Strange Fruit

Artist: Billie Holiday

Released: 1939

GENRES:

Jazz • Blues

LISTENING LINKS

Spotify | Apple Music | Deezer | YouTube

ISSUES HIGHLIGHTED IN THIS SONG ARE...

Racism

KEY LYRICS

"Southern trees bear a strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the root, black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit, hanging from the poplar trees"

Genius lyric analysis

FURTHER INFORMATION

• The Tragic Story Behind Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit"

• Strange Fruit: the first great protest song

• NAACP: History of lynchings

• America's legacy of lynching isn't all history. Many say it's still happening today

• Lynching in the US (Wikipedia)

THE RR COMMUNITY

Here's what users who submitted 'Strange Fruit' had to say about it!

"It's impossible to listen to the song and not be completely floored by the description of 'Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze' being like some kind of 'strange fruit, hanging from the poplar trees'. Devastating and incredibly striking songwriting. The kind that shocks people into having important and necessary conversations."

George, 23, London