Actress-singer Queen Latifah has been roped in to play the lead role in Lee Daniels' new show, a musical drama.

The project is being developed for Fox under the title "Star".

The Grammy Award winner will play Carlotta, an owner of an Atlanta beauty salon who has a beautiful voice, the network has announced. Her character is further described as a surrogate mother to three girls who have musical dreams of their own, even though she doesn't approve of their musical dreams, reports aceshowbiz.com.

The show itself centres on these "three girls who come together to form a band and it's about their rise to the top in a very challenging business", Fox chairman and CEO Gary Newman had previously said.

"It's the perspective of the artist and, without getting too much into the storyline, one of our characters is rising out of poverty and there is a lot from Lee's own life that's baked into the DNA of this project," Newman had said.

"Star" is written, directed and executive produced by Daniels.