BILLIE HOLIDAY A FIERCE SPIRIT

SHE ENDURED CRUSHING POVERTY AND RACISM, BUT THE ICONIC SINGER ALWAYS REMAINED TRUE TO HERSELF

- Lisa Chambers

Billie Holiday had reasons to sing the blues. Abandoned by her father and raised in Harlem by her often-unemployed mother, “we were starving,” Billie recalled. But she learned how to survive. At age 14, she walked into the Log Cabin Club and told the owner she could sing. “An old guy playing a piano… struck ‘Travelin’ and I sang. The customers stopped drinking. They turned around and watched.… That’s how I got my start,” she said. “First thing I did was get a sandwich. Mother and I ate that night, and we have been eating pretty well since.”

In a life shaped by poverty and later by drug addiction and abusive relationships, Billie nevertheless found power in her unique voice. As tumultuous as her life was off stage — she faced bitter racism, and her career was derailed by a drug conviction — she remained completely confident about her music. “Billie was an incredibly strong person,” says James Erskine, director of the 2020 documentary