Billie Holiday Essay

Vernon, or Vern, was raised, along with Clarence Hurd, by his grandmother, Rosie Armstrong. When his maternal grandfather, Bob Armstrong died in 1958, his mother inherited the Blackstone farm. As a consequence Vern became a farmer and person of note on the lake. He was a colourful, controversial and a larger than life character with a “twinkle in his eyes”. He also loved to play the fiddle. There are many stories but the following illustrates a bit of this interesting farmer, backwoodsman and above all pragmatic figure.

“Strange Fruit” is a song written by Abel Meeropol but was recorded by Billie Holiday. Holiday was a jazz musician and song writer in the early 1900’s. Strange Fruit had a context that was relevant in the 1930s. Basically, in the 1930’s, white and black people did not get along or participate in anything together. In fact, black people were known to be inferior to white people. African Americans would be killed, hanged, and burned. Strange Fruit was based around protesting racism, in which African Americans were being traumatized because of the color of their skin. “Blood on the leaves and blood at the root/ Black body swinging in the Southern breeze/” (line 2-3). Although it doesn’t directly state that African

As her career began to grow after her debut album, Frank, she often showed up to social events drunk and even drugged. During this time, she was in a very unstable relationship that involved drugs, alcohol, and abuse. By 2006, Winehouse was in desperate need of Rehab and help, but instead she wrote a hit about it. To only worsen her situation, the abusive couple got married in 2007. Blake, her now husband, was arrested for bribing a bartender of which he assaulted, and Amy was later arrested for supposedly interfering with his case. (“Amy Winehouse Biography” para

Billie Holiday, originally named Eleanora Fagan, was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents were both teenagers when she was born. Her mother was 13 years old and her father was 15 years old. On June 12th while Billie Holiday was in the hospital she was under arrest in her hospital bed for possession of narcotics. Louis Armstrong and Miss Smith was a huge influence on her singing career. Miss Holiday took her professional name from her father Clarence Holiday. Billie Holiday, went to New York with her mother in 1928.

This just goes to show that although she did amazing things with her life she did not get a free pass in the real world and had to deal with life just like everyone

As a young girl growing up in Yonkers, just outside New York City, Fitzgerald loved music and dreamed of being a dancer. She and a friend, Charles Gulliver,

Loretta Lynn overcame many difficult circumstances in her life while pursuing her dream of becoming a country music singer. It is very simple according to Pareles, Jon. “Loretta Lynn Mines a Legacy of Heartaches and High Notes.” The New York Times, 25 Feb. 2016. Loretta had a rough beginning. Being a woman, and trying to get into the music business, which was believed to be a man's world wasn’t easy. Loretta did not have thee support she needed to be successful. Yet that didn’t stop Loretta the lack of support, and rough time she had, did not stop her from recording twenty-seven number one hits, including, “Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ With Lovin’ On Your Mind in 1967, “Fist City” in 1968, and “Lead Me On with Conway Twitty in 1971. ultimately allowing her to live the American Dream. “Nobody is perfect,the only one that ever was, was crucified” - Loretta Lynn. This shows that Loretta knows nothing she ever do

Ella Fitzgerald was a very good American Jazz singer. Her most famous song is “A Tisket a Tasket”. Ella Fitzgerald (A.K.A) Queen of Jazz; her mother’s name is Temperance Fitzgerald and her father's name was William Fitzgerald. Ray Brown Jr, is her son who also has a singing passion. She went to the Grammy Hall Of Fame.

Billie was born to the name, Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915. She was born in Philadelphia but grew up in the Fell's Point section of Baltimore. Her mother, was just 13 at the time of her birth; her father, was 15. Holidays' teenage parents, Sadie Harris (aka Fagan) and probable father, Clarence Holiday, never married, and they did not live together for a long time. Clarence, a banjo and guitar player worked with Fletcher Henderson's band in the early 30s. He remains a shady figure who left his family. Clarence would often be away from home, and during the stay with Henderson, which lasted until 1932, the guitarist severed connections with the Fagans. Billie was an angry chile who lived a hard life. She was raped at the age of 10 soon

Life for Fitzgerald became much worse in 1932. Fitzgerald’s mother died in a car accident from major injuries, leaving the Ella orphaned at fifteen years old. Her aunt Virginia took her in soon after. Fitzgerald found herself in much more trouble as her grades dropped, she skipped school, and she was sent to reform school after being taken into custody by the police. Life at reform school was not all fun and roses with her taking beatings from caretakers. Although she did manage to escape later onwards,

She would treat them horribly and still expect them to worship her. She would also expect excessive admiration from her parents even when she misbehaved. She grew up as an only child and with a mother as the head of a large fashion company and a father that later run away to live in France. Therefore her parents had little time to give her attention so she seeked to from other people through popularity or relationships. One person she seeks admiration from was Chuck Bass, even when her clearly was not ready for a relationship she still sought attention from him.

Billie never had a father figure in her life. Her mother, Sarah married Philip Gough when Billie was just 5 years old but unfortunately the marriage failed. When she was only nine years old, Billie began skipping school. As a result, she was sent to “the House of Good Shepherd, a facility for troubled African American girls”(Billie Holiday Biography.com). She came back seven months later , but then returned to the facility at the age of ten where “she was molested and abused” (Ward). Two years after she moved to New York City where “she worked as a prostitute in Alice Dean’s brothel” (Ward).

Sadly her passing on August 5, 1962, had to do with a Barbiturate overdose. This is overdosing too much barbiturate which is a central nerve system depressant. This makes the body go into an anesthesia state and makes you feel loopy and very drowsy. As they do not know why she took the drugs or if she has been addicted for a while, but the case has been identified as “probable suicide”. Her passing has positively affected the public because someone how was the face of the movies could be affected by drugs, anyone can and how its also very easy to become heavily

Her unusual upbringing was brought upon her so she didn’t turn out like her father. Her father was a poet, the famous George Gordon Byron. Unlike her father who studied poetry, she studied math and science. Her mother thought it would prevent her from having a moody temperament. Her mother even went as far as force her to lay still for certain amounts of time to gain self-control.

Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston were two of the biggest music acts in the world, selling hundreds upon thousands of records between them. Both acts rose to fame at an early age eventually earning the titles ‘The King of Pop’ (The Guardian, 2009) and ‘The Voice’ (IMDB, 2012) as well as earning plentiful awards in their careers; It is claimed that Whitney Houston is the most awarded female artist of all time. As well as preforming at some of the biggest and most prestigious venues around the world we can only dream about visiting and gaining world-wide fame they ended up meeting an untimely death due to addiction.