“One star’s not enough for someone as wonderful as you, so I wish you five stars and the moon.”
The auditorium was already half full when I arrived. Velvet seats, dimmed chandeliers, the low murmur of strangers settling in. Programs rustled like leaves. A cough here, a laugh there. The kind of crowd that believed in art, or at least in the possibility of being moved by it.
I found my seat near the centre, close enough to see the stage but not so close that I’d be seen. The lights dimmed further. A hush fell—not silence, but something more reverent. Then the stage lights came up, slow and deliberate, casting a warm glow across the velvet curtain.
And then the spotlight.
Sue James stepped into it like she belonged there. Not with arrogance, but with something quieter—conviction, maybe. Grace. She wore a simple black dress, no frills, no glitter. Just presence.
It was 1997. She was already riding the success of two critically acclaimed songs, both of which had carved out space for her in the cultural imagination. That mattered. It validated what I believed as I watched her sing: that she wasn’t just good, she was necessary. Bound for superstardom, no question.
She began to sing “Five Stars and the Moon” like it was a promise she could keep. Her voice was luminous, unguarded—the kind that made you believe in things you hadn’t dared to name.
And somehow, in that moment, world peace didn’t just seem possible—it felt promised.
It seemed no one would ever need to cry again. Not out of loneliness, not out of grief. The air shimmered with possibility. We were all held in something larger than ourselves—hope, maybe, or the illusion of it.
None of it came true. Sue faded from the spotlight. The wars didn’t stop. People kept crying, quietly and loudly, in bedrooms and on battlefields. But I believed it then. I believed it with everything I had.
And maybe that belief—that fragile, fleeting certainty—is what I carry most.
Rob Spencer, 15.8.2025
“Five Stars and the Moon” is a song written by Sue James and Lorna Flowers. No copyright claim or infringement is intended; this work is a creative reflection inspired by their artistry.
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