Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was
an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her
friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence
on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz
instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and
tempo.
Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop
vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have
become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child," "Don't Explain,"
"Fine and Mellow," and "Lady Sings the Blues." She also became famous
for singing "Easy Living," "Good Morning Heartache," and "Strange
Fruit", a protest song which became one of her standards and made famous
with her 1939 recording.
