Soul Diva Sings The Blues

Soul music legend Diana Ross broke down many racial barriers, opening doors for many black entertainers. Lady Sings The Blues is a prime example of her remarkable acheivements. Diana Ross wasn't, to be fair, the most ideal Billie Holiday but she was certainly perfect for this vehicle. Lady Sings The Blues is loosley drawn from Holidays autobiography of the same name though many incidents are fictionalised and re-worked for dramatic clarity. Die-hard Holiday fans were up in arms for the films often fictionalised account but they all rightly joined in to praise Diana Ross' remarkable and truly dynamic silver screen debut. Incredibly Diana had never before taken an acting lesson in her life and her only acting credit before this was a guest apperance in the U.S T.V series, Tarzan, playing a singing nun. She certainly didn't garner any such recognised praise for that role and critics doubted almost immediatley that she could truly carry out this challenging role. However once the film was released critics were silenced and astounded by Diana's masterful playing.
The film follows Billie as a teenager where she worked as a prostitute in a brothel run by her mothers friend and chronicles her rise and fall of the days greatest Jazz/Blues singer. It largely focuses on her complex relationship with her husband Louis Mckay, which is played superbly by Billy Dee Williams and details her horrific, physical decline into heroin addiction. There is also a fantastic supporting turn from Richard Pryor as the Piano Man who really bites into his part and makes the most of every scene he is in. But the ultimate fact here is that Diana Ross is the star and she is just incredible. Watching her play those harrowing scenes as Billie goes through cold turkey from her heavy heroin addiction makes you appreciate her deep, raw talent. Her acting is purley instinctive and as one critic of the day accuratley pointed out that where ever the eyes of the film makers may have been, the heart of its star is in the right place! She doesn't once try and emulate Holidays vocal style, instead making the songs surprisingly her own. She completley escaped and shook off the traditional Motown sound and never does a Supreme type number. What emerges in her vocal performances on the films soundtrack are some of her strongest, most passionate work. Her diction and phrasing is so precise and when you hear her sing such quintessential jazz classics such as Strange Fruit, Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be), Good Morning Heartache, God Bless The Child and the tear-jerking, My Man, you just get goose bumps from her almost stark delivery. What Lady Sings The Blues often draws upon is racial predujice, a fact which Diana could certainly relate to herself where she and most other Motown atists had been subjected to as they began their career's. There are some moving scenes as Billie saw a black man hung from a tree during one of her early tours. It sends shivers down the spine when she sings Strange Fruit which had been based on that horrific occurence Billie had witnessed. Diana projects the unhappy and vulnreable side to Billie which some didn't now about and plays it out with such conviction and gritty realism. The whole thing is also complimented by the thirties ambience such as the nightclubs and drug culture which are superbly and convincingly evoked. Diana certainly deserved her oscar nomination for Best Actress and its a shame she didn't win as it was such a remarkable debut but receiving the oscar nomination in the first place was an acheivement alone and she certainly deserves to be proud of her performance in this film. On the whole a compelling and riveting part-true, part-fictionalised account of Lady Days often traumatic life.

Not Billie's real story, but I give Diana props

I'm not a Diana Ross fan, but in this movie, she was excellent and convincing as Lady Day. Dynamic performances by Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor as well. My only fault with this movie that it was not Billie Holiday's real story. It was filled with inaccuracies and purely fictional situations. Even Berry Gordy, Ross' one-time lover and mentor, admitted that the script was bogus, but it still was very riveting. This was Ross' first film and even though she never took a drama lesson in her life, she pulled this off with no problem. Definitely worth checking out.

Not only is the film historically inaccurate,

but it's an absolute DISGRACE to the memory and legacy of the real Lady Day. Diana was a decent (solo) to great(Supremes) soul singer, but she's no great actor. She's simply competent ... watching Mahogany proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. To do the story of Billie Holiday, easily one of the most influential and lasting jazz/torch singers of the 20th century, and not cast a known quantity was a serious mistake on Gordy and Motown's part. Not only didn't Ross look the part, she certainly didn't act it, and her voice is nothing like Billie's;it's far weaker and devoid of the "body" Lady Day had. The only bright spot in this was Rochard Pryor's part, even though, again, it was 99% fiction. Save your time, save your money. Buy a Billie Holiday CD, her autobiography, and enjoy the real thing. Maybe one day someone will make a REAL film bio of the Lady.