ABSTRACT
American blues and jazz singer, known as “Lady Day,” born Eleanora Fagan Gough in Baltimore, Maryland. Although facts about her early life are uncertain, it seems her parents were Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday, and that her given name was Eleanora. After a troubled childhood that included a reformatory and brothels, she began singing in Harlem clubs at age 15, was heard by John Hammond and brought to the attention of Benny Goodman; she sang with the Goodman band from 1933. She also teamed with Count Basie, Artie Shaw, and Teddy Wilson, and was soon recognized as the foremost female jazz vocalist. Holiday was among the few Black singers to be members of white orchestras in the 1930s. She made European tours, gaining acclaim wherever she appeared. Holiday recorded for Vocalion/Columbia through the 1930s, Decca from the mid-1940s through 1950, and then for Verve in the early 1950s. Her voice declined around 1950, leading to a less effective period. She made some final recordings in the late 1950s again for Columbia. Holiday died in New York. The motion picture Lady Sings the Blues (1972) purported to be her life story.
