Career

   Smith started her own act around 1913 at Atlanta's ''81" theater. By 1920 she got a good reputation in the south and along the Eastern Seaboard. Also in 1920, a singer called Mamie Smith recorded a song called  " Crazy Blue". This song was one of the first blues songs recorded by African American singer, which quickly became very popular. The recording industry soon realized that there were lots of black people who would buy blues records. Smith was signed by Columbia records in 1923 when the label decided to make a "race records" series. Her first recording, a coupling of "Gulf coast blues" and "Down heated",  was very popular.

Smith became a headliner to the black T.O.B.A circuit and was its top attraction in the 1920s. She  worked very hard in theaters during the winter and began touring for the rest of the year. She became the highest paid black entertainer of her day. Someone from Columbia records gave her the nickname "Queen Of Blues" but soon the press were calling her the "Empress Of Blues".  She made about 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by other popular musicians like Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, Charlie Green, and Fletcher Henderson.
She won the Grammy lifetime achievement award in 1989. Bessie Smith also was awarded Grammy Hall of Fame award in 1983, 1993, & 2006.