Miss Brown To You

From Hearing The Queer Past:

Holiday sings of a woman called Miss Emily Brown, who she advises the listener to “not get too familiar with” despite her desirable traits. It is not until the last line when we are told the reason - Emily is in fact her love interest.

“The lovable little Miss Brown to you, is baby to me”

Notably, Holiday did not write the lyrics herself and was taking on a role of a narrator as she sang - aspects of performance culture that are key factors in the prevalence of oopsie gaysie recordings.

In her personal life, however, she is often believed to have been bisexual, though queerness is also often hard to “prove” in history. We may never know with certainty what Holiday’s relationships with women meant to her, and if she would have found a connection with the same-sex lyrical charm of “Miss Brown to You”.

Read more about Billie Holiday here.