Lady Day (foto YouTube) Billie Holiday Published 5 jun. 2012 Jamal Parker Billie Holiday was a jazz diva who became the stereotypical victim – unlucky in life, unlucky in love and dead from drink and drugs at the age of only 44. Reputations re examines Billie Holiday’s life and career. Was life hard on Billie, or was she always a tragedy waiting to happen? Holiday was born in Baltimore in 1915, the illegitimate daughter of a 16 year old jazz musician and an 18 year old cleaner. She was raped by a neighbour at the age of 11, and began work as a prostitute in Harlem at the age of 14. However, she was already listening to jazz – Louis Armstrong records on a wind up Victrola – and started to think about a career which would take her out of the brothel where she worked. She began singing in Harlem’s night spots and was soon noticed as something different. She cut her first record at the age of 18 and, by the time she was 23, she had recorded with most of the great names in jazz – including Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Artie Shaw. Billie lived it … Meer lezen over BBC4 | Reputations – Billie Holiday + BBC | TV Productions | John Jeremy – Billie Holiday: The Long Night of Lady Day + Lady Day | The Many Faces of Billie Holiday (Documentary)