Number 28 on my Queer Icons Pride Project is Jazz Singer Billie Holiday Born Elenora Fagan in 1915 Billie was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating sound. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills. Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem, where she was heard by producer John Hammond, who liked her voice. She signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson produced the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. By the late 1940s, however, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. After a short prison sentence, she performed at a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. She was a successful concert performer throughout the 1950s with two further sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall. Because of personal struggles and an altered voice, her final recordings were met with mixed reaction but were mild commercial successes. Her final album, Lady in Satin, was released in 1958. Throughout her career, Billie was openly a bisexual woman, and actually had an array of high-profile relationships with other famous figures in Hollywood and beyond at the time. Billie most notably dated American actress Tallulah Bankhead, a figurehead of film. Billie Holiday is influential to me because of her ability to rise beyond her surroundings and create something truly beautiful. Regardless of how her life ended, she was still able to bring light to controversial events and sing about sadness that made listeners comprehend struggle. @billie.holiday #billieholiday #ladyday #ladysingstheblues #solitude #strangefruit #jazz #music #pride #bisexual #drawing #redsketch #prismacolor #pride2022 #prideproject #art #artist #pencilart #gayartist (at Turlock, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfWBOiUubq1/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
