Context
In the film version of Dreamgirls, Knowles portrays the character of Deena Jones, a pop singer loosely based on Motown star Diana Ross. The story explores the life of The Dreamettes (based on The Supremes), a fictional 1960s group of three female singers: Effie White (Jennifer Hudson), Deena Jones and Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni Rose), whose manager Curtis Taylor (based on Berry Gordy and played by Jamie Foxx) manipulates their personal and professional relationships.
During the second half of the film, Curtis and Deena argue at dinner over Deena's desire to make her film debut in an urban film instead of the Cleopatra prequel that Curtis is producing. An angry Curtis asserts his creative and psychological control over his wife, informing Deena that he would not let anyone else "handle" her, because, in his words, "no one knows you the way I do". Curtis tells Deena that he put Deena as lead singer of the Dreams because her voice "had no personality. No depth. Except for what put in there".
In the context of the film, "Listen" is a 1975 song that Deena records on Rainbow Records, a recording empire established by Curtis. She is actually recording the song in a booth as a track, but the song also reveals Deena's growing disgust at being considered merely Curtis' property. Used in the film as a last-minute recording by Deena before leaving Curtis "to find her own voice as a newly independent woman", co-writer Anne Preven called "Listen" a song which "Deena is exclaiming, 'You don't know who I am, and I know I do.'"
Read more about this topic: Listen (song)
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