Strength In Vulnerability

Billie Holiday is probably my favourite singer of all time. She was never considered as technically proficient as other singers of the era such as Sarah Vaughan, but Billie made up for everything she may have lacked in range in pure emotive expression.

I remember first hearing her as a teenager. Her voice contained the beautiful vulnerability that only comes through experiencing heartbreak and hardship, both of which I would later learn had shaped her life from early childhood. Her voice would break and rasp at points, characteristics that in others may be described as flaws but nobody could describe Billie’s voice that way, it was perfect for the raw humanity that it communicated.

Having lived through a childhood of sexual abuse, forced prostitution and time in a workhouse, Billie managed to overcome her exceptionally traumatic early life and build a successful music career. However, living in a time of segregation, even becoming a global sensation didn’t shield her from discrimination. In her book ‘Lady Sings The Blues’ Billie describes the heartbreak of reaching the height of success only to be asked to use the service entrance to some of America’s most prestigious venues because she wasn’t allowed to pass through the same corridors as her white audiences.

However, rather than passively accepting her fate, Billie was vocal about the injustice faced by black people in America and chose in 1939 to record Abel Meeropol’s song ‘Strange Fruit’, a recording that is still considered to this day to be one of the most moving and powerful pieces of art ever created and is often cited as one of the earliest cries in popular music for the civil rights movement that would come after.

Billie paved the way for female black artists to be strong, outspoken and successful even in the face of discrimination and threats of violence.

Another artist that I believe carried the torch ignited by Billie was Lauryn Hill. Lauryn not only provided the soulful female vocals for The Fugees but she amazed audiences by being able, within one bar, to switch to fast flowing, lyrical rap. Her poetic abilities were examples of the very best of the genre and when in 1998 she released her first solo album ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ she created a work of artistic genius that I’m not sure has been bettered in the hip-hop or soul genre since. In fact this week it was confirmed that the album has gone ‘diamond’ meaning it has sold 10 million copies.

Lauryn perfected the lyrical intertwining of personal, political and spiritual masterfully. She also allowed her music to be deeply vulnerable, sharing her innermost struggles and heartbreaks. This combination of strong and powerful femininity mixed with a raw vulnerability can clearly be seen to influence many of the most successful artists of the current era: Beyonce, Rihanna and Alicia Keys just to name a few. She made it clear also in the song ‘To Zion’ that a woman can be independent, talented and strong and also choose the path of motherhood. She discusses the pressure from those within the industry to ‘use her head’, implying that the choice to have a child would be one to sacrifice her musical career, but she responds in a line of poetic strength ‘instead I chose to use my heart’.

‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ was the last studio album that she would release, leaving a flawless back catalogue of quality rather than quantity. Her influence can be heard over twenty years on, still influencing the best of todays musical protégés SZA, H.E.R. and Noname to list but a few.

Although I’ve focused on Billie Holiday and Lauryn Hill there are countless examples of black women who have changed the course of the music industry throughout the 20th and 21st century. Thanks to the examples of the likes of Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Erykah Badu, Mavis Staples, Whitney Houston, Tracy Chapman and so many others who created beautiful music whilst facing immense resistance, there are now a whole generation of female black artists standing on their shoulders and embodying pure musical talent combined with the virtues of strength, independence and vulnerability.

There are so many modern artists that I could rave about: Beyonce, Jorja Smith, SZA, Ari Lennox, Syd, the list goes on and on, but personally one UK artist that has excited me has been Little Simz. My favourite album of hers ‘Stillness In Wonderland’ takes the listener on a journey through the vulnerable and the bold and ties it together with profound and intelligent rhyme. I believe Little Simz shows an originality that gives us a glimpse of where the next chapter of conscious hip-hop could be taking us.

If anything has proven to be a recurring duality in this exploration of inspiring black women in music, it’s the merging of both the fiercely strong and the heart-wrenchingly vulnerable. Aside from the undeniable musical talent, this combination, I believe, is what makes so much of this music so profoundly moving and I think that ability to see strength in vulnerability should serve as a lesson for us all.