Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith, known as «The Empress of the Blues», was one of the most influential and highest-earning Black recording artists of the 1920s. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1894, she rose from poverty and early performances in traveling minstrel and vaudeville shows to become the defining vocal presence of classic blues, a genre that blended folk blues roots with the theatrical polish of vaudeville stagecraft. Her 1923 recording contract with Columbia Records marked a landmark moment for Black musicians in the American recording industry and helped establish her as a commercial and artistic force.

Smith's voice, powerful, richly textured, and capable of an expressive growl, became the template against which generations of blues and jazz singers measured themselves. Songs like «St. Louis Blues», «Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out», «Back-Water Blues», and «’Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do» showcased her ability to convey both raw suffering and defiant resilience, often addressing poverty, heartbreak, and survival with unflinching directness. Her partnership with Columbia produced some of the best-selling blues records of the era, cementing her commercial dominance during the classic blues boom of the 1920s.

Smith's influence extended far beyond her own recordings; singers from Billie Holiday to Janis Joplin cited her as a foundational influence on their phrasing and emotional delivery. She died in 1937 following a car accident, but her legacy as a pioneering Black woman who shaped the sound and commercial viability of American blues has only grown, with her life and music revisited repeatedly in books, film, and television.