She wasn't nominated for any Grammy Awards during her lifetime (the first Grammy Awards were held on May 4, 1959, the same year that she died) but she was posthumously nominated for 23 Grammy awards and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1973.

Billie was alive in all senses of the word, and she was no stranger to scandal. Those close to her said she relished the drama. Her list of lovers was long and notorious, from the actor Charles Laughton to the actor/director Orson Welles to the actress Tallulah Bankhead, and their public fallings out became the stuff of legend.

On March 28, 1957, Holiday married Louis McKay, a mob enforcer. McKay, like most of the men in her life, was abusive. They were separated at the time of her death, but McKay still had plans to start a chain of Billie Holiday vocal studios, on the model of the Arthur Murray dance schools.

On July 17, 1959, after years of alcohol and heroin abuse, Billie Holiday died from complications caused by cirrhosis of the liver. As she lay dying, her hospital room was raided by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and she was placed under police guard. She was just 44 years old.

Lady Sings the Blues takes the reader on a fast-paced journey from Billie's rough-and-tumble Baltimore childhood, to her emergence on Harlem's club scene, to sold-out performances with the Artie Shaw Orchestra, to the racism that darkened Billie's life and the heroin addiction that ended it too soon.

In her final years, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings, and she died with just $0.70 in the bank.

Diana Ross portrays Holiday, alongside a cast that includes Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan, and Scatman Crothers. Lady Sings the Blues was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Diana Ross for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Blue light on the avenue
God knows they got to you
An empty glass, the lady sings
Eyes swollen like a bee sting
Blinded you lost your way
Through the side streets and the alleyway
Like a star exploding in the night
Falling to the city in broad daylight
An angel in Devil's shoes
Salvation in the blues
You never looked like an angel
Yeah, yeah, angel of Harlem