Appreciation: Lena Horne

“She couldn’t sing about the penthouse [described in the song ‘Penthouse Serenade’] because she couldn’t live there–and that was that. Obviously, this tells us much about the racist policies of that unenlightened era, but it tells us even more about Horne as an artist: If she couldn’t believe in something, and make it real for herself and her audiences, then she wouldn’t sing it.”