Billie Holiday was an American jazz and swing music singer, known for her distinctive phrasing and expressive, sometimes melancholy voice.
In 1939, after singing her song “Strange Fruit,” about the lynching of African-Americans, Holiday received a warning from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a government agency which lasted from 1930 to 1968, to never sing the song again. Holiday refused and kept singing the song. FBN commissioner Harry J. Anslinger thus pursued her for decades, going as far as to arrest and handcuff her for drug possession to her hospital bed while she was dying.
In her personal life, Holiday was openly bisexual throughout her career and was known to date prominent actresses of the time. Her posthumous awards include being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame, and she is widely regarded as being one of the greatest singers in history.
