Quotes About Billie Holiday

My vocal influences are a lot of jazz singers: Billie Holiday, Julie London, they had this tenderness to their voice.

I love oldies just kind of sweet, slinky, Fifties music. The slow stuff. And Billie Holiday.

When we were at the Apollo, Holiday was a block away. I asked her for her autograph.

One day, I'd like to tackle a biopic. I grew up very influenced by Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone.

When Billie Holiday came15 to London in the 1950s, she was amazed. They "are civilized about it and they have no narcotics problem at all," she explained. "One day America is going to smarten up and do the

He knew that to secure his bureau's future, he needed a high-profile victory, over intoxication and over the blacks, and so he turned back to Billie Holiday.

I recognize that my voice is kind of quirky, and I don't have a lot of range. But I use it kind of in a conversational way, like Billie Holiday, I guess.

I know the history of the record business so well because I followed Billie Holiday into the record studios. It was so primitive compared to the sophisticated business today.

I really like Billie Holiday's husky voice, and I'd definitely like to find out more about her.

The kid at 9 or 10 who knows who Billie Holiday is... that's the coolest thing ever.

I think my first musical memory is actually listening to Billie Holiday. I think I must have been, like, 3 or 4 years old.

If you look at the other singers of Billie Holiday's time, they were really trying to entertain. They were trying to make people feel good. They were singing fast - and she was singing the blues.

I have the ability to sing with emotion and feeling, but if you say I sound like Billie Holiday, that's cool. Let's look at who Billie was: she was this person, this singer, this beautiful diva who could move the audience with the slightest gesture of her hand.

I loved Billie Holiday more than any other person other than myself on the stage. Yeah, I do.

My father was a part of that generation, and my mother, too - the late-'30s, early-'40s big-band generation. Frank Sinatra, Art Blakey, Gene Krupa, Billie Holiday - all that stuff was in my background.

Probably to me the greatest singer, female voice, is Billie Holiday. And one of the most moving for me, I don't know why - maybe it's nostalgia, maybe because my life is one of constant partying, whatever.

I listened to Billie Holiday a lot in order to learn to sing. She remains one of the extraordinary jazz singers. But my intent is to become my own voice, to be able to interpret these songs in my own way.

The best vocalists I can think of are female. There is no singer I can think of who can touch Ella Fitzgerald. And when Billie Holiday sings, she's merciless about it. Her voice has just this immaculate sadness - even in happy songs, there was something that was so broken about it.

I have the ability to sing with emotion and feeling, but if you say I sound like Billie Holiday, that's cool. Let's look at who Billie was: she was this person, this singer, this beautiful diva who could move the audience with the slightest gesture of her hand.

I really do love bluesy-jazzy music, so I love Etta James, B.B. King and Billie Holiday. I love that they have soul in their voices - I think that's something important is having.

I say that I do soul, R&B music. I have so many influences, from Billie Holiday, Nina Simone to Stevie Wonder and Prince and even Al Green and Bjork. And a lot of hip hop music has influenced me a lot - you know - De La Soul and Digital Underground and A Tribe Called Quest.

My great hero is Billie Holiday, and I've always wanted to do an album of standards with a piano-led quartet.

I'd love to see a Nirvana biopic. I loved them when I was younger. I really like jazz music, so I'd like to see a Billie Holiday biopic - she was a fascinating woman.