Billie Holiday | Photo via Philadelphia Music Alliance
The first 2015 inductee to the Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame is…
100 years ago today, the one and only Billie Holiday (then, Eleanora Fagan) was born in Philadelphia General Hospital on Curie Boulevard in West Philadelphia.
To honor the centennial of the late “Lady Day,” the Philadelphia Music Alliance has named her the first 2015 inductee on their Walk of Fame.
“The Philadelphia Music Alliance wanted to present what we think is a ‘perfect’ birthday gift to an extraordinary vocalist, Billie Holiday, and announce her induction on her 100th birthday,” said Alan Rubens, Chairman of the Philadelphia Music Alliance, in an announcement. “It will be an absolute pleasure to be able to walk down Broad Street and see her name where it rightfully belongs, on the Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame, with other homegrown jazz giants like John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, and Grover Washington Jr.”
The rest of this year’s inductees to the Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame will be announced at a ceremony next month.