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Billie HolidayBillie Holiday was an African American singer who was born to a thirteen year old mother and was first named, Eleanora Fagan. Billie Holiday grew up in Baltimore, Maryland in the the United States. She had a very difficult childhood which included an report of rape at the age of eleven which resulted in much missed school. This led to her being sent to Catholic reform school from which she was released two years later. Billie Holiday began singing with some of the greats like Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong. As a teenager, Billie Holiday moved to New York and starting singing for tips in nightclubs in Harlem after being recruited by a brothel and getting into trouble with the law, (according to her autobiography.) When Miss Holiday was 18, she cut her first record. When Billie Holiday started recording with Lester Young, who had been a boarder at her mother's house and with whom she remained friends her entire life, she began being known as Lady Day. Later in her career she become one of the first black women to work with a white orchestra which was quite remarkable for that period in history, the late 1930's. Billie Holiday sang many classic ballads that were both moving and strong commentary on emotionally charged material. The recording of "Strange Fruit" which came from the lyrics of a poem contributed to the start of her enormous recording Jazz career. Billie Holiday recorded well over a hundred songs. Performed many live concerts and wrote her autobiography, "Lady sings the Blues. Billie Holiday is known to be one of the greatest female jazz vocalists of our time. Unfortunately, Billie Holiday died in 1959 while in the hospital. Billie Holiday died of liver and heart disease at the very early age of 44. Billie Holiday's life was filled with more struggles, drug and alcohol abuse and abusive men. She struggled and deteriorated physically. Her voice also suffered, but she sang publicly until just a few months before her death. Billie Holiday performed for the last time at a benefit in Greenwich Village, New York But Billie Holiday left behind a legacy of music from both her early period and her very different, but great later period that both remain popular to this day. Along with releases of her recorded music after her death, Billie Holiday was also honored by having her image on the 1994 United States 29 cent stamp.
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