I Wished On The Moon

The song I Wished on the Moon, in its 1955 version titled Stay With Me, has a considerable duration of 6 minutes and 49 seconds. The story behind Billie Holiday, also known as Lady Day, is that of an artist who became a central figure in jazz, despite a life marked by adversity from a very young age. Born Eleanora Fagan Gough in 1915 in Philadelphia, her childhood and adolescence were marked by the absence of her parents, who were very young when they had her, and by difficult experiences that led her to make a living on the streets of Baltimore and then in New York. Her foray into music, around 1930, was almost out of necessity, when she entered a bar in Harlem looking for work and ended up singing after a failed attempt as a dancer. Her musical training was not academic; she learned by listening to greats like Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong.

The life of Billie Holiday inspired the biographical film Lady Sings the Blues, released in 1972. This Motown production for Paramount Pictures, directed by Sidney J. Furie, narrates her journey from cleaning a brothel in Harlem to becoming a jazz star, also addressing her personal struggles with heroin addiction and the loss of loved ones. Diana Ross portrayed Holiday in the film, receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in 1973. The film was also presented at the Cannes Film Festival that same year. Holiday's story, published in 1956, is a testament to resilience and talent in the world of jazz.