Black Women in Music

Black people in general have contributed so much to music. Black people have given their lives in the name of music. Black entertainment is a whole vibe, you hear me? If you go to other countries, you see our influence. People emulate our (I am a black person) style of dress, our hairstyles, our bodies. Where do you think full lips and big butts came from?? We inspired rap. We inspired the beats. All that bass you hear? That's drums honey! We move our hips and pout our lips to the rhythm. Y'all see us!

There are so many great women in music. Where do I even start? Let's talk about Billie Holiday. I'm a documentary lover and with it being Black History Month, there are even more floating around. Clips on social media or photos with long descriptive captions. That is why I am focusing on this talented woman. I was doing what I usually do...scrolling Facebook. Saw a post about Billie Holiday and decided to head to YouTube and find a documentary. She lived in my hometown of Baltimore! When they said that, I knew I was gonna watch the whole thing. She was born in 1915. Her birthday is April 7, mine is April the 2nd. I was due on her birthday. Crazy right? But enough about me. Billie isn't her real name. She was born Eleanora Fagan. She was a singer. She had a beautiful voice but an attitude from Baltimore. She cursed a lot. She drank. She fought people. But she was still a lady. She was known to have quite the sexual appetite. She was with men AND women. She wrote and sang from the heart. Unfortunately women in music had a hard time making it to the top. Men dominated the industry. They had the control and they had qualms about using (and abusing) it. She was "victim" to many men. I'll explain the quotes in a second...one story is that she was beaten so badly once that her male bandmates had to tape up her ribs so she could stand up on stage to sing. Are you serious? I'm not surprised though. Look at the media stories now. The #metoo movement is exposing these predators. There was no movement back then. Women suffered in silence. The men wouldn't hit her in the face so she still looked good on stage. *sigh* Back to the quotation marks. Victim is in quotes because she was only a victim sometimes. She beat up two white guys in a bar for being rude. She knew how to handle herself. She grew up in Baltimore. As a child, she would tell people "suck my a**!" She was more than capable of defending herself. When it came to her lovers, she chose not to fight back. Why though? Perhaps because these men all had a different purpose. Be he her manager, a musician or her drug dealer (I'll get to that). She muffled her fighting spirit, maybe out of a sense of necessity. She was introduced to heroin. She used drugs so much that she supposedly ran out of places to stick the needle. She died of cirrhosis in a hospital. My sweet black woman. She was strong. She was fierce. She was unapologetically herself as a Baltimore woman tends to be (no shade to other cities).

Throughout all those things I just described, she sang. This woman SANG. Her songs have lyrics that touched souls. People still listen to her music today. Her melodic sound. Her angelic voice. She had stage presence. She didn't need to jump around, she simply stood on stage and swayed a little with some smooth arm movements. She captivated her crowd. She has captivated me. She inadvertently taught me that I can make it. Life comes at you fast. I am a single mother of two who is currently unemployed. Life is hard. But thanks to Ms. Billie Holiday, I know that the black woman is adaptable. The black woman is resilient. The black woman is beautiful. The black woman is queen...