The Empress of the Blues was a woman confident in her talent, her bisexuality, and herself. She was a success despite the many obstacles in her path. In her prime, she was an actress, a dancer, a natural talent, a poet, and a figurehead that created a lasting legacy.

But before she was an Empress, Bessie Smith was an orphan living in Tennessee with her siblings. In order to scrape by, Smith and her brother sang on the street and in churches. At 16, she joined Ma Rainey, the classic blues icon, and began traveling the tent performance circuit. Ma Rainey was a mentor to Smith, but as Leigh Whipper said in a 1971 interview of the first time he saw her perform, “Bessie was born with that voice, and she had a style of her own when I first heard her in Atlanta [in 1913].”

In 1923, Smith released “Gulf Coast Blues” and “Down Hearted Blues,” the latter of which was written by two women and sold over 750,000 copies in its first year. Smith became the first African American superstar, and her career propelled race records—records recorded by Black entertainers specifically for Black audiences—into the market.

Smith’s success came from her ability to weave power and agency into her lyrics. She crafted stories around women who were unafraid of being judged for their actions and being true to themselves, and many Black women resonated with her music because they saw themselves in her protagonists. She was openly bisexual and encouraged women to be confident in their bodies, having women on stage at performances shaking their bodies long before performances by Lizzo. Smith sang with honesty and vulnerability about issues that affected her and her community. Her authenticity about the hardships of poverty, racism, sexism, and love made her songs emotional and created a connection with the audience. In 1927, she wrote and released “Back-Water Blues” for flood victims in Cincinnati who had asked her to immortalize their pain in song. She sang about Black lives with “care and conviction” and propelled forward the “revolutionary idea that Black lives mattered—and specifically, that Black women’s lives mattered,” Maureen Mahon said in NPR in 2019.

Smith’s song “Tain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do” emphasizes her self-identity and her defiant spirit: “If I should take a notion to jump into the ocean, taint nobody’s bizness if I do.” Her confidence reflects the values and ideals of the Harlem Renaissance and Black culture in the ‘20s and her ability to connect with the experiences and current feelings of her predominantly Black audience.

Bessie Smith dealt with abusive lovers, the challenges of being in the public eye, the Great Depression, alcoholism, and the challenges of the music industry, just to name a few. Her songs remind the listener that while “there’s always someone prettier out there, or sexier, or with better jewelry,” they are more than adequate, Gwen Thompkins wrote in NPR in 2018. She reminds us that human existence has meaning and power because of its temporary nature, and that we are stronger after enduring loss and grief in ways that we may not even understand.

Bessie Smith: Making An Empress