Eleanora Fagan, who later nicknamed herself Billie Holiday, was born on April 7th, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though she had a very rough childhood, she persevered and became a very famous jazz singer and an influential woman. She was influential because her music brought to light very important issues and because she was one of the first female African-American jazz singers. Billie Holiday made the world a better place by recording the song “Strange Fruit”. Holiday was a popular jazz singer and one of her most popular and memorable songs was “Strange Fruit”. It discussed the very horrific issue of black lynchings, which were not uncommon at the time. She uses the lyrics, “Southern trees bear strange fruit/blood