Timeline Billie Holiday: Lady Day

From Harlem clubs to Strange Fruit and Lady in Satin — Billie Holiday, the greatest jazz singer of all, and her hard life.

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Dashed left edge = started before this timeline · Dashed right edge = still ongoing

Billie Holiday: Lady Day 17

1915 Billie Holiday born in Philadelphia Eleanora Fagan Grows up in poverty in Baltimore.
1929 Billie Holiday moves to Harlem Club singer Starts singing in Harlem clubs as a teenager.
1933 Billie Holiday makes her first recording With Benny Goodman Discovered by John Hammond, she records with Benny Goodman.
1935 Billie Holiday records with Teddy Wilson What a Little Moonlight Can Do The start of her classic small-group recordings.
1937 Billie Holiday sings with Count Basie Lady Day Lester Young names her Lady Day.
1938 Billie Holiday sings with Artie Shaw Breaking the colour line One of the first Black singers with a white big band.
1939 Billie Holiday opens at Cafe Society Integrated club A residency at New York's first integrated nightclub.
1939 Billie Holiday records Strange Fruit Anti-lynching song A song about lynching that her label refuses to record.
1941 Billie Holiday records God Bless the Child Her own song One of her best-known compositions.
1947 – 1948 Billie Holiday imprisoned on drug charges Alderson Serves nearly a year in a federal prison.
1948 Billie Holiday's Carnegie Hall comeback Sold out A triumphant sold-out concert days after her release.
1954 Billie Holiday tours Europe First European tour Her first concerts in Europe.
1956 Billie Holiday publishes Lady Sings the Blues Autobiography Her ghost-written autobiography.
1957 Billie Holiday sings Fine and Mellow on The Sound of Jazz With Lester Young A famous TV reunion with Lester Young.
1958 Billie Holiday releases Lady in Satin With strings Her ravaged voice with Ray Ellis' orchestra.
1959 Billie Holiday dies in New York Aged 44 Dies under police guard in hospital.
1972 Billie Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues released Diana Ross Diana Ross plays her.