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BILLIE HOLIDAY LEGENDARY JAZZ SINGER AND ICON

FULL NAME: Eleanora Fagan

BORN: APRIL 7, 1915, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A.

DIED: JULY 17, 1959, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A.

NATIONALITY: AMERICAN

Billie’s signature flower: a white gardenia blossom

LADY SINGS THE BLUES

If you’ve ever heard a classic jazz ballad with a female vocalist, chances are you’ve heard Billie Holiday. Billie, also known as Lady Day, was a pioneer of American jazz and blues. Her distinctive, soulful voice is one of the greatest jazz sounds of all time.

In 1915, Eleanora Fagan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She grew up around neighboring Baltimore, a jazz-rich hotspot at the time. Eleanora had a tumultuous childhood, living with distant relatives and finding herself in reform school by the age of nine. She dropped out of school before she reached high school and spent time as a prostitute, as well as time in jail.

Throughout all this, Eleanora always found comfort in music. She was entirely self-taught, with no technical training. As a teenager, she sang in after-hours jazz clubs, eventually moving to New York City with her mother. It was there that Eleanora was hired for shows in a series of unknown Harlem nightclubs, and became Billie Holiday (“Billie” after the actress Billie Dove and “Holiday” using the last name of the father she never knew). At only 18, Billie was talent-spotted and cut a record with a group led by the soon-to-be-famous Benny Goodman.

BECOMING LADY DAY

As she continued to perform, Billie’s popularity grew. In 1935, she recorded four big hits, including the now-famous “What a Little Moonlight Can Do.” From there, she earned her own recording contract with Columbia Records. Soon, Billie was performing with big-name musicians and band leaders, including Lester Young, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw, making her one of the first black singers to perform with a white orchestra. In 1930s America, this was a huge achievement. Billie recorded with a number of major record labels, including Columbia, Decca, Commodore, and Verve, where she found mainstream success. Billie recorded and toured extensively throughout her short life, including a hugely successful 1954 European tour and star-studded shows at Carnegie Hall, in New York City.

U.S. postage stamp, circa 1994, commemorating the great songstress

ANGEL OF HARLEM

By her thirties and forties, Billie was struggling with drug and alcohol addiction and with abusive relationships, and she even found herself in prison for drugs offences. She continued to perform to sold-out venues, but her reputation began to deteriorate, as did her voice from all the strain. Sadly, Billie died at the young age of 44. However, the voice of Lady Day lives on. After her death, Billie was awarded four Grammy awards for Best Historical Album. In 1973, she was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2002 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. U2 recorded “Angel of Harlem” in tribute to her, and there is a statue of her in the center of Baltimore. Hailed as one of the greatest and most influential singers of all time, Lady Day remains an inspiration to musicians of all genres around the globe.

Billie was amazing at improvising. Now classics of jazz and blues, Billie’s powerful songs told of love, struggle, and everyday life for African-Americans living during the age of segregation. Her unique phrasing, powerful voice, and raw emotion were all important parts of her trademark style—as were the white gardenias she wore in her hair. The most famous of her masterpieces remain “Summertime,” “Strange Fruit,” “God Bless the Child,” and “Lover Man,” still played around the world today.

Baltimore was full of popular jazz clubs during Billie’s early years.