Billie Holiday

Après une enfance difficile et marquée par la pauvreté, rien ne prédestinait Billie Holiday à devenir l'étoile du jazz américain. Et pourtant, grâce à sa voix exceptionnelle et son tempérament de battante la chanteuse s'est frayé un chemin jusqu'à la gloire. Mais, femme dans un monde d'hommes, noire dans une Amérique en pleine ségrégation, cette icône a malheureusement connu bon nombre de déboires... Retour sur son parcours à l'occasion de la sortie en DVD et Blu-Ray de Billie, un documentaire de James Erskine.

Early life

Eleonora Fagan, also known as “Lady Day” and finally, as her stage name, Billie Holiday, was born in 1915. She had a troubled childhood, living in poverty with no father and a distant mother. She dropped out of school at age 11, and engaged in prostitution in her teens. She started performing in the jazz clubs of Harlem in New York when she was very young and quickly became popular.

early life enfance, jeunesse / stage name nom de scène / troubled chaotique, compliqué / childhood enfance / to drop out of quitter, abandonner / to engage in se livrer à / teens (années d’)adolescence / to perform ici, chanter.

Touring during segregationIn

the late 1930’s, she toured with the famous jazz pianist and bandleader, Count Basie, and also with Artie Shaw’s band (and in this case, was the first black performer to join the band). On tour, she experienced firsthand the racism and discrimination of the segregation era. As an example, when touring with Artie Shaw, she had to sleep inside the tour bus, as some hotels were prohibited to black people.

to tour partir en tournée / in the late... à la fin de... / bandleader leader d’un groupe / band groupe (musiciens) / performer artiste / firsthand directement, personnellement.

Back to New York

Fed up with the discrimination she constantly faced, Holiday came back to New York and embraced a solo career. Though she gained commercial and critical acclaim, her personal life was stormier: she was addicted to alcohol and drugs and was frequently physically and psychologically abused by her lovers and work partners. However, she was also known for her grand and sometimes scandalous lifestyle: she loved partying, spending lots of money and having love affairs with women – which was prohibited at the time. In 1947, she even spent a year in jail for drug possession.

to be fed up with en avoir assez de / to face ici, subir / to embrace ici, se consacrer à, se lancer dans / critical acclaim éloges de la critique / stormy orageux, agité / addicted accro / to abuse maltraiter / grand grandiose; ici, luxueux, extravagant / lifestyle mode de vie / to party faire la fête / love affair liaison, histoire d’amour / jail prison.

Strange Fruit

Holiday had no formal training, but her voice was memorable for its unique phrasing, raw tone and expression of emotion. Her most famous song is Strange Fruit. Written in the midst of the segregation era, it tells the story of “strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees”, a metaphor for the black men, women and children who were lynched and hung on trees in the American South.

formal officiel / training formation, cours / phrasing phrasé / raw (à l’état) brut / in the midst of au beau milieu de, en plein(e) / to hang, hanged or hung, hanged or hung from ici, être suspendu à / poplar peuplier / to hang, hanged or hung, hanged or hung pendre.

Death

Holiday died prematurely in 1959 of cirrhosis when she was just 44. At this point, her lifestyle and excesses had, according to a New York Times journalist, “eaten her”. Most of her earnings had been stolen from her – she died with just 0.70$ in the bank. She won 4 Grammy Awards (all posthumous) and had a tremendous influence on jazz – and later on – pop music.

at this point à ce stade / according to d’après, selon / to eat, ate, eaten ici, ronger / earnings revenus / to steal, stole, stolen voler / Grammy Award (É.-U.) prix décerné chaque année aux meilleurs musiciens / tremendous considérable, énorme.