Billie Holiday, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Billie Holiday

American jazz singer and songwriter

Date of Birth: 07-Apr-1915

Place of Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Date of Death: 17-Jul-1959

Profession: actor, composer, author, singer-songwriter, songwriter, autobiographer, jazz singer

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Aries

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About Billie Holiday

  • Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), better known as Billie Holiday, was an African American jazz singer with a career spanning nearly thirty years.
  • Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing.
  • Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.
  • She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills.After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem, where she was heard by the producer John Hammond, who commended her voice.
  • She signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935.
  • Collaborations with Teddy Wilson yielded the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which became a jazz standard.
  • Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca.
  • By the late 1940s, however, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse.
  • After a short prison sentence, she performed at a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall, but her reputation deteriorated because of her drug and alcohol problems. She was a successful concert performer throughout the 1950s with two further sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall.
  • Due to personal struggles and an altered voice, her final recordings were met with mixed reaction, but were mild commercial successes.
  • Her final album, Lady in Satin, was released in 1958.
  • Holiday died of cirrhosis on July 17, 1959. She won four Grammy Awards, all of them posthumously, for Best Historical Album.
  • She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1973.
  • Lady Sings the Blues, a film about her life, starring Diana Ross, was released in 1972.
  • She is the primary character in the play (later made into a film) Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill; the role was originated by Reenie Upchurch in 1986, and was played by Audra McDonald on Broadway and in the film.
  • In 2017 Holiday was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

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