“Diva of Blues” was an expression for African American women who presented their emotions about relationships dealing with violence, faith, adultery, and etc through singing. The article, “Mamma Got the Blues” by Angela Davis and the song ‘St. Louis Blues’ by Billie Holiday provide an understanding of women who stated their emotions about their relationships through songs known as the “blues”. The article by Davis support emotional and spiritual being of how African American women presented themselves in the early 1900’s.

                The song, ‘St. Louis Blues’ by Billie Holiday has five verses in which the first two could have the format AA’B.  The last three verses however go into a different pitch and tune where the format could go from CC’C’D in a form of four lines then back to three lines in the format EE’F. From the looks of the format this could be the Delta blues which was more common. The first and last two verses were repetitive and rhymed with one another which could be a parlor song. The first two lines in the first verse is the same with “I hate to see the ev’nin’ sun go down”  and “Feelin’ tomorrow like I feel today “(Holiday). Although the lines are the same, Holiday contrasts the two lines by stressing a different word. She would sing a different tone in a line compared to the other to stress the importance of the verse.  Several lines in the lyrics rhymed and worked well with the rhythm and melody of the song.

                Holiday’s choice of music was possibly composed of the Saxophone, trumpet, and the piano. All together, the three instruments create a jazzy and upbeat melody which corresponds to the lyrics of the song. In the line “I’ll pack my grip, make my getaway”, the music is lowered as she sings “my getaway”. Holiday changes her tone at different parts of the song which then changes the melody and thus expresses her emotions into the song. In between the fourth and fifth verse there is a saxophone solo which signifies how common the instrument was used the blues. In the end, the saxophone was played the loudest, creating another “finale” solo to end the song.

                “St. Louis Blues” was solely about a woman who is conveying her love even though her man left her for another woman. The woman is emotionally drained by the lost of her lover and describes the other woman as someone who is a “St. Louis woman with her diamond rings”, hence she gets the St. Louis blues (Holiday). Obviously, Holiday believes the other woman is more “classy and sophisticated” then she is or else she would be in heartache. In the lyrics she reveals her man as someone who has a “heart like a rock cast in the sea” meaning he has a heart of a stone. Her lover was cruel and cold to her and she expresses her pained emotions through a song. Even with heartache and her man leaving her, she continues to love him because of love.

                Billie holiday’s song is an example of the several “blues music” African American woman have composed and sung in the early 1900’s. To express their emotions and how they feel, these “blue Divas” convey who they are through music.  Most lyrics and songs were based on their relationships that “revolve around male lovers and the plethora of problems posed by heterosexual relationships complicated by the expression of autonomous female sexuality” (45 Davis ). They sang anything where the “aspects of blue constructions of female jealousy and rivalry, sometimes to the point of violence” (44 Davis). Jealousy and heartache was common in the blues which was considered poignant to the audience. Singing and writing the lyrics to these blues may have been an emotional breakthrough to release the emotions African American woman were feeling. The blues provided a new way of expressing feelings to the world in which we come to love to this day.