The Rise of Lady Day

1668 Words4 Pages

The Rise of Lady Day

Lady Day, considered by many to be greatest jazz vocalist of all time, was praised during her career and even after her death. Holiday is looked at as one of the most influential women jazz music has ever had, but not many think of the journey she went through to become so widely respected. Through the the early years of her life, Billie dealt with abuse, rape, prostitution, and the death of a loved one. Even after going through these awful and traumatic events, she still overcame the loss of her childhood innocence and did amazing things with her life. Billie Holiday overcame the loss of childhood innocence by becoming a strong influential woman in a time of oppression, a significant jazz musician and by using her lyrics to spread messages like injustice and hope to the masses.

Holiday was able to show her strength to overcome her loss of innocence by being able to trust after being through such traumatic events. Even though Holiday had been raped multiple times and worked as a prostitute from a young age (Holiday15),she was able to move past that and still put all of herself in a relationship. Holiday had two meaningful marriages and each time she put most of herself in them. According to Farah Griffin, the author of If You Can’t Be Free, Be A Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday, Holiday even said her last husband was her “hero” and was putting her on the “right path” with his love for her. This shows how much she looked up to her significant other, and how she was able to trust them enough to guide her through extremely important aspect of her life. In her first marriage, Holiday also dreamed of having a baby and a house of her own, and she only dreamed of doing this with her husband (Griffin 81). W...

... middle of paper ...

...e Holiday.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography In Context. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.

Blackburn, Julia. With Billie. New York: Random House, Inc., 2005. Print.

Conklin, Michael, “Holiday, Billie.” The Thirties in America. Salem Press. Web, 29 Mar. 2014.

Griffin, Farah Jasmine. If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday. New York, NY: A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2001. Print.

Holiday, Billie, and William Duffy. Lady Sings the Blues. New York: Harlem Moon, 2006. Print.

Nicholson, Stuart. Billie Holiday. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 19995. Print.

Stewart, Jasmyne. “Art Analysis: “All of Me” by Billie Holiday.” Women art and culture. n.p 13 May 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.

Ward, Geoffrey C. “Billie Holiday.” American Heritage. Dec94, Vol. 45 Issue 8, P14. Ebsco Student Research Center. Web, 29 Mar. 2014.

Open Document