Lady Sings the Blues

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This article is about the film. For the song, see Lady Sings The Blues (song). For the soundtrack album, see Lady Sings The Blues (album).

Lady Sings The Blues
The movie poster for the film Lady Sings The Blues
Directed by	Sidney J. Furie
Produced by	Brad Dexter Jay Weston James S. White
Written by	Chris Clark Suzanne De Passe William Dufty Billie Holiday Terence McCloy
Starring	Diana Ross Billy Dee Williams Richard Pryor
Music by	Gil Askey Michel Legrand
Cinematography	John A. Alonzo
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	October 12, 1972
Running time	141 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Lady Sings The Blues is a semi-factual 1972 film about jazz singer Billie Holiday loosely based on her 1956 autobiography of the same name. It was produced by Motown Productions for Paramount Pictures. Diana Ross portrayed Holiday, alongside a cast including Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan and Scatman Crothers.

The movie was adapted by Chris Clark, Suzanne De Passe and Terence McCloy from the book by William Dufty and Billie Holiday. It was directed by Sidney J. Furie.

It was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning none. The nominations were for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Diana Ross), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Music, Original Song Score and Adaptation (Gil Askey) and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced.^[1]

The same year, Motown released a successful soundtrack double-album of Ross' recordings of Billie Holiday songs from the film, also titled Lady Sings The Blues. The album became one of the Number-one albums of 1973 (U.S.) in the Billboard Hot 200 Album Charts,^[2] in the weeks of April 7 and 14, 1973.