Billie Holiday

I fell in love with Billie Holiday's voice many years ago but didn't know much about her life.  And what a sad life it was!  She died in 1959 at the age of only 44.

She is categorised as a jazz singer but I think her appeal was much wider than that.

Her life was hard right from the outset.  No father on hand and her mother placed her in the care of others for many years.  She wagged school a lot and ended up in a juvenile court at the tender age of 9 and was sent off to a reform school.  Goodness knows what that did to her!

She was reunited with her mother and dropped out of school at 11 to work in her mother's restaurant.  But things went even further downhill when she ended up following her mother into prostitution at only 13 years old.

Given this very bad start, her fame is astounding.

My favourite Billie Holiday numbers include:

God Bless the Child

Don't Explain

Lady Sings the Blues

Holiday ended up a heroin addict – so sad.  She was even sent to prison for it.  But it was liver disease that got her in the end.  RIP Billie!