Glamorous Wartime Singer



""I've got to contradict you, Miss Logan. You don't look like anyone's sweet-heart. You don't look like anyone's wife. And God knows you don't look like anyone's mother. You look like an angel.""

- GI on WWII USO singer Ella Logan

Sometimes occurring in a nightclub, but any large auditorium will do the trick. A sexy female singer, singing a song to a bunch of soldiers/sailors/airmen who are a long way from home and their significant others. Her outfit will be sexy, but not too revealing, possibly in red. If the main male characters of the story aren't in attendance, they will likely be in the middle of battle, with her songs providing the background music, and scenes switching between her performance and the heroes fighting.

Many Glamorous Wartime Singers sing many sentimental songs, reminding the troops of home and the girls they left behind.

If people aren't wolf-whistling, she's clearly not doing the job properly. Causing Nosebleed is an acceptable substitute, especially in anime.

If the main character is a dashing young captain, well, he's in for a little wartime romance.

Particularly present in World War Two settings.

Compare Camp Follower and The Chanteuse.

Anime and Manga

 * Lacus Clyne from Gundam Seed may qualify but she only sings for her friends (who also happen to be soldiers) and actively shuns war. Her "clone" Meer Campbell from Gundam Seed Destiny isn't as squeamish. Lacus and Meer are arguably both deconstructions of this trope, given that the shows explicitly depict their music being used as propaganda to rouse the patriotic fervor of the PLANT populace. Lacus is played a little straighter (and keeps control of her message), though, whereas Meer borders on a subversion of the trope, allowing herself to be used to the point where she experiences a mental breakdown.
 * Minna from Strike Witches (played by the same voice actress as Lacus) is a variant in that she's actively fighting on the front lines herself. In fact, her singing actually serves a purpose in the war as a means of detecting the Neuroi.
 * The whole point of the Macross franchise. Except instead of staying at the USO shows, the singers get to change the course of Humongous Mecha battles... by singing.
 * Minmay from the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross (and therefore Robotech).
 * Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee from Macross Frontier. The latter very much so. In one episode, Sheryl was to sing to establish a deal with a Zentradi Marine Regiment. When she collapsed due to being sick, it was used as an excuse for an uprising; however, when Ranka airdropped into a battlezone and started singing, the rebelling Zentradi immediately stopped fighting. As they keep listening, the soldiers steadily progress from gawking, through Luminescent Blush, to Heart Symbol Wingding Eyes and Nosebleeds. Yes, she's that cute.
 * Macross 7 plays with this; the singers of Fire Bomber are actually dead center in the middle of the battlefields (vs. the above three, who sing on special stages on the battleships). A combination of pin-point barriers, Improbable Piloting Skills and Hot Blood is what keeps them alive.
 * Yellow Belmont from Genesis Climber Mospeada (a.k.a. Lancer/Yellow Dancer from Robotech).
 * Porco Rosso has Gina, in one of the most touching examples.

Film

 * Marlene Dietrich, at least twice, in 1930's Morocco and again in 1948 in Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Affair.
 * And don't forget the flashback scene in Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution. "I may never go home anymore..."
 * Judy Garland took a stab at it in 1942, in For Me And My Gal with Gene Kelly. She's glamorous, but not too glamorous.
 * In the 1945 film Tonight And Every Night, Rita Hayworth plays a showgirl in a London music hall that never misses a performance, not even when there's an air raid going on.
 * The "statues" of Mrs Henderson Presents also keep going during air raids.
 * The Caine Mutiny
 * Das Boot
 * Schindler's List
 * Dark City
 * Apocalypse Now- although these are actually Playboy playmates rather than singers, and their presence causes a riot.
 * Memphis Belle
 * The Stanley Kubrick film Paths of Glory, set in WWI France, ends with a captured German singer (played by Susanne Christian, who later married Kubrick) initially greeted with whistles and catcalls by the soldiers, who subsequently become quite moved by her rendition of 'The Faithful Hussar'.
 * For the Boys is a movie about two singers (played by Bette Midler and James Caan) who perform for U.S. troops in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
 * Sky Marshall Omar Anoke (of all people) from the third Starship Troopers movie is a rare male example. As such, he depends more on inspirational rhetoric than sex appeal but still fulfills his role in the Propaganda Machine perfectly.
 * There's an unusual version of this in the WWII-themed film version of Richard III (1995). Bet you didn't know Christopher Marlowe's "Passionate Shepherd to His Love" made a good swing song...
 * Sadie from Across the Universe, in a rather intense performance of "Helter Skelter" with a Vietnam battle going on simultaneously.
 * Inverted in Top Gun when a group of sailors in full dress whites sing to Kelly McGillis.
 * Unusual version in Big Fish: The main character accidentally parachutes into one of these during the Korean War—in enemy territory. Also, the "beautiful singer" is in fact a pair of Siamese twins, who want him to bring them to America with him.
 * Woody Allen's Radio Days has a scene where Mia Farrow's character is one of these.
 * Rick's Cafe has a female singer-guitarist in Casablanca.
 * Inverted in South Pacific, with Nellie performing "Honey Bun" in an oversized sailor uniform-although this does nothing to take away the wolf-whistles.
 * The 1944 morale-boosting musical Follow the Boys, besides Dinah Shore and the Andrews Sisters (see below), also enlisted Jeanette MacDonald to serve this role by singing "Beyond The Blue Horizon" and "I'll See You In My Dreams."
 * These ladies are part of the USO stage show in Captain America: The First Avenger.

Literature

 * In Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts novel Straight Silver, Golke returns to a battlefield where he had been seriously injured. He remembers such a singer—passionately adored by the troops—who had sung about wanting to fight anywhere else but here, but he concludes that she was wrong, coming back was good for him.
 * In Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain novel For the Emperor, Amberley Vail first appears as a Glamorous Wartime Singer—albeit for an upper-class reception for notables, including officers—down to the sentimental songs and the romance. (Cain denies believing in Love At First Sight but admits he can remember every detail of his first sight of her.)
 * W.E.B. Griffin's character Craig Lowell hooks up with visiting a visiting starlet, to the delight of his company and the anger of his commanders.

Live-Action TV

 * Doctor Who, "The Empty Child".
 * Torchwood, "Captain Jack Harkness".
 * M*A*S*H, in several episodes.
 * Star Trek: Voyager, "The Killing Game" (both parts). With Ms. Fanservice Seven of Nine doing the singing for alien Nazis.
 * The JAG episode honouring the USO cast Mac as one of these, during Vietnam.
 * The X-Files, "Triangle".
 * Dinosaurs, in the miniseries Nuts to War. When the dinosaurs went to war over pistachios, Charlene, Earl, and Roy (all in dresses) performed for the soldiers, as it was the only way to get to the front lines and bring Robbie home.
 * Julia Sugarbaker in Charlene's WWII fantasies in Designing Women

Music Videos

 * In the video for "Whiskey Lullaby", Alison Krauss summons up this image when she appears at the beginning of the second verse.
 * Christina Aguilera: see the picture above. Also Rosie the Riveter.
 * Mariah Carey's video for "I Still Believe" shows her performing for a crowd of soldiers, while done up like Marilyn Monroe.
 * Keri Hilson's video for "Pretty Girl Rock" has her dressed up as, among other things, one of these.
 * In the video for "Good to You" by Marianas Trench, Jessica Lee is very much this trope, swaying back and forth on the stage in a red dress.

Video Games

 * Valkyria Chronicles has two examples:
 * Brigitte "Rosie" Stark used to be a famous bar singer before joining Squad 7. As revealed in Valkyria Chronicles II, after leaving the Militia she goes on to be this trope full time, holding concerts during Gallia's Civil War to try and improve race relations.
 * Edy Nelson wants to be one of these, and has started a one-sided rivalry with Rosie, whom she accuses of "stealing her spotlight". Later,.
 * Laguna falls for one of these in Final Fantasy VIII. Though at the time she wasn't a singer; she only played the piano.
 * The manual for the first Wing Commander (Which is set up to look like a newsletter for the crew) stated that a troupe of entertainers, including a particularly famous Glamorous Wartime Singer would be visiting the Tiger's Claw. Despite their expected date of arrival taking place during the events of the game, they don't actually appear.

Western Animation
"(Abe's fake breast flies out, landing in Hitler's lap) Hitler: "Ach du lieber! Das is nicht eine Booby!""
 * A rather...peculiar example from The Simpsons. Grandpa mentions in one of his war stories that he was stranded behind enemy lines in France, and rode out the war undercover as a cross-dressing Cabaret singer entertaining German soldiers.


 * Red Hot Riding Hood of Tex Avery's MGM cartoons is a classic example.

Western Comics

 * Le Petit Spirou: Spirou's grandmother apparently was one of these, and performed in Stripperific gear.
 * Edna alias Gam-ma from 9 Chickweed Lane sang for German POWs. Her mission was to gather intelligence from the homesick soldiers but she found a pair of Good-Looking Privates (one from each side) instead.

Real Life

 * Vera Lynn, British singer, known as "The Forces' Sweetheart", is the Trope Codifier. Most famous for "We'll Meet Again" (which played over the ending of Dr. Strangelove) and "The White Cliffs of Dover". Being long retired from singing didn't stop her for topping the UK charts in 2009 and making the top 40 a month before her death in 2020.
 * Mentioned in Pink Floyd's "Vera". A sign of how much hope she gave.
 * The Andrews Sisters, the best selling female group in history according to The Other Wiki. Blonde, brunette and redhead.
 * Christina Aguilera's "Candyman" uses the tune of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", one of their songs, where she plays all three of them in the music video.
 * Bob Hope's USO shows relied heavily on this trope for (literally) 50 years. In the '40's they particularly featured singer Frances Langford and her well-loved songs, "I'm In the Mood For Love" and "Embraceable You".
 * Marlene (pronounced Marlayna) Dietrich, film goddess first and foremost (who'd ducked out of Germany while the getting was good). Did the definitive English version of "Lili Marlene", and lots of personal appearances. And rumor has it shacked up with "Jumping Jim" Gavin of the 82nd Airborne on several occasions.
 * Also George Patton. She went to Europe shortly after D-Day and toured almost continuously across the European theater until V-E Day, performing anywhere that a makeshift stage could be set up. (Her musical saw was apparently an especial hit.) On more than one occasion, she and her troupe came under German fire.
 * Katherine Jenkins, Welsh opera singer, does it for the British.
 * Vesta Tilley (seriously) seems to have fulfilled this role a bit for World War I, despite being a male impersonator comedienne. Her role was encouraging young men to enlist, rather than entertaining the troops. Upon the end of the war many former fans were left disillusioned, feeling betrayed by the jarring differences between fare like 'Jolly Good Luck to the Girl who Loves a Soldier' and actual trench life.
 * And on the American side of World War I, vaudeville actress Elsie Janis (also known for impersonations) was known as the "Sweetheart of the A.E.F."
 * Carmen Miranda.
 * Marilyn Monroe performed to the troops in Korea in 1954, wearing a sexy dress despite the cold weather.
 * Dinah Shore, at least when appearing As Herself in the wartime morale-boosting movies Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) and Follow The Boys (1944).