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How I Learned the Truth About Billie Holiday

Since Billie Holiday's death in 1959, an image of her has emerged based mainly on the movies Lady Sings the Blues and The United States versus Billie Holiday. In these depictions of her, she is an in-the-gutter heroin addict who is so helpless she must be rescued from herself by the men in her life. In the end, she is a failure who died estranged from her last husband, strung out, and penniless.

Over the years, I assumed the portrayal of Holiday as a powerless victim was true. However, when I started researching Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday’s Last Year, I was shocked to learn there was an entirely different version of Holiday to be discovered.

Billie Holiday, center, with Duke Ellington and Leonard Feather in 1945.

In this “new” version I was unearthing, Holiday did not consider herself a failure at all. In my book, I quote a friend of hers as saying, “What she really felt, the Rosebud to understanding her, was that her life was a triumph.” And it was a triumph.

For years, Holiday was

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Billie Holiday

American jazz singer (1915–1959)

This article is about the singer. For her self-titled 1954 album, see Billie Holiday (album). For the 1959 album originally titled Billie Holiday, see Last Recording.

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 a significant contribution to jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly influenced by jazz instrumentalists, inspired a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She 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. She 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. By the late 1

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Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday (1915–1959) was an American jazz singer, songwriter, actress, and an icon in American culture.

Billie Holiday was born in Philadelphia to a teenage couple Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan and Clarence Holiday. As a young singer Hoiday became part of the vibrant Harlem Renaissance scene, performing in nightclubs and jazz clubs. At only eighteen, she recorded her first record as part of a studio group led by Benny Goodman. Her career quickly grew as she recorded songs with Teddy Wilson and began a long partnership with Lester Young, who gave her the nickname "Lady Day." In 1938, she was invited to headline an orchestra by Artie Shaw. Holiday became the first African American woman to work with an all-white band. One of her most famous songs, “Strange Fruit” was based on a horrific and detailed account of a lynching in the South. Many scholars now consider it one of the first protest songs of the Civil Rights Movement.