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Billie Holiday’s music continues to captivate, comfort, and challenge listeners nearly a century after she first graced the microphone. These ten songs, each a different facet of love, offer ...
Billie Holiday released her version this popular Ray Noble song in 1938. Even early in her career, Holiday’s youthful voice shows range and flexibility on this track.
And Billie Holiday started seeing her songs on them, beginning in 1934 with “Riffin’ the Scotch.” That track came from a late ’33 session led by Benny Goodman, and it went all the way to ...
Billie Holiday: Emotional Power Through Song Holiday became famous after she recorded "Strange Fruit," a 1939 protest song about lynchings of African-Americans. The haunting vocal offers a stark ...
In March 1939, a then-23-year-old Billie Holiday closed out her set at New York's Cafe Society with a song she hadn't performed before: "Strange Fruit.". Written by Jewish schoolteacher Abel ...
Holiday closed sets with "Strange Fruit" from 1939 until the final months of her life. In making it her trademark song, she offered solidarity and faithful witness to racial violence and injustice ...
“Detour Ahead” was the first Billie Holiday song that really hit me between the eyes. I’m not completely sure why; I had heard other, better-known tracks of hers before this one.
Snapshot: A musical biopic about Billie Holiday, her haunting rendition of the protest song “Strange Fruit” and the federal government’s yearslong campaign to get her to stop singing it.
In 1959, during what would be the final months of her life, Billie Holiday was unwell. The singer—who had honed her art in the brothels of Baltimore, fronted orchestras led by Count Basie and ...
On Oct. 5, 1958, Billie Holiday took the stage at the inaugural Monterey Jazz Festival. Then America’s preeminent jazz singer, she closed the event with an effortlessly sophisticated 11-song set ...
Billie Holiday: Emotional Power Through Song. Billie Holiday has one of the most distinctive voices of all time; her very personal style continues to inspire singers decades after her death in 1959.