Press)

Susan Boyle, the unglamourous 47-year-old who wowed judges on the TV program Britain's Got Talent, says she is "very humbled" by the public's reaction to her singing performance.

Boyle, who lives alone in a Scottish village and admitted on television that she had never been kissed, has become a global hit after she appeared on the talent show over the weekend.

Appearing on the show with unkempt frizzy hair and a dowdy dress, she shocked the audience and judges as she belted out I Dreamed a Dream from the musical Les Miserables.

Since Saturday night's show, a clip of her performance on YouTube has drawn at least 13 million viewers.

"Very few people knew me. Now it's very different," said Boyle on the phone from her town of Blackburn, 30 kilometres west of Edinburgh, in an interview on CBC Newsworld.

"I think it's great [that people] are supporting me all the way, wishing me well," said the shy Boyle, who giggled her way through the conversation with host Suhana Meharchand.

"I'm grateful for everybody, for what they are showing," she said after being asked about her fans, who say she has been an inspiration.

Boyle credits her mother, who died recently at the age of 91, for pushing her to appear on the show.

"[She] was a woman in a million. She was unique and a lady."

Boyle says her mother taught her how to conduct herself.

"[She taught me] how to live a good life, how to conduct yourself in public and how to be a human being."

Boyle says she was thinking of her mom as she performed on the TV show.

"I was hoping she thought I did well."