Lady Sings the Blues

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Lady Sings the Blues

R

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2h 24m

Biography

Music

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71%

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62 Reviews

86%

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5,000+ Ratings

Pop star Diana Ross portrays legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in this biographical drama. Beginning with Holiday's traumatic youth, the film depicts her early attempts at a singing career and her eventual rise to stardom, as well as her difficult relationship with Louis McKay (Billy Dee Williams), her boyfriend and manager. Casting a shadow over even Holiday's brightest moments is the vocalist's severe drug addiction, which threatens to end both her career and her life.

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Joe Pollack

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Furie does a generally good job, and it was cheering to see some of the old-fashioned techniques like railroad wheels, theater marquees and newspaper clippings used to show passage of time and space. They are corny, but they are effective.

Apr 5, 2024

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William B. Collins

Philadelphia Inquirer

The onetime lead vocalist of the Supremes [Ross] shows an amazing range as an actress, triumphing astonishingly in a movie which is nothing to brag about otherwise.

Apr 5, 2024

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G.J. Fleming

Orlando Sentinel

As a movie, it is a good debut for Diana Ross, though probably an inadequately slick testimonial to the tragic life of Billie Holiday.

Apr 5, 2024

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James Baldwin

The Devil Finds Work

It has absolutely nothing to do with Billie, or with jazz, or any other kind of music, or the risks of an artist, or American life, or black life, or narcotics, or the narcotics laws, or clubs, or managers, or policemen, or despair, or love.

May 1, 2024

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Observer (UK) Staff

Observer (UK)

Purists may quibble at the way Billie's life is presented but, showbiz or no, we enjoyed it all hugely.

Apr 5, 2024

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Montezuma

Bay Area Reporter

Whatever negative one can find in "Lady Sings the Blues", one thing shines through and that is the emergence of Diana Ross as a first class actress and star.

Apr 5, 2024

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Kenya

A classic movie with Diana Ross. She was phenomenal as this was her first acting gig. My all time favorite movie.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/21/22

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Alec B

Ross, who you might think would be the weak link here, does give a good performance. She captures a kind of desperate sadness within Holiday that feels honest. It is a shame that the movie is just a cliched biopic that can't think of much to say about Holiday and never really earns Ross' work here.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/10/24

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S R

An important story, but just average in the making / telling. Not one I plan to see again. Saw on TCM.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

05/09/23

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Audience Member

Nothing to do with Billie Holiday. Not even a good period piece. Diana Ross just never gets over herself. Way too Hollywood fake glamour. Supporting cast did OK with crummy script. Billy Dee Williams band Richard Pryor, cant go wrong. Dont compare to "Ray.". Ironically I am watching " Stormy Weather" with Lena Horne. She did the most memorable song at a window the carpenters dragged in and nobody noticed

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

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Audience Member

Ross, who you might think would be the weak link here, does give a good performance. She captures a kind of desperate sadness within Holiday that feels honest. It is a shame that the movie is just a cliched biopic that can't think of much to say about Holiday and never really earns Ross' work here.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

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dave s

It's not as though Lady Sings the Blues is a bad film, because it's not. Detailing the life of jazz singer Billie Holiday, it's a periodically engaging biopic that never veers too far from the biopic formula. Featuring a solid performance from Diana Ross as the tragic subject, the movie is filled with great music, as would be expected. Where the film may fall short is the bloated running time, which feels even longer as the result of some unnecessarily long scenes (for example, the Piano Man's final scene with Billie seems to go on forever) and some scenes that just feel like they go on forever (pretty much all of the schmaltzy scenes where Billie and Louis converse, with the overwrought sound of violins weeping in the background). In Lady Sings the Blues, the good outweighs the bad, but not by much.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Sidney J. Furie

Director

Diana Ross

Billie Holliday

Billy Dee Williams

Louis McKay

Richard Pryor

Piano Man

James Callahan

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Synopsis

Pop star Diana Ross portrays legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in this biographical drama. Beginning with Holiday's traumatic youth, the film depicts her early attempts at a singing career and her eventual rise to stardom, as well as her difficult relationship with Louis McKay (Billy Dee Williams), her boyfriend and manager. Casting a shadow over even Holiday's brightest moments is the vocalist's severe drug addiction, which threatens to end both her career and her life.

Director: Sidney J. Furie
Producer: Jay Weston, James S. White
Screenwriter: Chris Clark, Suzanne De Passe, Billy Holiday, Terence Mc Cloy, William Dufty
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Weston Productions, Paramount Pictures, Motown Productions, Jobete Productions, Sidney J. Furie Productions
Rating: R
Genre: Biography, Music
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 12, 1972, Original
Release Date (DVD): Oct 5, 2010
Runtime: 2h 24m
Sound Mix: Stereo, Mono