Before Nina Simone, Nancy Wilson, or Rachelle Ferrell, there was Billie Holiday, a fierce jazz vocalist who captivated audiences with every note. Known for her unique raspy voice, she made history as the first Black singer to perform with a white band. But while she performed with legendary musicians, including Count Basie and Louis Armstrong, she also endured a battle with drug and alcohol abuse that would lead to her tragic death at age 44.
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This is the story of Billie Holiday.
Born in Philly
Before she was Billie Holiday, she was Eleanora Fagan, born on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Billie’s childhood was tough and often unstable. She was born to a teenage mother, and her father’s presence was inconsistent, which left Billie and her mother to get by mostly on their own.
When things were tough, Billie found peace in music and loved listening to jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. Although she wasn’t classically trained, she was known for her beautifully soulful voice and her impeccable musical timing.
Making Moves to the Big Apple
In 1929, Billie’s mother made her way to New York to find better job opportunities while Billie auditioned for singing gigs and performed for tips at jazz clubs around the city. By the early 1930s, she had rebranded herself as “Billie,” a name inspired by actress Billie Dove.
A Big Break
A few years after moving to New York, Holiday was discovered by producer John Hammond. Just 18 years old at the time, she made her first record, backed by jazz great Benny Goodman.
Lester Young and Lady Day
In the mid-1930s, Billie met Lester Young, a saxophonist who played with Count Basie’s orchestra. The two became extremely close as Billie started performing with Basie’s orchestra and touring with the group in 1937. Besides making music, Young and Holiday also formed a friendship. Young gave Holiday the nickname “Lady Day,” while she called him “The Prez.”
A Historic Performance
Just one year after touring with Count Basie, Billie Holiday’s star was rising. She made music history in 1938 when she was asked to perform with Artie Shaw’s orchestra, making her the first Black woman to perform with a white band.
The Story of “Strange Fruit”
While Billie Holiday’s catalog is full of amazing songs, none have had the same impact as “Strange Fruit.”
The song was originally a poem, “Bitter Fruit,” written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish American English teacher in the Bronx. He was moved to write after seeing a picture of seeing a picture of two Black teens who had been lynched and eventually turned his powerful words into a song. Holiday heard the song in a New York City nightclub and began to perform it at the end of all of her shows.
The haunting lyrics of “Strange Fruit” captivated Holiday’s audiences at nearly every performance.
“Southern trees bear a strange fruit;
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root;
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze;
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”
Billie’s Biggest Hit Made Her a Government Target
“Strange Fruit” was Billie’s biggest hit, selling one million copies and rising to the top of the charts. But while the song is considered a classic, not everyone liked it. It was banned by some Southern radio stations and would make Holiday a target of the federal government, when after one 1939 performance, she received a warning from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to never sing the song again. But Holiday was defiant, and continued to sing the song for the rest of her career.
A Government Target
Harry Anslinger was the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics at the time and a known racist. With his position, Anslinger was determined to get rid of drugs everywhere, and he believed jazz was a big part of the problem. Because Billie Holiday was using her voice to call attention to racially-motivated violence in a way that resonated with white audiences, he decided to use his power to stop her, including hiring a Black agent, Jimmy Fletcher, to go undercover and catch Holiday in the act of doing drugs.
Rocky Relationships
Billie Holiday’s personal issues often overshadowed her professional success. She struggled with alcohol and drug use, and her problems only got worse when she married James Monroe, the first of three husbands in 1941. Monroe was a heavy drinker who introduced Holiday to opium.
Holiday often channeled the pain of her relationships in her music, in songs like “My Man” in which she sings:
“He’s not much on looks;
He’s no hero out of books;
But I love him;
Yes, I love him.
Two or three girls has he;
That he likes as well as me;
But I love him.”
Legal Issues
When Billie’s mother passed away in 1945, her problems with substance abuse got worse, as she used alcohol and drugs to cope with her loss. In 1947, she was arrested for narcotics possession and sentenced to a year in jail.
Because of her convictions, Holiday was unable to get a New York City Cabaret Identification Card, the credentials she needed to perform in places that served alcohol in the city.
A Tragic Passing
By May of 1959, drug use had taken a toll on Billie Holiday’s health and she gave her last public performance on May 25 of that year. She was admitted to the hospital in June after collapsing. Although Holiday was recovering, she was arrested during her stay after police found a small amount of heroin in her possession. Many believe the drugs were planted on her.
On July 17, 1959, Billie Holiday passed away from heart failure at 44 years old. More than 3,000 people attended her funeral in New York City, and more than 10,000 came to view the body, according to The New York Times.
Billie Holiday’s body was laid to rest at St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx.
Lady Sings The Blues
In 1972, Berry Gordy brought Billie Holiday’s story to life in the film, “Lady Sings The Blues.” Diana Ross starred as Lady Day in the movie depiction of her life story, which also included Richard Pryor and Billy Dee Williams.
The role earned Ross a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, but before it hit theaters, not everyone was convinced that The Supremes lead singer was up for the challenge, including legendary film critic, Roger Ebert. But once he saw the film, he had to eat his words.
“All of those thoughts were wiped out of my mind within the first three or four minutes of “Lady Sings the Blues,” and I was left with a feeling of complete confidence in a dramatic performance. This was one of the great performances of 1972,” he wrote in his review of the film.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
In 2000, the music industry finally gave Billie Holiday her flowers when she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Diana Ross sang a beautiful rendition of “Strange Fruit” at her induction ceremony. In her speech, she called playing Holiday on screen one of the highlights of her life.
“Lady Day, such a grace, such a power, bound up in such a great sadness,” Ross said in her touching tribute. “Jazz, blues, jazz, blues made her, swayed her, stayed her, played her.”
“The United States V. Billie Holiday”
Director Lee Daniels gave us another movie based on the life and times of Billie Holiday in 2021 with “The United States V. Billie Holiday.” This time Andra Day took on the starring role. Although the film got mixed reviews, Day definitely owned the role, which won a her a Golden Globe and a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
“Phenomenal movie… sis did that,” wrote someone on TikTok.
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