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Billie Holiday, born April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was a superstar of her day. She first rose to prominence in the 1930's with a unique style that reinvented the conventions of modern singing and performance.
Jun 8, 2006 · Premiere: 8/4/1986. 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...
Aug 25, 2020 · By Eudie Pak Updated: Aug 25, 2020. Photo: William Gotleib Collection. In March 1939, a 23-year-old Billie Holiday walked up to the mic at West 4th's Cafe Society in New York City to sing her...
Billie Holiday was an African American jazz vocalist who perhaps showed the most expression of feeling of any singer in jazz history. Early life. Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Baltimore, Maryland. (She borrowed the name "Billie" from one of her favorite movie actresses, Billie Dove.)
Holiday became the first African American woman to work with an all-white band. One of her most famous songs, “Strange Fruit” was based on a horrific and detailed account of a lynching in the South. Many scholars now consider it one of the first protest songs of the Civil Rights Movement.
April 7, 1915 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Died. July 17, 1959 · New York City, New York, USA (complications from liver cirrhosis) Birth name. Elinore Harris. Nickname. Lady Day. Height. 5′ 5″ (1.65 m) Mini Bio. Billie Holiday was a true artist of her day and rose as a social phenomenon in the 1950s.
This site is maintained by the Estate of Billie Holiday. Please submit questions or licensing requests for the commercial use of her image and likeness via the email links below. In accordance with the generous wishes of William Gottlieb, the photographs in the William P. Gottlieb Collection entered into the public domain on February 16, 2010.
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