Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed “Lady Day” by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly influenced by jazz instrumentalists, inspired a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills.

After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem where she was heard by producer John Hammond, who liked her voice. Holiday signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935. Her collaboration with Teddy Wilson produced the hit “What a Little Moonlight Can Do”, which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. However, by the late 1940s, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. After a short prison sentence, Holiday performed a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. She was a successful concert performer throughout the 1950s, with two further sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall. Because of personal struggles and an altered voice, Holiday's final recordings were met with mixed reaction, but were mild commercial successes. Her final album, “Billie Holiday” was released shortly before her death, in July 1959 and changed to “Last Recording” after her death. Holiday died of cirrhosis and heart failure on July 17, 1959, at age 44.

Holiday won four Grammy Awards, all of them posthumously, for Best Historical Album. She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. In 2000, Holiday was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence; their website states that “Billie Holiday changed jazz forever”. She was named one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR and was ranked fourth on the Rolling Stone list of “200 Greatest Singers of All Time” (2023). Several films about Holiday's life have been released, including Lady Sings the Blues (1972) and The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021).

Death

Health complications which resulted from her years of drug and alcohol abuse would ultimately lead to Holiday's death. By early 1959, Holiday was diagnosed with cirrhosis. Although she had initially stopped drinking on her doctor's orders, it was not long before Holiday relapsed. By May 1959, she had lost 20 pounds (9.1 kg). Holiday's manager Joe Glaser, jazz critic Leonard Feather, photojournalist Allan Morrison, and the singer's own friends all tried in vain to persuade her to go to a hospital. On May 31, 1959, Holiday was finally taken to Metropolitan Hospital in New York for treatment of both liver and heart disease. While in the hospital, special agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) came to her hospital room and placed her under house arrest, handcuffing her to the bed, for narcotics possession. On July 15, Holiday received last rites. Two days later, she died at age 44, at 3:10 a.m., of pulmonary edema and heart failure caused by cirrhosis.