20 Feet from Stardom (2013) on Netflix

PG-1320131h 31mBiography Documentary History

Backup singers work just outside the spotlight, their voices on records by major rock and pop acts. Darlene Love, Merry Clayton and Lisa Fischer describe lives spent supporting other artists.

Netflix4.3/5
IMDb7.4/1014,557 votes
Rotten Tomatoes99%

Trailer

Plot summary

The documentary follows the singers who stand behind the featured act, adding harmonies that audiences hear but seldom credit. Many of them came out of gospel church choirs, where the ability to blend with other voices was the training. Old concert clips and conversations with veterans carry the story, along with the words of Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill and Claudia Lennear about the craft and the demands of the job. The acts they backed talk about what these voices added to their sound. Some of the singers aimed for solo careers and met obstacles; others settled into a supporting role. Darlene Love sang lead on songs from the 1960s that gave her no public credit.

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about 20 Feet from Stardom (2013)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

20 Feet from Stardom won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards, 22 years after In the Shadow of the Stars (1991), a similar documentary about an opera chorus, won the same award.
In 2023 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress; it is the eighth film designated in its first year of eligibility and the third most recently released film in the Registry.