10 questions · Music
Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia in 1915 and grew up in Baltimore, in deep poverty, with a young mother and a father who was hardly ever around. She scrubbed the white marble steps of the neighbours’ houses for a few cents, spent time in a Catholic reform home and listened, whenever she could, to records by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong. She later borrowed the name Billie from the film star Billie Dove. At the end of the 1920s she moved to New York, sang in Harlem speakeasies and was discovered in 1933 by the producer John Hammond. Her voice was not big and her range was not wide. But she sang like a horn player, stretching syllables, falling behind the beat and turning trivial pop tunes into small dramas. Her closest musical partner was the saxophonist Lester Young, who gave her the name “Lady Day”. In 1937 she sang with Count Basie, and in 1938 she toured with Artie Shaw’s orchestra, one of the first Black singers to front a white band, and still met humiliation after humiliation on the road. In 1939 she stood on the stage of Café Society in Greenwich Village and sang “Strange Fruit”, a song about lynchings in the South. While she sang it, the waiters stopped serving and a single spotlight stayed on her face. Later came drugs, prison and the loss of her licence to sing in New York clubs. Yet in 1948 her concert at Carnegie Hall was sold out. Her autobiography “Lady Sings the Blues” appeared in 1956 and was filmed in 1972 with Diana Ross. She died in New York in 1959, only 44 years old.
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Lady Day
Other women in the clubs first called her “Lady” mockingly for her refined airs; a close friend turned it into “Lady Day”.
💡 Did you know? She had borrowed the first name Billie from the film star Billie Dove.
Lester Young
In the 1930s they made many records together; his saxophone answered her voice like a second singer.
💡 Did you know? She called him “Prez”, short for President. He died in March 1959, only four months before her.
Strange Fruit
Words and music were by the New York schoolteacher Abel Meeropol, who published it under the name Lewis Allan.
💡 Did you know? Her record company, Columbia, would not risk it; it came out on the small Commodore label.
Café Society
The Greenwich Village club was one of the first in New York to welcome Black and white audiences together.
💡 Did you know? The song always came last: the waiters stopped serving, a single spotlight stayed on her face, and there was no encore.
Artie Shaw
She was one of the first Black singers to work full-time with a white orchestra, yet she was humiliated again and again on the road, especially in the South.
💡 Did you know? A year earlier she had sung with Count Basie’s orchestra.
Carnegie Hall
Shortly before, she had spent almost a year in a federal prison for drug possession.
💡 Did you know? With a criminal record she lost her “cabaret card” and for years could not sing in New York clubs that served alcohol.
Lady Sings the Blues
She wrote it with the journalist William Dufty; some episodes are thought to be embellished.
💡 Did you know? The 1972 feature film about her life was released under the same title.
Diana Ross
For the former lead singer of the Supremes it was her first big film role.
💡 Did you know? She earned the Best Actress nomination with her very first film.
Baltimore
She was born in Philadelphia in 1915; her childhood in Baltimore was marked by poverty and time in a reform home.
💡 Did you know? As a girl she scrubbed front steps for a few cents and listened to records by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong.
1959
She died at 44 in a New York hospital of cirrhosis of the liver.
💡 Did you know? Even in her hospital bed the police placed her under guard for drug possession.
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