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
When Lester plays, he almost seems to be singing; one can almost hear the words.
Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on.
God bless the child that's got his own,
I can only sing songs my way. I don't know any other way.
In this country kings or dukes don't amount to nothing. The greatest man around then was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he was the President; so I started calling Lester the President. It got shortened to Pres.
There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up.
Singing songs like 'The Man I Love' or 'Porgy' is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck.
I can't stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years.
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.
If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.
New Orleans is the only city in the world you go in to buy a pair of nylon stockings they want to know your head size.
And when you're poor, you grow up fast.
They think they can make fuel from horse manure - now, I don't know if your car will be able to get 30 miles to the gallon, but it's sure gonna put a stop to siphoning.