Billie Holiday
11,185,812 plays (681,325 listeners)
Listening now: andersonjh, eshm
Harlem, New York, U.S. (1933 – 1959)
Nicknamed Lady Day by her loyal friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Above all, she was admired for her deeply personal and intimate approach to singing. Critic John Bush wrote that she “changed the art of American pop vocals forever. ” She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably “God Bless the Child”, “Don’t Explain”, and “Lady Sings the Blues”. She also became famous for singing jazz standards written by others, including “Easy Living” and “Strange Fruit.”
Billie Holiday had a difficult childhood, which greatly affected her life and career. Not much is known about the true details of her early life, though stories of it appeared in her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, first published in 1956 and later revealed to contain many inaccuracies.
Her professional pseudonym was taken from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and Clarence Holiday, her probable father. At the outset of her career, she spelled her last name “Halliday”, presumably to distance herself from her neglectful father, but eventually changed it back to “Holiday”.
Top Albums
-
All Of Me
Billie HolidayBuy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $6.99
- 7digital
- iTunes $5.99
- Buy Album
- Amazon $18.99
- eBay Search
New
-
Call Me Lady, Vol. 2 (Digitally Remastered)
Billie HolidayBuy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 Search
- 7digital Search
- iTunes Search
- Buy Album
- Amazon Search
- eBay Search
New
-
Solitude
Billie HolidayBuy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 $9.49
- 7digital
- iTunes $10.99
- Buy Album
- Amazon $38.00
- eBay Search
-
Don't Explain
Billie Holiday
Buy- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 Search
- 7digital Search
- iTunes Search
- Buy Album
- Amazon $12.98
- eBay Search
Top Tracks
| 1 |
|
Strange Fruit
full track
|
|||
| 2 |
|
God Bless the Child
full track
|
|||
| 3 |
|
What a Little Moonlight Can Do
full track
|
|||
| 4 |
|
Easy Living
full track
|
|||
| 5 |
|
All Of Me
full track
|
|||
| 6 |
|
My Man
full track
|
|||
| 7 |
|
You're My Thrill
full track
|
|||
| 8 |
|
Blue Moon
full track
|
|||
| 9 |
|
I'll Be Seeing You
full track
|
|||
| 10 |
|
Gloomy Sunday
full track
|
|||
| 11 |
|
Solitude
full track
|
|||
| 12 |
|
Summertime
full track
|
|||
| 13 |
|
The Man I Love
full track
|
|||
| 14 |
|
Body And Soul
full track
|
|||
| 15 |
|
Crazy He Calls Me
full track
|
Videos
See moreNews
2 For 1 ICON Collectibles Billie Holiday Print Sale for Valentine's
5 Feb 2010 | from blog.myspace.com/Billie Holiday
-
From The Heart Series Featuring Billie Holiday
15 Jan 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/Billie Holiday -
From The Heart Series Featuring Billie Holiday
15 Jan 2009 | from blog.myspace.com/Billie Holiday -
Remixed & Reimagined Released Yesturday!!!
8 Aug 2007 | from blog.myspace.com/Billie Holiday
Listeners
-

ridivampare
Listening now
to Some Other Spring -
fox_faolan
Listening now
to The Way You Look Tonight -
dendini
Listening now
to Autumn In New York -
rifatattamimi
Top Listener
-
fitzmung
Top Listener
-
meatenuitas
Top Listener
Recent Activity
-
flannelletesock, aaronw48 and MountainBear58 added Billie Holiday to their libraries. 20 minutes ago
-
traumcave tagged Billie Holiday with blues, vocal jazz, female vocalists and 3 other tags. 1 hour ago
-
carolyneferso, bodepreto, Uboa and 4 other people added Billie Holiday to their libraries. 2 hours ago
-
n-gt_MfL tagged Billie Holiday with ‘vocal jazz’. 5 hours ago
-
paoloa80 added Billie Holiday to paoloa80’s library. 7 hours ago
-
micheldhersin tagged Billie Holiday with jazz vocal and female vocalists. 7 hours ago
-
micheldhersin added Billie Holiday to micheldhersin’s library. 7 hours ago
-
cgern tagged Billie Holiday with ‘vocal jazz’. 8 hours ago
-
youmayquoteme, arterialturns, virgulanove3 and 15 other people added Billie Holiday to their libraries. 8 hours ago
-
tainalon tagged Billie Holiday with ‘jazz’. yesterday evening
Related Journals
-
Moje top 50 albumów (stan na 12.03.2010)
by kateem |
12 Mar 2010 |
Add comment
-
From which countries do my 50 Top Artists come from?
by arkanusboy |
9 Mar 2010 |
3 comments
-
last 3 months
by lamijka |
24 Feb 2010 |
Add comment
Groups (224)
-
Women in the Jazz
66 members
-
Madeleine Peyroux
112 members
-
Billie Holiday: Fine and Mellow
281 members
-
The Best of the Best of the Best
33 members
-
Billie Holiday
151 members
More Information
- Links
- Labels
Email Newsletter
Get exclusive tour, release & promotion updates on Billie Holiday from Universal Music.





























