Billie Holiday

Birth Name:

Eleanora Fagan

Birth Place:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Profession

Soundtrack, Actress, Writer, Music department

A statue in her likeness was erected at the corner of Lafayette and Pennsylvania Avenues in Baltimore
Appeared on a postage stamp introduced by the United States Postal Service in 1994
After moving to New York, she sang for tips in obscure Harlem nightclubs, sometimes accompanied by a house piano player and sometimes working as part of a group of performers
San along with Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong records in after-hours jazz clubs as a young teenager
Received no formal musical training and never learned how to read sheet music
Quote: "Singing songs like 'The Man I love' or 'Porgy' is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck․ I've lived songs like that․"
A jazz singer whose prominence rose to its height in the 1950s, she was known for her unique singing voice and her signature, moving ballads including "Strange Fruit․"
Her trademark look on stage included wearing white gardenias in her hair
Chose her stage name because of her admiration for actress Billie Dove
After performing with Count Basie and Artie Shaw in 1937 and 1938 respectively, she became one of the first black women to work with a white orchestra

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