Billie Holiday on Vocal Technique

Honest to God, I think this is the best advice for singers that I've ever read. I'm classically-trained, I've sung on stage and in the studio, but never have I heard anything that gets so urgently to the heart of a singer's mandate.

Technique? Whatever. Acrobatics? Whatever. Repertoire? Whatever.

Whatever you're doing, if it gets in the way of your telling the truth to your audience, throw it out. It's not easy, but it is simple.

What Billie Holiday Understood

Most other versions from this period are overwrought, as though the singers don’t understand that there’s enough emotion in both the music and lyrics that any singer worth the name shouldn’t have to work at it.

Billie Holiday understood.

Here she is with “I’ll Be Seeing You”.