Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Eleanora Fagan, professionally known as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz musician and singer-songwriter with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills, which made up for her limited range and lack of...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJazz Singer
Date of Birth7 April 1915
CityPhiladelphia, PA
CountryUnited States of America
The whole basis of my singing is feeling. Unless I feel something, I can't sing.
A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.
I've been told that nobody sings the word 'hunger' like I do.
I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old.
You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling.
When you sing, always tell the truth.
I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know.
Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain.
I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.
If I don't have friends, then I ain't got nothing.
No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.
There's no damn business like show business -- you have to smile to keep from throwing up.
Mama may have, papa may have, But God bless the child that's got his own!
Money, you have lots of friends hanging round the door. When it's gone and the spending ends They don't come no more.