Torch Song

Torch Song - Acrylic on 16" x 20" canvas

This painting was inspired by listening to an unknown (to me) jazz singer's torch song on the radio and wanting to give her vocal pain a visual voice. I may not be in "torch song status" in my life right now, but I can certainly draw from other times in my life when I was.  

What is a torch song? Wikipedia says "A torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, where one party has moved on, or where a romantic affair has affected the relationship." 

I was raised to a soundtrack of jazz, so there are a ton of ballads/standards/torch songs that move me but there are modern torch songs such as Adele's Someone Like You that take this genre from the past to the present, and I love that. For me, Liz Phair, Jeff Buckley, and Fionna Apple have been the ones in my generation to continue the light the flame, but I'm sure there are more modern performers I'm just not aware of that carry the torch today.  

If I were to name just one singer to define the ultimate torch song singer, it would be hands down Billie Holiday but of course there is Ella and Sarah and and and... Do you have a favorite torch song or singer? What is it or who are they, and if I might pry even further, why?