Voici l histoire de la chanson Strange Fruit signée Billie Holiday jazzradio.fr - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jazzradio.fr Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Directed by Lee Daniels; screenplay by Suzan-Lori Parks; based on the book by Johann Hari
Sixty-two years ago, on July 17, 1959, Billie Holiday died in Metropolitan Hospital in East Harlem, New York City due to complications of chronic substance abuse, bringing an end to her career as one of the premier jazz vocalists of the mid-20th century. She is the subject of Lee Daniels’
The United States vs. Billie Holiday, a seriously misguided work.
Andra Day in
The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Holiday overcame an abusive childhood she grew up with her prostitute mother in Baltimore and Harlem brothels and a limited vocal range, to become a unique stylist who interpreted the popular songs of her era like a laid-back instrumentalist, delivering their lyrics with an unsettling emotional wallop.
Francine Wolfisz is the Features Editor for Jewish News.
H
Strange Fruit did more than just propel Billie Holiday’s fledgling music career – it sparked a debate that became the beginning of the civil rights movement.
While the song was written into history books for perpetuity, including being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978, the story behind
Strange Fruit’s Jewish composer and lyricist, Abel Meeropol, has largely been forgotten over the decades.
Interest in the song has now resurged thanks to Sky Original’s new biopic,
The United States vs Billie Holiday, which places
Strange Fruit right at the heart of the plotline.
How Billie Holidayâs âStrange Fruitâ Confronted an Ugly Era of Lynchings
During a time when violence against Black Americans was common, Holiday s haunting rendition of the song often left audiences uncomfortable.
Author:
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
During a time when violence against Black Americans was common, Holiday s haunting rendition of the song often left audiences uncomfortable.
The haunting lyrics of “Strange Fruit” paint a picture of a rural American South where political and psychological terror reigns over African American communities.
“Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze,” blues legend Billie Holiday sang in her powerful 1939 recording of the song, “Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.” The song’s lyrics portray the everyday violence that was being inflicted on Black people. And Holiday dared to perform it in front of Black and white audiences, alike.
Soma Ghosh
, February 26th, 2021 11:26
Lee Daniels gorgeous star-spangled biopic of Billie Holiday honours the incomparable artist, but risks reducing her to a shiny, heroic emblem more than the harsh-throated contradiction she was, finds Soma Ghosh
Norman Granz writes on the liner of
Songs For Distingué Lovers (1957) that Billie Holiday “happened to some songs”. From the moment she happened, mainstream culture has tried to explain away the transgressions that make Billie the seminal godmother of RnB queens and punks alike.
This 1959 obituary by Time magazine sums up the Establishment’s begrudging awe:
Died. Billie Holiday, 44, Negro blues singer, whose husky, melancholy voice reflected the tragedy of her own life. Born of indigent teenagers, schooled in a Baltimore brothel, she stubbornly nursed her resentment ….