<div><p>Not only did Billie Holiday have a voice that could transform the atmosphere of an entire room with a with a single note, but she had the style to prove it. </p><p>No stranger to hardship and suffering, Holiday poured her soul into every song with a voice that left audiences riddled with goosebumps and stunned into silence. </p><p>By the end of her career, she had amassed four Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and influenced generations of musicians that followed. </p><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0.jpg" srcset="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0_GH_content_550px.jpg 550w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0_GH_content_650px.jpg 650w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0_GH_content_750px.jpg 750w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0_GH_content_850px.jpg 850w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0_GH_content_950px.jpg 950w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0_GH_content_1050px.jpg 1050w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0_GH_content_1150px.jpg 1150w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0_GH_content_1250px.jpg 1250w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0_GH_content_1350px.jpg 1350w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0_GH_content_1450px.jpg 1450w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-getty-hero_0_GH_content_1550px.jpg 1550w" sizes="89vw" title="" alt="" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img></figure></div><p>But what many people don't know is that her real name isn't Billy Holiday...</p><p>Here are 5 more facts about 'Lady Day' that you likely didn't know:</p><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff.jpg" srcset="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_550px.jpg 550w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_650px.jpg 650w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_750px.jpg 750w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_850px.jpg 850w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_950px.jpg 950w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_1050px.jpg 1050w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_1150px.jpg 1150w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_1250px.jpg 1250w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_1350px.jpg 1350w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_1450px.jpg 1450w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_1550px.jpg 1550w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/holiday-billie-5377d1e3426ff_GH_content_1630px.jpg 1630w" sizes="89vw" title="" alt="" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img></figure></div><p><!-- [invalid-shortcode] --></p><h3>1. Her real name isn't Billie Holiday</h3><p>Although professionally, she is known to all as Billie Holiday, our 'Lady Day' was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915. </p><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/0b8c2dea6a30a7912e0a22d02e45067c.jpg" title="" alt="" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img></figure></div><h3>2. She worked in a brothel</h3><p>She was born to a very young mother with whom she lived in poverty in Baltimore. She dropped out of school in the fifth grade to work as an errand girl at a brothel. She and her mother moved to Harlem when she was 12 and by the time she turned 15, she was arrested for prostitution.</p><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/f0c7fe2281f700cf9c16bb39dd7cff17.jpg" title="" alt="" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img></figure></div><p><!-- [invalid-shortcode] --></p><p></p><h3>3. She auditioned to be a dancer, but it was her voice that won her the role</h3><p>In 1932, when Holiday was 16 years old, she was literally starving for food and work. She walked into the Log Cabin Club and auditioned to be a dancer. Unimpressed, owner Jerry Preston was about to turn her away, when she told him she could sing. </p><p>"He struck "˜Trav'lin' and I sang." Holiday once <a href="http://www.ladyday.net/life/jones.html">recalled</a>, "The customers stopped drinking. They turned around and watched. The pianist swung into "˜Body andSoul.' Jeez, you should have seen those people"”all of them started crying. Preston came over, shook his head and said, "˜Kid, you win.'"</p><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/90b2d214297419d1aad41e5587bb8960.jpg" srcset="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/90b2d214297419d1aad41e5587bb8960_GH_content_550px.jpg 550w" sizes="89vw" title="" alt="" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img></figure></div><h3>4. She was one of the first 'reality' stars</h3><p>In 1953 and '54, Holiday appeared in a black-and-white reality television series called <em>The Comeback Story.</em> She was among the many celebrities who shared true stories of how they found success after overwhelming adversity.</p><p></p><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/266e9d0da1a22d3cb8aa3246257fa.jpg" title="" alt="" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img></figure></div><p><!-- [invalid-shortcode] --></p><p></p><h3>5. She is responsible for 'the song of the century'</h3><p>Holiday's original recording of <em>Strange Fruit</em> was deemed "song of the century" by <em>Time Magazine </em>in 1999. The 1939 protest song described and objected to the horrors of lynching. It was originally written as a poem by Abel Meeropol. </p><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-1955-billboard-650.jpg" srcset="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/04/billie-holiday-1955-billboard-650_GH_content_550px.jpg 550w" sizes="89vw" title="" alt="" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img></figure></div><p>Were you surprised by some of these? Have a listen to the song of the century below, pay close attention to Holiday's face it's obvious she deeply felt every word of that powerful anthem:</p><div><div><div><amp-youtube height="9" width="16" layout="responsive" data-videoid="h4ZyuULy9zs"></amp-youtube></div></div></div><p>[h/t: <a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/62880/5-things-you-might-not-know-about-billie-holiday" target="_blank">Mentalfloss</a>]</p><p><!-- [invalid-shortcode] --></p></div>