Bessie Smith: An Influential Blues Singer

In the blossoming era of the blues only three short years after it went mainstream the “Empress of the Blues” began her career. She was a strong black woman with a rags-to riches story who was able to rise from performing on the streets to be the most successful blues singer in her era. Her music and life is filled with sex and violence and while many blues singers have come and gone, very few ever made such an impact with such a short career as she did.
In 1923 her first recordings, “Down Hearted Blues” and “Gulf Coast Blues” became a huge success, selling more than 10 million copies turning Bessie Smith into the most successful blues singer of the era. She performed and sang her way out of poverty at a young age. In today’s world her career may seem short at just a decade, but the influence she had on music and the blues will last forever. Her music was about mistreatment from lovers, straight talk about drinking, mischief, sex and dealt with the black experience in America.
Bessie Smith was an exceptional unforgettable blues singer of the 1920’s.
I will end with the influence she made on other blues singers to this day.

Bessie Smith was born April 15, 1894 to Laura (born Owens) and William Smith, a laborer and part -time Baptist preacher, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her father died when she was
In 1924 she was the highest paid female blues singer in the country. No other blues singer could challenge her. In 1926 Van Vechten wrote an article in vanity affair about Bessie. When Bessie was told about the article she was not impressed. Her one and only comment on the art of blues was that they had put her “in de money”. Queen Latifah stares as Bessie in the HBO original. She is quoted saying “If there was a Bessie Smith alive today, she’d blow everyone out of the water”. Bessie’s songs worked like a charm. They are filled with raw passion and raunchy comedy that could be suitable or appropriate in the current