How Billie Holiday Revolutionized Jazz Forever Billie Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, didn't just sing—she revolutionized the entire concept of vocal performance. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her musical partner Lester Young, Holiday pioneered a vocal style influenced by jazz instrumentalists, manipulating phrasing and tempo in ways no singer had done before. Discovered by producer John Hammond in a Harlem club in 1933 at just 17 years old, she recorded the jazz standard "What a Little Moonligh