Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan Gough; April 7, 1915 July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter.
Nicknamed Lady Day by her sometime collaborator Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style strongly inspired by instrumentalists pioneered a new way of manipulating wording and tempo, and also popularized a more personal and intimate approach to singing. Critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing jazz standards written by others, including "Easy Living" and "Strange Fruit." "Lady Sings the Blues" is a song written by jazz singer Billie Holiday, and jazz pianist Herbie Nichols.
It is the title song to her 1956 album, released on Clef/Verve Records (MGC 721/Verve MV 2047).
The song was also chosen to be the title of a movie based on Billie Holiday's life, with Diana Ross as Holiday.Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan Gough; April 7, 1915 July 17, 1959) was an.