Lyrics | Artists | Lena Horne

Lena Horne

Widely recognised as a genuine jazz great, Lena Horne's sultry singing - allied to a strong social conscience as a civil rights campaigner - made her a key figure at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem, while revered in Hollywood too. An Afro-American with family roots both in Europe and Native America, her early influences were the great jazz artists Billy Strayhorn and Billy Eckstine, who she saw while living in Pittsburgh. Moving to New York, she got herself a job in the chorus line at the Cotton Club and within a year she was given a starring role alongside her mentor Adelaid...