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Early life -

Billie Holiday (née Eleanora Fagan) was born in Philadelphia on April 7, 1915. Despite humble beginnings she was to become one of the biggest stars of the 20th century.

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Early life -

As a youngster, the would-be jazz great didn’t have an easy time: her father left soon after she was born and her mother struggled financially, often leaving her daughter with a family member while she went away for work.

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Early life -

Young Billie Holiday was not a fan of school and often played truant. Her non-attendance landed her in juvenile court by the age of nine, and by the time she was 11 she had dropped out of school altogether.

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Early life -

At the age of 12 she was earning money by running errands in a brothel. Her descent into the world of prostitution landed her in prison for a short time in 1929.

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Career beginnings -

Having grown up surrounded by the Baltimore jazz scene of the 1920s, as a young teenager Billie Holiday was singing along to the records of Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong.

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Career beginnings -

When her mother moved to Harlem, New York, in 1929 Billie soon joined her. She began singing in Harlem jazz clubs with resident pianists and making a name for herself on the scene.

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Career beginnings -

It was around this time that the singer adopted the name "Billie Holiday," combining the first name of her favorite actress, Billie Dove, with the surname of her father, Clarence Holiday.

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Career beginnings -

At age 18, Holiday was spotted by producer John Hammond, with whom she made her first record. He said of her: "She was the first girl singer I’d come across who actually sang like an improvising jazz genius."

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Career highlights -

Billie Holiday was signed to Brunswick by John Hammond in 1935, and after that she was an unstoppable force.

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Career highlights -

From 1935 to 1938 she recorded an impressive number of hits with pianist/arranger Teddy Wilson, and in 1936 she struck up a partnership with tenor saxophonist Lester Young, with whom she worked on a number of collaborations.

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Career highlights -

In late 1937, she was called to tour with Count Basie’s infamous big band. This was a high-profile gig but working conditions were bad and by February 1938 she was no longer singing with Basie.

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Career highlights -

After being fired from Basie’s big band, Holiday was invited to front Artie Shaw’s orchestra, at which point she became the first black female vocalist to sing with a white band.

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Career highlights -

In the late 1930s, she was introduced to ‘Strange Fruit,’ an Abel Meeropol poem about lynching in the South. The poem was put to music just for her and the controversial piece became a permanent feature of her concert repertoire.

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Career highlights -

In 1939, she collaborated with Arthur Herzog Jr to write ‘God Bless the Child,’ the composition that would become her most popular and often covered record.

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Career highlights -

In 1944, she was signed to Decca Records, where she continued to record classics. She even did a couple of records with her childhood hero, Louis Armstrong.

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Career highlights -

In 1952, she signed a five-year contract with Norman Granz’s label Clef/Verve. During this period she developed a new style and broadened her repertoire as well as re-recorded many earlier songs.

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Career highlights -

In 1958, she was signed to Columbia, but it was for MGM that she made her last recordings in March 1959. These were released posthumously after she died on July 17, 1959, aged 44.

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Controversy -

Billie Holiday led a troubled life and she had a number of brushes with the law. By the late 1940s she had a reputation for self-destructive behavior that would affect her popularity.

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Controversy -

In May 1947, she was arrested for possession of narcotics. She was charged, convicted, and sentenced to time at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia.

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Controversy -

Although she was released early in March 1948 for good behavior, it wasn’t long before she was arrested again in January 1949.

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Controversy -

According to the singer herself, she had begun using hard drugs in the early 1940s. Narcotics were a big part of her reality and she became involved with her drug dealer at one point.

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Controversy -

A lifetime of drinking and substance abuse began to take its toll on her body by the 1950s, and by early 1959 she was diagnosed with the cirrhosis that would be the cause of her death.

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Legacy -

Today Billie Holiday is remembered for her musical innovation, vocal prowess, and courageous stance on issues of civil rights and equality.

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Legacy -

Despite never receiving any formal training (she never even learned to read music) the singer developed a masterful and original style that made her the standout jazz vocalist of her generation.

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Legacy -

Her works have been covered countless times by high-profile musicians such as Nina Simone, who in 1965 recorded a version of ‘Strange Fruit.’

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Legacy -

She also became a style icon and the white gardenias she liked to wear in her hair were unmistakably Billie Holiday.

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Legacy -

Her groundbreaking autobiography ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ contributed to her status as a cultural icon and was made into a Grammy-award-winning film in 1972.

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'The United States vs. Billie Holiday' (2021) -

Andra Day stars as Billie Holiday in this biopic. She took home a Golden Globe for her performance, and was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress.

See also: Star singers who hate their own songs

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