Lady Sings the Blues
Diana Ross plays the magnificent, tragic song stylist Billie Holiday, who while writhing in a strait jacket in a prison cell, awaiting sentencing on drug charges, tells the story of her troubled life and career.
22 September 1925, Sumter, South Carolina, USA
10 October 1934, San Diego, California, USA
29 August 1917, New York City, New York, USA
January 4, 1929 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
20 February 1942, Los Angeles, California, USA
1 December 1940, Peoria, Illinois, USA
July 12, 1921 in Manchester Depot, Iowa, USA
1931, Detroit, Michigan, USA
1 April 1906, Radom, Mazowieckie, Poland
20 August 1937, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
9 November 1913, Ocilla, Georgia, USA
January 25, 2006
Ross so perfectly captures the essence of Billie Holiday's vocal style that it sends chills down your spine.
October 07, 2005
Ross and director Sidney J. Furie seem to feel that the slower the song, the more serious the mood, so at times the film seems to be grinding almost to a halt
October 23, 2004
The movie is filled with many of the great Billie Holiday songs, and Ross handles them in an interesting way. She doesn't sing in her own style, and she never tries to imitate Holiday, but she sings somehow in the manner of Holiday.
June 30, 2011
Though she doesn't look or sing as Billie Holiday, Diana Rosss gives a commendable performance in this fictionalized biopic, for which she received an Oscar noimination.
May 09, 2005
How is it possible for a movie that is otherwise so dreadful to contain such a singularly attractive performance in the title role?
October 03, 2006
View this film about Billie Holiday as a completely fictional story, and you'll enjoy it far more than you would otherwise.
January 01, 2000
Clearly, it's an affront to Holiday's art, but just as clearly, it's a good piece of low entertainment.
October 28, 2005
Berry Gordy's gift to Diana Ross was this lavish, bloated Billie Holiday biopic.
January 24, 2006
Ross conveys the vulnerability and determination of her character across a very believable arc of maturation.
November 01, 2004
Great score, great singing, but overdramatic thanks to Ross.
