Jennifer Holliday

[Larstrup]

Jennifer Holliday's comments were made at the very end of Joy Reid's two-hour program on MSNBC this morning, which largely celebrated the great achievements of Martin Luther King and Michelle & Barack Obama. it was an excellent show. Jennifer Holliday had plenty of time to tone down her comments about the reaction of the African-American community.

 

She chose to speak about her personal reaction, which took a bit of courage.

 

Didn't see Joy Reid's program (will look for a replay) but from I have read from a number of media articles, she rescinded over fan reaction to her performing. I just found that personally disappointing. I would have hoped it would have been from a deeper place of her personal convictions. I still adore her talent!

[Bearofdistinction]

If you're going to make qualifications on "And I Am Telling You" then you have to do the same for "Over The Rainbow." There is nothing gay in the context of "Rainbow" at all - it is nothing more than a young girl's fantasy, yearning for something beyond her drab lonely home life. But - both songs, for whatever reasons, have been embraced by the gay community as having something to say. That's enough for me.

 

It wasn't the song itself Over the Rainbow -- It was JUDY and the dream it represented - A Better Place

"Someday Ill wish upon a Star and Wake up Where the Clouds are Far Behind me . . . "

 

I am not making it a Gay Anthem -- The Gays who came before us did -- they recognized the hope for a better world

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops a way above the chimney tops that is where you'll find meeee ...."

[+ WilliamM]

It wasn't the song itself Over the Rainbow -- It was JUDY and the dream it represented - A Better Place

"Someday Ill wish upon a Star and Wake up Where the Clouds are Far Behind me . . . "

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTUuWW3tuyU

 

Exactly.

 

And you could heard the reaction of the audience when Judy Garland sang the song in her live Carnegie Hall album. It was the fantasy of a person now approaching forty who made many mistake in personal behavior, particularly trusting the wrong people about money.

 

The album was the number one best sellers in the United States for most of the last half of 1961.

[+ purplekow]

This move by Holliday, singling out our LGBT community to apologize to as her purpose for pulling out of the inaugural, while there were (are), especially for a woman of color, obviously so many other immediate and higher-profile concerns to do so is just baffling to me. While I appreciate her support, I feel there are more serious issues plaguing our politics which she could have based her reasoning on for this move.

She knows her fan base and she knows her career or at least she was reminded of such after a decision which likely would have damaged her. It may have been the plan all the time to drop out, considering all the publicity she got, it would have been a good plan.

in any case, the Mormom Tabernacle Choir and the Rockettes will still be there, prepubscent boys and scantily clad women, sounds like a Republican party.

[bostonman]

It wasn't the song itself Over the Rainbow -- It was JUDY and the dream it represented - A Better Place

"Someday Ill wish upon a Star and Wake up Where the Clouds are Far Behind me . . . "

 

I am not making it a Gay Anthem -- The Gays who came before us did -- they recognized the hope for a better world

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops a way above the chimney tops that is where you'll find meeee ...."

 

Right. I just feel that the show context of "And I Am Telling You" has nothing to do with how the song has been received as a gay anthem of sorts. The point is that both that song and Rainbow took on a social significance outside of their story contexts. A song doesn't have to have a gay context to be popular as a gay-identified song.

[tyro]

There's always Ms. Hudson's version.

T

I agree. The first time I saw Holliday sing "And I Am Telling You" when Dreamgirls played the Shubert in Los Angeles, it was thrilling and very moving but now, her rendition has become a parody of the original. The mouth contortions, the slurred esses, the melodramatic swoops in notes and tone are just painful to watch. I think the woman is immensely talented but her technique has become so sloppy and over-the-top that I don't enjoy listening to her anymore and quite frankly, I have trouble understanding the words now which was never a problem in the 1980s. Sorry guys.

[marylander1940]

They should go!

 

[+ WilliamM]

A song doesn't have to have a gay context to be popular as a gay-identified song.

 

I was twenty-five years old when Judy Garland died in London in 1969. Time Magazine was the first main stream publication to comment on the many "homosexuals" in her audiences. And that was very late in Garland's life...the summer of 1967 during her two-week engagement at the Palace Theater in NYC.

 

@bostonman, Sometimes I do not take into consideration what is obvious to me, would not be for someone younger. I apologize for adding this so late in the discussion.

[bostonman]

Something I also should have noted earlier - "And I Am Telling You" was written by Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen - two gay men. "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" was written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. ("Yip") Harburg - two straight men. Does it matter? (It shouldn't, IMO.)

 

Also interesting to note that both Krieger and Arlen had (or have, in Krieger's case) a distinct talent for writing in a "black" musical idiom. (Think of Arlen's many heavily blues-influenced standards, some of which come from the scores of his black-cast musicals House Of Flowers and St. Louis Woman, in addition to standards such as "Blues In The Night" and his Cotton Club songs...Krieger also has the lesser-known black-cast musical The Tap Dance Kid to his credit, in addition to Dreamgirls). And yet I've never known, at least in my experience, any black performers to diss the music of either of these composers because they weren't actually black.

 

So, if people want to consider "And I Am Telling You" a gay anthem because it represents that experience for them, it simply shouldn't matter that the character who sings the song in the show is straight. (My god, should we also say it can't represent the feelings of thin people, for god's sake?). And, if people want to consider "Over The Rainbow" a gay anthem even though it was written by straight men, about a young Kansas farmgirl who, as a character, shows no sexual interest in anyone, and was sung most iconically by a straight woman (who happened to marry gay men, lol) - well, just fine. There are also plenty of other songs that we can identify with artists with tortured souls, about the hope for a better world - but somehow "Over The Rainbow" just hit the right nerve.

[+ WilliamM]

On the unedited "Judy at Carnegie Hall," Garland speaks directly to Harold Arlen in the audience after singing his song, "Come Rain or Come Shine." Also, her stories and off-hand comments are included and you realize Judy is dancing while the orchestra is playing the music from the song, "That's Entertainment."

 

I did see a misguided revival of Arlen and Harburg's "Jamaica" at Philadelphia's Prince Theater about a decade ago. Lena Horne played the lead role in the Broadway "Jamaica" in 1957. From what I remember, the "Jamaica" score is similar to the scores from House Of Flowers and St. Louis Woman.

[Boink]

This move by Holliday, singling out our LGBT community to apologize to as her purpose for pulling out of the inaugural, while there were (are), especially for a woman of color, obviously so many other immediate and higher-profile concerns to do so is just baffling to me. While I appreciate her support, I feel there are more serious issues plaguing our politics which she could have based her reasoning on for this move.

 

You articulated my thoughts precisely!! The minute I read about her apology I wondered why it was to the LGBT community. Silly me didn't even know she was a gay icon, nor her one song a 'gay anthem'. And I really question how she could seem so unfamiliar with the political issues and accepted the gig in the first place.

[+ WilliamM]

And I really question how she could seem so unfamiliar with the political issues and accepted the gig in the first place.

 

Jennifer Holliday's response to Joy Reid was she had sung for other presidents, George W. and his dad as well as Bill Clinton. Pres. Obama never asked, if he has, she would have agreed.