Dreamgirls

Effie White: Tell me something, Curtis. Do you think it's right to promote an amateur performer over a professional? Curtis Taylor Jr.: I'm not sure what this is about... Effie White: It's about fairness, Curtis. It's about people paying their dues. Isn't that what you keep telling me? "Get in line, Effie. Wait your turn". So why am I sitting here without so much as a B-side on a 45, when an amateur like Martin Luther King Jr. gets his own freaking album? I mean, can he even sing?

Dreamgirls (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

M.C.: And now, the courageous, the curvaceous, Creamettes! Deena Jones: It's the Dreamettes! The Dreamettes!

Dreamgirls (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Curtis Taylor, Jr.: $500 says the Dreamettes do not win. Contest judge: Thanks a lot man, because they were going to lose anyway!

Dreamgirls (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Effie White: So... Deena's going to sing the lead 'cause you like the way she looks? Am I ugly to you, Curtis? Curtis Taylor Jr.: Baby, come on! You know how I feel about you, come on. Don't make it personal. Effie White: Well, what am I supposed to do? Deena's beautiful, and she's always been beautiful... but I've got the voice, Curtis! I've got the voice! You can't put me in back; you just can't!

Dreamgirls (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Curtis Taylor Jr.: Who was the first artist to sing "Hound Dog"? C.C. White: Elvis Presley. Curtis Taylor Jr.: Big Mama Thorton. She had the number-one single on the R&B charts, but the white stations wouldn't play it, because to them it was just another race record.

Dreamgirls (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

C.C. White: Isn't music supposed to express what people are feeling? Curtis Taylor Jr.: Music is supposed to sell.

Dreamgirls (film), CC BY-SA 4.0