Billie Holiday was an American jazz and swing music singer who came to fame in the 1930s and was known for her revolutionary approach to singing. Nicknamed Lady Day by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of crafting songs that added improvisation with originality and emotional expression through voice to jazz standards that were previously only experienced by listeners via instruments such as the saxophone or trumpet. Billie Holiday: Her Life Her Music Her Legacy
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Billie Holiday was born as Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Working under the name Lady Day in the 1940s she had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing with her vocal style. Billie Holiday: Her Life Her Music Her Legacy
Bio
Lady Day, a nickname given to her by friend and jazz legend Lester Young, is an apt name for Billie Holiday. An innovator in the world of jazz and popular music alike, Lady Day’s voice was strong and beautiful with a style that would set the bar for those who followed her. Born Eleanora Fagan on April 7th 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she began singing at a young age.
Family
She was born Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a Catholic father and an African-American mother. After her father died when she was 10 years old, she lived with relatives. She had been forbidden to sing or dance in public as a child because of the nature of her birth.
Relationship
Billie Holiday’s closest relationships were often those that brought out the best in her. The relationship with her mother appears to have been extremely volatile and abusive; it drove Holiday to turn to alcohol and drugs at a young age. Another important person in Billie’s life was Clarence Pookie Johnson, who she would eventually marry at 18 years old.
Physical info
Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of an unmarried teenage chorus girl who left her to be raised by her father, Clarence Holiday. His love of music and musical companionship gave Billie a taste for jazz at an early age. The warmth and closeness between father and daughter led to Billie following in his footsteps as a performer.
Career
Billie Holiday first became interested in music at an early age, influenced by her mother’s Southern Baptist church choir and by the church’s soloist Marion Williams. At the age of 15, Billie became a member of Benny Goodman’s band for several high-profile engagements and tours, including Carnegie Hall, which brought national attention to her as a rising jazz singer.
Awards
In 1999, Billie Holiday was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1958, she was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in 1959. She received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972. In 1984, she received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1987.
Net worth
Billie Holiday was born on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia. At the age of 5, her mother left Billie and her 3 siblings to live with their father in New Jersey. When she was 10 years old, the family moved back to Brooklyn; and at the age of 14, her singing talent came to light when she won a money prize for singing at an amateur show.
sweetest time
Nicknamed Lady Day by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Billie Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing. After the effects of a poor childhood in Baltimore and ten years as a variety performer in Harlem nightclubs, she sang classic jazz from the 1930s. Of all the crooners, she was one of the few female singers to emerge from an era when all other female singers were chiefly microphone manipulators.
secrets of beauty
In 1939, the year of her first studio recording, Billie was billed as The World’s Greatest Female Singer. By the end of 1943, she had made twenty-one recordings. She rarely looked glamorous on-stage, and she refused to change her style to suit current fashions. She wore an obvious mustache for years and never employed makeup or jewelery when singing.
first love
In her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, Billie Holiday reports that she was born in 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She claims that most official records of her birth say April 7th of 1917, although there is no way to know for sure which date is correct.
first success
During this time, Billie also won acclaim for singing with a group of musicians led by clarinetist Jimmy Noone. After two years, Holiday returned to New York City, where she appeared in clubs and on the radio.
dearest person
The life of Billie Holiday is an epic tragedy, a triumph of the human spirit, and one of the most heartbreaking stories in popular music. Born on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a teenage single mother who did her best to care for Billie and her two sisters. Left to struggle at the age of nine when her mother died from complications related to diabetes, it was not long before she ran away from foster homes for good.
Early life
Born Eleanora Fagan, in 1915, Holiday was the youngest of four children. Growing up in a middle-class household on New York’s
The 1930s
The Great Depression did not stop Billie Holiday from pursuing her passion. With very little money, she found gigs with small jazz bands and even went on to record her first song with Benny Goodman. On the advice of Goodman’s manager, Helen Kushnick, she changed her name from Eleanora Fagan to Billie Holiday in 1934.
Death and legacy
On May 31, 1959, in New York City’s Cedar Sinai Hospital, Billie Holiday died of lung cancer at the age of 44. According to her wishes and to stay true to her religion as a Jehovah’s Witness, she refused blood transfusions. The refusal caused Billie a series of strokes that paralyzed her left side. She died less than two months later.
Q.&A.
Q. What was BillAeo;s full name?
A. Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in 1915 and her full name was Eleanora Mary Fagan.
Q. What was the story behind this famous American jazz and swing music singer being nicknamed Lady Day by her friend and music partner, Lester Young?
What was Billie Holiday’s cause of death?
She died of cirrhosis of the liver, having battled alcoholism for years. She was in poor health during the last year of her life, missing some concerts because she was too ill to perform. In April 1959, doctors gave her six months to live; in September 1960, she had entered a coma and died a few days later.
How old was Billie Holiday when she died?
Billie Holiday died in 1959 at the age of 44 years old. She is thought to have passed away from cirrhosis of the liver.
Why is Billie Holiday called Lady Day?
Nicknamed Lady Day by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of phrasing the popular songs of her era which was influenced by a few different genres. The name Lady Day was fitting for her not only because it implied how talented she was but also because it reflected her classy personality which created a level of sophistication within the world of jazz.