Eleanora Fagan, known as Billie Holiday (1915 – 1959) is an American artist considered to be one of the greatest jazz singers in the world.
[Warning:rape]
A childhood marked by violence
Eleanora Fagan was born in Philadelphia on April 7, 1915, to two teenage parents:Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan, her mother, was 13 and Clarence Holiday, her presumed father, was 15. The latter did not recognize the child, who is entrusted to Eva Miller, Sadie's half-sister who only comes and goes in her daughter's life. Raised in part by Martha Miller, Eva's stepmother, Eleanora had a difficult childhood, going through juvenile court at nine and leaving school at eleven. In 1926, Sadie discovers that a neighbor is raping her daughter; the man is arrested and Eleanora is sent under protection to a Catholic school.
In 1928, Sadie brought her 13-year-old daughter to New York. The two prostituted themselves and, arrested on May 2, 1929, spent a few months in prison. When she left, in October 1929, Eleanora was auditioned in a night club and hired as a singer. She then took the name Billie Holiday, in reference to actress Billie Dove and her presumed father, and worked in several clubs. She begins to make herself known and meets the bluesman John Hammond, who allows her to record her first titles:Your Mother's Son-in-Law and Riffin’ the Scotch . She met many musicians, including Lester Young, Duke Ellington and Bobby Henderson with whom he performed in several Harlem clubs.
Strange Fruit
Billie Holiday knows the success and multiplies the sentimental links, with men as with women. She installs her mother at the head of a small restaurant and becomes a New York jazz star. Her records are selling and she sings with Artie Shaw's orchestra, with whom she goes on tour. A black singer in a white orchestra, she is a victim of racism and segregation in the southern states and cannot go anywhere with the musicians of the orchestra. Back in New York, she continues to perform in clubs.
In March 1939, Abel Meeropol, a teacher, asked Billie to set Strange Fruit to music. , a poem he wrote that metaphorically evokes the lynchings of blacks practiced in the southern United States. A member of her family having been the victim of a racist crime, Billie insisted on performing this song which, although controversial, met with immense success and became her flagship song. His career takes off; she performs with renowned musicians and records many titles, including Lover Man , Good morning Heartache , Fine and Mellow , Billie's Blues , Don’t Explain . She also tours with Louis Armstrong in the movie New Orleans , which brings together great jazzmen.
Depression and addictions
Billie Holiday begins an affair and then marries Jimmy Monroe, a con man who introduces her to opium and heroin before being arrested. The singer divorces, has other adventures and then falls under the thumb of Joe Guy, a trumpet player who provides her with heroin. While she obtains prestigious contracts, she begins to make mistakes in the words, to arrive late. As she embarks on a tour dedicated to her, Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra, she learns of her mother's death and sinks into depression. Sinking into alcohol, she also begins to take LSD and, at the beginning of 1947, her impresario wants to impose a detoxification treatment on her. A few weeks later, she was arrested in possession of drugs and sentenced to one year in prison.
When she was released on March 16, 1948, Billie was ruined. She can no longer sing in places selling alcohol, and therefore performs in concert halls. But these commitments are less well paid and Billie, still addicted to heroin, falls under the influence of John Levy, a gangster who rapes her and collects what she earns. When she leaves her partner, she is in debt up to her neck and alcohol and drugs increasingly impact her performance.
The triumph and the fall
In 1950, Billie Holiday returned to success playing with Miles Davis in Chicago. The following year, she recorded a few records with a small production company and signed a contract with the Verve label. She then performed with Charlie Shavers, Barney Kessel, Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown and multiplied concerts and tours, as far as Europe. She knows the triumph, but still does not manage to get off drugs. In 1956, she was arrested with her friend and former lover Louis McKay in possession of drugs, and the two married so as not to have to testify against each other; they will divorce as soon as the judgment is pronounced. Billie, whose health is deteriorating, undergoes a new rehab. She records new albums and goes on a European tour, but is so intoxicated and in such a state of exhaustion that her performances are cut short. She returned to the United States and, increasingly ill, took on a few engagements there.
On May 30, 1959, Billie collapsed at home and was admitted to hospital. The doctors diagnosed him with cirrhosis as well as kidney failure and forbade him alcohol and cigarettes, without success. In June, she is again caught in possession of drugs and her room is put under police surveillance for a few days. While her condition seemed to be improving, she suffered a kidney infection and pulmonary congestion in July.
Billie Holiday died in Harlem Hospital on July 17, 1959. She was buried near her mother and three thousand people attended her funeral.