--- description: The biopic tells the story of the legendary Bessie Smith title: Queen Latifah Sings the Blues in the "Bessie" Trailer image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e4ee45364a8ca4a/698786d13c163927e8452937/bessie.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Queen Latifah Sings the Blues in the _Bessie_ Trailer by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 6, 2015 2:31 PM CUT  Queen Latifah in Bessie Queen Latifah in BessieHBO by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 6, 2015 2:31 PM CUT Queen Latifah is back in feathers and flapper dresses, but this time around, the movie is more _La Vie en Rose_ than _Chicago._ HBO has released a full-length trailer for _Bessie_, in which Latifah stars as Bessie Smith, one of the most influential recording artists of the 1920s. The path to becoming “The Empress of the Blues” was thorny for Smith, not only as a black entertainer but also as a bisexual woman in an imperfect marriage (Michael Kenneth Williams plays her husband, Jack Gee). The story of her struggle to stardom airs May 16 on HBO. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3772084/bessie-hbo-queen-latifah/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3772084/bessie-hbo-queen-latifah/"},"headline":"Queen Latifah Sings the Blues in the Bessie Trailer","datePublished":"2015-04-06T14:31:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:43:18.207Z","description":"The biopic tells the story of the legendary singer Bessie Smith","url":"https://time.com/3772084/bessie-hbo-queen-latifah/","keywords":["movies","HBO"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e4ee45364a8ca4a/698786d13c163927e8452937/bessie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e4ee45364a8ca4a/698786d13c163927e8452937/bessie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"bessie","caption":"Queen Latifah in Bessie","creditText":"HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3772084/bessie-hbo-queen-latifah/","name":"Queen Latifah Sings the Blues in the Bessie Trailer"}}]}] ```