Authentic Billie Holiday
In class, we covered the topic of “authenticity”. Authenticity, in this context, refers to what makes an artist genuine, or true in a way. The best way for artists to display authenticity is through their performance and the impression they leave on the audience. One of the examples we cover is Ashlee Simpson and her notably disastrous performance for Saturday Night Live. During her performance, it became evident that she was using a vocal track throughout the song, aka lip-syncing. This is a prime example of “inauthenticity”. She gave a performance that lacked true effort, emotion, energy, the performance did not have anything that made her “true” as a performer. After this analysis, we looked at a performance done by Adele. Adele’s performance was genuine and authentic: she used real vocals, real emotion, she didn’t worry too much about the flashy accessories, just her and her music. This is a good example of authenticity because she expressed her deeper feelings and emotions through raw performance, vocals, and simple performance.
When it comes to Billie Holiday, the idea of authenticity heavily applies to her. Her performances, including those at the infamous Café Society, were intimate and personal. They all consisted of the spotlight being on her with her band performing behind her on a relatively small stage, which was consistent for mot of her performing locations except Carnegie Hall. An article by openculture.com gave me the opportunity to witness 4 of her performances and see what they were truly like and can say her performances were more than authentic. Her performances of songs such as God Bless the Child or Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone included Billie and her band, live jazz instrumentals and a quiet environment where the attention was on her alone. In her performance of Strange Fruit, however, she cut the instrumentals for dramatic effect. Singing an emotionally-rich song like Strange Fruit, Holiday needed to put the focus on the song itself to make it an authentic performance.
As mentioned before, what makes an artist authentic is what makes them true as a performer. Holiday’s tone, lyricism, intimate performance settings, and dramatic performance choices allow for a genuine and authentic performance for the audience.