Reputations - Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was a jazz diva who became the stereotypical victim - unlucky in life, unlucky in love and dead from drink and drugs at the age of only 44. Reputations re-examines Billie Holiday's life and career. Was life hard on Billie, or was she always a tragedy waiting to happen? Holiday was born in Baltimore in 1915, the illegitimate daughter of a 16-year-old jazz musician and an 18-year-old cleaner. She was raped by a neighbour at the age of 11, and began work as a prostitute in Harlem at the age of 1<br/><br/>