Character Catalog

A protest song against lynchings in the American South, considered one of the first political protest songs in the history of American popular music. Time Magazine named it the Song of the Century.

Composed by Billie Holiday herself, this song about financial independence and dignity became one of her most covered titles and one of the standards of vocal jazz.

A romantic ballad recorded for Decca Records, a massive commercial success that perfectly illustrates her art of inhabiting a lyric with deep melancholy.

A George Gershwin standard reinterpreted with Teddy Wilson, a recording that revealed to the wider public her unique ability to slow the tempo and color each word with intense emotion.

A classic blues recorded on the B-side of the first 'Strange Fruit' single, and performed again during a legendary 1957 television broadcast alongside Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and Ben Webster.

An autobiography co-written with William Dufty, a poignant account of her life, segregation, drugs, and the jazz world. An essential document on the condition of African-American artists in the 20th century.

Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen, and I was three. They were both pieces of work, all right.

I've been told that nobody sings the word 'hunger' like I do. Or the word 'love'. Maybe I remember what those words mean.

I'm not asking for charity. I'm asking for the right to work, the right to sing, the right to live like any other human being in this city.

I plead guilty. But I want the court to know that I have been trying to get help for my illness. I am not a criminal. I am sick.

Neighborhood where Billie Holiday began her career in the clubs and speakeasies of the 1930s, at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance. It was there that she forged her style and met the great jazz musicians.

New York's first integrated club (Black and white together), where Billie Holiday debuted 'Strange Fruit' in 1939 before a mixed and progressive audience. This venue embodies her activist dimension.

Prestigious concert hall where Billie Holiday triumphed in 1948, shortly after her release from prison, before an enormous crowd. This concert proved that her talent transcended legal and social obstacles.

Billie Holiday's hometown, where she grew up in poverty. She spent a difficult childhood there, marked by her father's absence and the economic hardships of the African American community.

During her 1954 European tour, Billie Holiday was welcomed in Paris as a true star, adored by French intellectuals and jazz enthusiasts, far from American segregation.

This iconic microphone from the studio era of the 1930s–1950s captured the nuances of Billie Holiday's voice with unmatched warmth. It was with this type of equipment that she recorded her albums at Columbia and Verve Records.

A flower worn in her hair on stage, it became Billie Holiday's visual emblem. This styling detail turned every appearance into an instantly recognizable iconic image.

The recording medium of the era — fragile and heavy — on which jazz tracks were pressed. Billie Holiday recorded hundreds of them between 1933 and the 1950s.

Billie Holiday performed in long, elegant gowns, often in white or black satin, which heightened her stage presence in the smoky clubs of Harlem and the grand concert halls.

The song, written by Abel Meeropol under the pseudonym Lewis Allan, was originally a protest poem against lynchings. The score became a historic document of African-American resistance.

Billie Holiday wore a gardenia-scented perfume that completed her olfactory signature on stage. Her musicians and those close to her would often recognize her by this fragrance before even seeing her.