大象传媒

Jackie Kay - Scotland鈥檚 Makar from 2016 to 2021 - reflects on her love of blues singer Bessie Smith.

She explores the life of the Empress of the Blues and considers the effect the icon had on her as she grew up as a black girl adopted by white parents.

Orphaned by the age of nine, Bessie Smith sang on the street to support her siblings and was swept into travelling shows as a young woman. Facing extreme racial prejudice, she brawled under the influence of bathtub gin and had tumultuous love affairs with men and women. She also sold hundreds of thousands of records and became a genuine superstar.

Mixing biography, fiction, music and memoir, Jackie remembers the electric thrill of identification when, as a young black girl growing up in Glasgow, she was first heard the music of The Empress.

Written and read by Jackie Kay.

With Adjoa Andoh

Omnibus of five episodes abridged by Rosemary Goring.

Producer: Eilidh McCreadie

First broadcast on 大象传媒 Radio 4 in February 2021.