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Quick Facts
- NAME: Billie Holiday
- OCCUPATION: Singer
- BIRTH DATE: April 07, 1915
- DEATH DATE: July 17, 1959
- EDUCATION: The House of the Good Shepherd
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York
- Originally: Elinore Harris
- Nickname: Lady Day
- Full Name: Billie Holiday
Best Known For
Billie Holiday was one of the most influential jazz singers of all time. She had a thriving career for many years before she lost her battle with addiction.
Videos see all videos
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Billie Holiday - Big Break (3:08)
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Billie Holiday - Struggle with Drugs
Even with a successful budding career, Billie Holiday still struggled to maintain her status as a groundbreaking jazz singer because of her addiction to drugs.
Billie Holiday - Romantic Relationships
Billie Holiday was romantically involved with several different people during her rise to fame, both men and women, including Jimmy Monroe, Orson Welles and Tallulah Bankhead.
Billie Holiday - Big Break
After enduring a difficult childhood, Billie Holiday got her big break after being discovered in a jazz club by John Hammond for her skill at improvising when she sang.
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Play NowBillie Holiday. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 04:56, May 23, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/billie-holiday-9341902.
Billie Holiday. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/billie-holiday-9341902 [Accessed 23 May 2013].
"Billie Holiday." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 23 2013, 04:56 http://www.biography.com/people/billie-holiday-9341902.
"Billie Holiday," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/billie-holiday-9341902 [accessed May 23, 2013].
"Billie Holiday," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/billie-holiday-9341902 (accessed May 23, 2013).
Billie Holiday [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 23] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/billie-holiday-9341902.
Billie Holiday, http://www.biography.com/people/billie-holiday-9341902 (last visited May 23, 2013).
Billie Holiday. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/billie-holiday-9341902. Accessed May 23, 2013.
Synopsis
Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday was born April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Considered one of the best jazz vocalists of all time, Holiday had a thriving career as a jazz singer for many years before she lost her battle with substance abuse. Her autobiography was made into the 1972 film Lady Sings the Blues. In 2000, Billie Holiday was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Contents
Quotes
"I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know."
"No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music."
"I never hurt nobody but myself, and that's nobody's business but my own."
Early Life
Singer, jazz vocalist. Born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Some sources say Baltimore, Maryland. Her birth certificate reportedly reads "Elinore Harris.") One of the most influential jazz singers of all time, Billie Holiday had a thriving career for many years before her battles with substance abuse got the better of her.
Holiday spent much of her childhood in Baltimore, Maryland. Her mother, Sadie, was only a teenager when she had her. Her father is widely believed to be Clarence Holiday, who eventually became a successful jazz musician, playing with the likes of Fletcher Henderson. Unfortunately for Billie, he was only an infrequent visitor in her life growing up. Sadie married Philip Gough in 1920 and for a few years Billie had a somewhat stable home life. But that marriage ended a few years later, leaving Billie and Sadie to struggle along on their own again. Sometimes Billie was left in the care of other people.
Holiday started skipping school, and she and her mother went to court over Holiday's truancy. She was then sent to the House of Good Shepherd, a facility for troubled African American girls, in January 1925. Only 9 years old at the time, Holiday was one of the youngest girls there. She was returned to her mother's care in August of that year. According to Donald Clarke's biography, Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon, she returned there in 1926 after she had been sexually assaulted.
In her difficult early life, Holiday found solace in music, singing along to the records of Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong. She followed her mother who had moved to New York City in the late 1920s and worked in a house of prostitution in Harlem for a time. Around 1930, Holiday began singing in local clubs and renamed herself "Billie" after the film star Billie Dove.
Discovery
In her difficult early life, Holiday found solace in music, singing along to the records of Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong. She followed her mother who had moved to New York City in the late 1920s and worked in a house of prostitution in Harlem for a time. Around 1930, Holiday began singing in local clubs and renamed herself "Billie" after the film star Billie Dove.
At the age of 18, Holiday was discovered by producer John Hammond while she was performing in a Harlem jazz club. Hammond was instrumental in getting Holiday recording work with an up-and-coming clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman. With Goodman, she sang vocals for several tracks, including her first commercial release "Your Mother's Son-In-Law" and the 1934 top ten hit "Riffin' the Scotch."
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