Considered by many to be the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, Billie Holiday lived a tempestuous and difficult life. Her singing expressed an incredible depth of emotion that spoke of hard times and injustice as well as triumph. Though her career was relatively short and often erratic, she left behind a body of work as great as any vocalist before or since.
Born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, Billie Holiday spent much of her young life in Baltimore, Maryland. Raised primarily by her mother, Holiday had only a tenuous connection with her father, who was a jazz guitarist in Fletcher Henderson’s band. Living in extreme poverty, Holiday dropped out of school in the fifth grade and found a job running errands in a brothel. When she was twelve, Holiday moved with her mother to Harlem, where she was eventually arrested for prostitution.
Desperate for money, Holiday looked for work as a dancer at a Harlem speakeasy. When there wasn’t an opening for a dancer, she auditioned as a singer. Long interested in both jazz and blues, Holiday wowed the owner and found herself singing at the popular Pod and Jerry’s Log Cabin. This led to a number of other jobs in Harlem jazz clubs, and by 1933 she had her first major breakthrough. She was only twenty when the well-connected jazz writer and producer John Hammond heard her fill in for a better-known performer. Soon after, he reported that she was the greatest singer he had ever heard. Her bluesy vocal style brought a slow and rough quality to the jazz standards that were often upbeat and light. This combination made for poignant and distinctive renditions of songs that were already standards. By slowing the tone with emotive vocals that reset the timing and rhythm, she added a new dimension to jazz singing.
With Hammond’s support, Holiday spent much of the 1930s working with a range of great jazz musicians, including Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, and most importantly, the saxophonist Lester Young. Together, Young and Holiday would create some of the greatest jazz recordings of all time. They were close friends throughout their lives—giving each other their now-famous nicknames of “Lady Day” and the “Prez.” Sympathetic to Holiday’s unique style, Young helped her create music that would best highlight her unconventional talents. With songs like “This Year’s Kisses” and “Mean To Me,” the two composed a perfect collaboration.
It was not, however, until 1939, with her song “Strange Fruit,” that Holiday found her real audience. A deeply powerful song about lynching, “Strange Fruit” was a revelation in its disturbing and emotional condemnation of racism. Holiday’s voice could be both quiet and strong at the same time. Songs such as “God Bless the Child” and “Gloomy Sunday” expressed not only her undeniable talent, but her incredible pain as well. Due to constant racial attacks, Holiday had a difficult time touring and spent much of the 1940s working in New York. While her popularity was growing, Holiday’s personal life remained troubled. Though one of the highest paid performers of the time, much of her income went to pay for her serious drug addictions. Though plagued by health problems, bad relationships, and addiction, Holiday remained an unequaled performer.
By the late 1940s, after the death of her mother, Holiday’s heroin addiction became so bad she was repeatedly arrested— eventually checking herself into an institution in the hopes of breaking her habit. By 1950, the authorities denied her a license to perform in establishments selling alcohol. Though she continued to record and perform afterward, this marked the major turning point in her career. For the next seven years, Holiday would slip deeper into alcoholism and begin to lose control of her once perfect voice. In 1959, after the death of her good friend Lester Young and with almost nothing to her name, Billie Holiday died at the age of forty-four. During her lifetime she had fought racism and sexism, and in the face of great personal difficulties triumphed through a deep artistic spirit. It is a tragedy that only after her death could a society, who had so often held her down, realize that in her voice could be heard the true voice of the times.
This women is a huge inspire in my life. She has taught me alot about jazz when i sertainly needed it.Id like to bless her heart from the big cotten club above.
She moves my soul and heart. I have heard her voice as I grew up only a few times off and on, but always noticed it.. Not until now have I been able to put a name to the voice.. am going down and buying some of her music if they are selling it.. can’t wait.. She is so great that I can’t put it into words.. I have even heard a song of hers on a few movies, it is almost like she has been reaching out to me all my life.. am going to go find her..
She was an alcoholic and a junkie. And highly amoral.
That was Billie Holiday.
Billie was extraordinary singer and big talent. She was singing from the bottom of her heart and that’s why her songs are full of truth and pain. She is my inspiration and the greatest rewand to all jazz fans.
You see, she is still misunderstood. She is incredibly complex and dynamic and only a superficial person can point out obvious signs of weakness….But what about the triumphant Billie? Is that too much for you to handle, BL? For instance, how she survived poverty and prostitution and lived to sing about it in the midst of a world that hated her for …well.. for superficial reasons as yours…the color of her skin…Oh, did I mention that Ms. Holiday did not have Prozac, or Xanax at her disposal. In fact, Ms. Holiday overcome these hurdles without modern psychological intervention. Her incredible talent and strength, combined with the fact that we are all writing about her makes her an immortal goddess and the very embodiment of a LEGEND.
BL has low self-esteem and anger issues!
I just love billie, she has overcome some hard times n hard people. One of the best artists of the 20th century including this century too. I never really became interested in jazz until I heard Billie’s voice, and now it’s part of my collection of eclectic taste in music. She certainly inspires you when sat in peace and listening to her words and sound, while your mind wonders off into a musical and emotional abyss. Thanks for gracing our ears with your voice
Billie Holiday was/is absolutely the greatest jazz singer of all time. The Diana Ross movie was not accurate in the least. Yes, her hard times were brought to light, but the storyline was way off. No mention of how many times she was married. The Billy Dee Williams character was abusive in real life, not the gentle man they made him out to be. The movie made no mention of the real bands she played in, nor the great musicians like Lester Young, Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Coleman Hawkins, etc. etc. A real biography needs to be made to set the record straight. I highly reccomend getting a copy of the American Masters show about her that aired on public television.
Billy Holiday did not live to experince the civil rights act but she surely did her bit to contribute to it. We the people have the power to change history and to make it better
Billie’s voice was really fascinating….
Her life was her life, whatever Diana Ross (and others) try to make of it.
If you interested in Billie a good starting point for research (on the web) can be:
HTTP://WWW.LADYDAY.NET
(a non-commercial website)
Since, I began my research on Lady Day, (1972), I have grown up with learning how much she contributed to music. I have overlooked those music sleaves that mention her addiction, jail, prostitution, unwed parents and bad men. I am old enough to realize the hardships Lady encountered and wonder how one could have stood the ignorance, the decadence, rape, and the ostracism from the constant haranguing in everyday life that did not affect her enunciation of each lyric and the way she directed the pianist to swing in her style. I still stop in my tracks, when I hear her in Starbucks or on a mall audio play. Lady Day once said, “you have to smile to keep from throwing up.” I, too, find myself feeling and experiencing this in the way the media treats Obama and people of color. I have to go to work and display a mask. It can be worth taking a sip of strong whiskey, while shaking my head and hollering, “why?” If I could sing a song from Lady’s repetoire, it would be “I Cover the Water Front,” or “Nice Work, If You Can Get It!” We need to give those who do not, cannot or will never know how much pain Lady sang through to just be a woman. Regardless of her faults, personality traits or habit, I love her still. I have learned that she was left-handed, loved Chinese duck had a chihuahua that bit my father-in-law and was a great cook. Lady was full of primp, poise and sat like a queen. Not bad for a woman who lived the songs as well as sung them.
billie rock i am doing a report on her for class and the more i learn about her the better her muisc sound to me
My dad loved Billie Holiday and as a child we were subjected to her tracks being played at full volume whilst we could only have Top of the Pops on low, if at al. This drove me mad BUT I have to thank my day for introducing me to music and a star I have come to love. It is truely wonderful that such a fantastic and creative voice triumphed over adversity. When I listen to her music I feel so absorbed and so many times I find myself having a different slant on what I hear.
Mt thanks to a truely remarkable woman.
im also a singer nd i write my songs about the way that i feel @ tymes nd i take my poetry nd do the same so i created dis page on poemhunter.com but im trying to get into a studio so dat i can let pple here my amazing talent nd just let pple kno hw i feel bcause im also so alne n dis wrld nd i go thruogh so much hurt everyday
Billie Holiday was the best jazz singer of her time and in my opinion until this day. The Diana Ross movie, Lady Sings The Blues” is a travesty as it is almost all fiction. The only thing that was true from that movie was her addiction to drugs, etc. Hollywood must right this wrong by producing a true story of her life.
i have her to do for black history month and let me tell u she is AMAZING at first i did not really want to do her but as i am reading about her life i am getting more and more interested in her if u r looking for a woman to do ur report on i recamend you to do BILLIE HOLIDAY!!!!<3
Billie Holiday changed the style female singers in her day. There was no one who sang like but just like POPS ARMSTRONG, she was imitated and influenced a new generation of Singers. She is often thought of as a Blues – Jazz singer. She was a crossover singer who sang popular songs of the day but in her way. She had hit after hit after hit… Unfortunately “Lady Sings The Blues” does not give even a close representation of her life. She was world renown and sang with all of the major Bands of the day, except Goodman and Dorsey, I think. Her ability to deliver the torch songs the she sings ring true to life. I Love everything Billie. My Grandmother and mother played her music all the time. The first songs I learned the words to were Loverman and Keeps On Rainin’…. I just wish
everyone could enjoy the soulful inimitable smooth blues strokes of her vocals.
BILLIE HOLIDAY IS SO AMAZING AND INTERESTING, LOVE HER!!!!!!!! WHY DO YOU PEOPLE THINK SHE IS BORING AND SHE IS VERY PRETTY. YOUR MUSIC WILL LIVE ON BILLIE!!!!!!!!!
Billie Holiday sounded high when she would sing. Her music was very depressing. meaning she must have lived a very depressing life. I am doing a project on her to make a movie on her… Not a very interesting research assignment .
Im doing a report on Billie Holiday. she was wonderful. she overcame alot in her era. yes she was on drugs but she still had a lovely voice and broke barriers some would never would have…
i am also doing a project on billie holiday! but its a 24 double spread biography with NO words!!! all illustrations, if anyone can help me with any sort of visuals/etc of her life (especially early life) please email me at nauticlstar@aol.com as I’m finding it difficult!!!
Omg. Me too! I’m in 5th grade , and am supposed to do a reort on her. I LOVE it so far. It was sad of her drug and alcohol use and her problems. I find her insperational ,because I too want to be a singer. ;) Can i get some help with my project? I need to know Alot and i feel not so optimistic by reading about drug problems , was Billie holiday A good student? i knew she dropped out because of feelingsand truancy , but what about education. Email me at rockpolina@gmail. Thanks :)
~ By a fan of Billie holiday
this has been quite the experience for me. i never would have thought that she coud have gone through all that she had and still became one of the greatest jazz singers ever
Wow this helped a lot with my oral report!!
ha- Billie holiday, never heard of her before…..
Glad to say my daughter -in- law wore BIllies hairpeice on her wedding day
To be born black in that period of time, would send anyone to drugs and drink.
Too many blacks got a bad deal, great musicians without any musical training, no money, I have been in music most of my life, you can teach people to play instruments at musical college, the composers, mainly Jews where gifted no doubt, put this together with raw talent, and you have the magical formula. Passion, you can’t teach passion at college. Them guys where born with it, that makes them unique and legends like ray charles etc, I am embarrassed to see what went on in the 60s in America. I am from Liverpool made a little bit of a livin from music , but love the passion of it. When I was 17 they had a show on tele called the black and white minstrels
My dad loved it, I asked him why the dancers where painted up to like blacks, why not just get black dancers in.
He replied maybe they can’t dance like professionals, I think it was more like they didn’t get a chance at auditions
That’s how that generation where brain washed.
The bbc banned the Billie holiday record about the lynching , I am white with no o levels or any education, but I could understand the trauma the blacks had to put with at 17. The bbc had a massive chance to bring to light the problems in the 40s after that song but turned a blind eye. I lived on my wits, and managed to survive by working hard, owned over 60 cars through part time music, some the equivalent of 1000000. In today’s money. But I had a choice. And met lots of pop stars in my day. The choice was taken away from the black musicians in the 20s and the 30s right through till the late sixties. We should embrace their genius now, these people inspired the most famous groups in the world now. Duke Ellington refused to come over to table in a white club without his entire black band, so he left with the band , billie holiday was told to use a freight lift in a posh hotel to come and go before performing, because it looked bad in the hotel having black people staying their. She never toured again after that.
Cheers Robbie Robinson
I am a huge fan in Billie holiday she has been inspiring, important, and a difference in my life I am moved by her know I write my own songs and found out I am a great talent and great singer I love Billie