[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 183 (Tuesday, November 29, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S6850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO BRENDA LEE

 Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, every year, Music City 
luminaries gather to celebrate entertainers and other giants in the 
arts with the Cecil Scaife Visionary Award. While statuettes do have 
their charms, this award highlights true champions of creativity whose 
life and work have made it possible for future generations to realize 
careers in the music industry. This year, I have the privilege of 
congratulating the oft imitated, never duplicated, positively 
incomparable Brenda Lee as she accepts this special honor.
  Even in today's strange world of social media sensations and cross-
discipline collaborations, success in the entertainment industry is 
hard to come by. And if mainstream popularity is a pipe dream, it is 
safe to consider crossover success on a global scale almost impossible 
to achieve.
  Still, for many of Nashville's rising stars, this pinnacle of 
artistic achievement is the only measure of professional success worth 
striving for. But who is to mentor these dreamers? Who sets the 
standard? If you ask them, they will surely point to Brenda Lee.
  Brenda Lee's stunning vocal talent put her on stage at 6, in the 
studio at 12, and on the international tour circuit by her early teens. 
Her third single climbed both the pop and country charts, and over the 
next 20 years, she achieved pop stardom, pop-to-country crossover 
success, and international fame. That she did this at all is 
remarkable; but how she did it is what makes Brenda Lee a phenomenon. 
Her career was not the product of clever gimmicks, but the 
manifestation of her own personal tastes, desires, and instincts in 
song. In a world of mimics, Brenda Lee dismissed convention and created 
something new.
  I have always believed that there is no secret sauce that separates 
the successful from the legendary, but if there is, its main ingredient 
is surely the spark of captivating individualism that Brenda embraced 
over the course of her more than 60 years in the spotlight. And while 
young artists could never hope to replicate her career, her legacy 
serves as a reminder that, yes, you can conquer this industry, if only 
you have the courage to do it on your own terms.

                          ____________________