Big Freedia

About

Also known as: Big Freedia and the Divas, Freddie Ross Jr., Freddie Ross, Jr, Queen Diva, ビッグ・フリーディア

Big Freedia is the person most often credited with dragging New Orleans bounce out of the underground and into the wider world. The genre had been bubbling locally since the early 1990s, and she turned it into something people far beyond Louisiana could dance to. She started recording in 1999 with the single "An Ha, Oh Yeah", put out her first album Queen Diva in 2003, and became a fixture in the city's clubs. After Hurricane Katrina she was one of the first artists back at work, playing six to ten shows a week. The national spotlight followed. She got her own reality show on Fuse in 2013, released her major label debut Just Be Free in 2014, and wrote an autobiography, God Save the Queen Diva!. Her voice ended up on Beyoncé's "Formation" and "Break My Soul", and she has worked with Drake, Kesha, Lizzo, RuPaul and Charli XCX. Her second album, Central City, arrived in 2023.