Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' lyrics were controversial to some and powerful to others. The song was Holiday's way of protesting the lynching of Black people during the Jim Crow era, and it angered ...

Billie Holiday's recording of the anti-lynching song "Strange Fruit" has stirred and haunted generations of listeners. A new article in the Journal of African American History, titled "Professional ...

In March 1939, a then-23-year-old Billie Holiday closed out her set at New York's Cafe Society with a song she hadn't performed before: "Strange Fruit." Written by Jewish schoolteacher Abel Meeropol, ...

With President-Elect Donald Trump's inauguration only weeks away, several artists have been asked to perform at his inauguration, and almost every one has denied the request. Well, that stops now. One ...

Black America has a long and winding history of using songs for defiance and consolation. Testimonies from slave ship sailors recall how kidnapped Africans during the Atlantic slave trade sang to send ...

Fishbone — who are back with almost their entire original lineup for the first time since 1993 (everyone except guitarist Kendall Jones) — revealed earlier this year that they’re working on a new ...

Harry Styles is no stranger to good lyrics. Not just catchy — although he can deliver on that too — but he comes up with meaningful and wonderfully fun songwriting. And it doesn’t always have to equal ...

From tear-jerkers to mic-drops, NPR's music critics share the 2025 lyrics that made them laugh, cry and hit replay.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina sent poet Andrei Codrescu into a creative fury. He dashed off a slew of disaster-inspired lyrics. He shares with us "The Mold Song." Jonathan Flalich of the New ...