The Story About Jazz Singer With Unique Voice

Billie Holiday, born as Eleanora Fagan, was born in Philadelphia, on April 7th, 1915, and passed away at only 44 years old, on July 17, 1959 from drug addiction. She was a very well-known American jazz singer during her time.

At age 10, Billie was a victim of rape by her neighbor. Although Billie was the victim, she was sent to the House of Good Shepard, a school known for giving out harsh punishments for misdemeanors for even small crimes. At age 14, unfortunately, Billie became the victim of rape once again, but this time she was not punished. Billie grew up in poverty and a harsh environment. I believe the trauma she faced from being raped two times, led her to turn to prostitution at a young age, until three years later when she was arrested.

Billie had a unique and talented voice in her jazz music alongside her pop singing. Billie Holiday introduced a new revolution to jazz singing by her rhythm and lyrical phrasing. By 1933, she had her first major breakthrough with producer, John Hammond. With Hammond’s help, Billie was able to meet other popular musicians of her time, including Duke Ellington, who helped her create the music which is now highlights of her career. Billie Holiday experienced a lot of racism because she was African American. Billie talked about societal issues by exploiting them in her lyrics to show the adversity and despair she was facing. In 1933 Billie released her songs, “Strange Fruit”, “God Bless the Child”, and “Gloomy Sunday”, where she talked about the racism and lynching that happened to colored people and the pain she was facing in her life. Strange Fruit, later on, became a major hit because of the things she talked about in her song. Billie started earning a lot of money and spent most of it on alcohol and drugs. One reason she started drugs and became addicted, was because of her boyfriends that wounded her, John Levy and Louis McKay. Billie’s psychological and mental health was negatively affected and was jeopardizing her career. She later felt more pain after her mother passed away, which got her heroin addiction to get worse and repeatedly arrested. All this led to her admitting to a rehab center hoping to break her habit. These bad decisions really affected her, but they were decisions she made. I believe she was the victim of the bad decisions she made but were biased and occurred due to the events she faced through her life.

I believe Billie Holiday’s story should be known to everyone because of her accomplishments and her uniqueness in her voice. Her voice was breathtaking and is still remembered to this day. Billie Holiday had a lot of potential but lost all of it due to the bad decisions she made in her career. It is very unfortunate that these stories still happen today due to alcohol and drug abuse. Billie Holiday is a legend and will always remain a legend.