Billie Holiday's grandfather was one of 17 children of a black Virginia slave and a white Irish plantation owner. Her mother was only 13 when she was born.

The future "Lady Day" first heard the music of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith on a Victrola at Alice Dean's, the Baltimore "house of ill repute" where she  scrubbed floors as a young girl. She made her singing debut in obscure Harlem nightclubs then toured with Count Basie and Artie Shaw before singing alone and start making her own songs.

Billie Holiday needed a lot of training , but it was easy for her because she wanted to sing and had a drametic voice. Then she started to wright songs about love, these where 2 of those songs "the man i love" and "Porgy". And then she became famous.
Billie Holiday died when she was 44 years old (thats young).