Bessie Smith was born into a poor family and by the age of eight she was parentless.
At the age of nine, with the guitar accompaniment of her brother, Bessie began dancing and singing
on the streets for spare change. Her effects on a crowd were described as "mass hypnotism."

By 1912, Bessie Smith began performing in places other than the streets for spare change.
Her career was about to take off but not without some problems. On several occasions she was told
that her skin was too black. These comments only pushed her further. She was proud to be a black woman
and hated the idea of trying to be like the whites.

Other than her music, Bessie Smith was best known for her rough and violent personality.
She stood at six feet tall and weighed about 200 pounds. Her temper was backed up by her size,
and her rage was completely uninhibited. Her crude and intense emotions were easily conveyed in
the lyrics and the way she sang her songs. It was this raw emotion that made Smith famous.

Smith finally reached the recording breakthrough that she was long looking for. A subdivision
at Columbia Records was created for race records. This allowed Smith an opportunity to record that
would not have come to her because of the prejudice during that time. Smith's debut records, Downhearted Blues
and Gulf Coast Blues were a huge success that introduced her to the world. In the following decade
Smith recorded 160 songs, and at one point was recording and selling the most records of any artist in the the world.
Her great success and amazing talent got her the nickname "Empress of the Blues."

The amazing life of Bessie Smith ended tragically on September 26, 1937. The exact details of her death are unknown,
but all that is known is that she died because of a car accident. She transformed blues music and the world by her
talent and unrelenting fire.