A Tribute to Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was one of the greatest 20th century jazz singers, if not one of the greatest of all time. To this day, the timbre and emotionality of her voice remain unique. She knew the taste of despair only too well: poverty, violence and racism permeated the very short life, shrouded in myths, of this Afro-American singer. With songs like »Strange Fruit« of 1939, which dealt with lynching in the southern states, Holiday wrote jazz history. Sixty years later, Time magazine voted it the »Song of the Century«. Holiday herself said, »I’ve been told that no-one sings the word hunger like I do. And the word love likewise. Maybe that’s because I know what these words mean. These two words say everything about what I am and what I want from life.« In this concert, the two young singers Lucia Cadotsch and Vesna Pisarović devote an evening in the Elbphilharmonie Recital Hall to the music of Billie Holiday.