Lady Sings the Blues

“Diana Ross is Billie Holiday. Diana Ross sings Billie Holiday. And a superstar is born.”

Billie Holiday (Diana Ross) leaves a hard childhood behind and starts singing for whatever rooms will have her, working toward a name of her own. Louis McKay (Billy Dee Williams) enters as her boyfriend and then her manager, helping steer the career while the drugs gather around her. Sidney J. Furie lets the tenderness and the friction between Billie and Louis carry the story, one the film never quite separates from her singing.