Big Freedia

Having long been active in the New Orleans music community, the colorful entertainer and personality Big Freedia, Queen Diva, carried the city's bounce genre to audiences nationwide and came to embody its public image across America. Through high-energy, body-positive anthems that championed LGBTQ perspectives, she achieved her breakthrough with the 2014 debut Just Be Free, which included the tracks "Booty-Whop" and "Explode," then issued 2018's 3rd Ward Bounce. Her official second full-length album, the more pop-oriented Central City, arrived in 2023. Beyond recording, the bounce ambassador appeared in the reality series Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce and Big Freedia Bounces Back, as well as the 2020 documentary Freedia Got a Gun that examined gun violence.

Born Freddie Ross in 1978, Freedia developed an early admiration for Sylvester, Michael Jackson, and Patti LaBelle before entering the bounce scene in 1998 as part of drag queen and bounce artist Katey Red's circle. Drawn to the music's rapid hip-hop rhythms and house-inflected vocals, she issued her first bounce single, "An Ha, Oh Yeah," in 1999 and the Queen Diva album in 2003. Following Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans in 2005, Freedia moved to Texas and helped introduce the bounce style throughout the Lone Star State. A featured spot on Galactic's 2010 release Ya-Ka-May arrived alongside the singles compilation Big Freedia Hitz, Vol. 1, which the Scion A/V label placed into wider national release in 2011. That same year she joined Spank Rock for the track "Nasty," while 2012 brought guest roles on the HBO drama Treme and the late-night program Jimmy Kimmel Live. In 2013 she supported the Postal Service on a U.S. tour, and 2014 marked the arrival of her official debut album, Just Be Free.

Freedia contributed her distinctive voice to Beyoncé's "Formation" video and ensuing world tour in 2016. She also dropped the fittingly named single and video "Drop"; the Diplo and DJ Snake collaboration, featured on the Entourage soundtrack, surfaced that summer. Before year's end she issued the holiday collection A Very Big Freedia Christmazz, highlighted by cuts such as "Rudy, the Big Booty Reindeer" and "Santa Is a Gay Man."

In 2017 Freedia teamed with rapper Mannie Fresh, who had appeared on the Queen of Bounce series, for "Dive." "Make It Jingle" and "Best Beeleevah" followed in 2018. That April a prominent endorsement from rapper Drake positioned Freedia at the opening of his chart-topping, bounce-influenced single "Nice for What." She soon released her major-label debut for Asylum Records, 3rd Ward Bounce, which contained the single "Rent" and guest spots from Lizzo, Erica Falls, and Goldie. The next year she appeared on U.K. electronic producer GotSome's "Poppin'" and on Dillon Francis' electro-bounce track "Bawdy" alongside TV Noise. The lead single from the follow-up to 3rd Ward Bounce surfaced later that year. "Louder," featuring Swedish electro-pop duo Icona Pop, also added the track "Pipe That" to 2020's Louder EP. That brief collection further included Kesha, who reciprocated with the uplifting "Chasing Rainbows" on the pair's hit single "Raising Hell." A holiday EP, Big Freedia's Smokin Santa Christmas, appeared in December 2020. That year, alongside the new material, Freedia issued the documentary Freedia Got a Gun, which explored life in New Orleans and the impact of gun violence connected to her brother's 2018 murder.

While preparing her next full-length project, she joined Dorian Electra and 3OH!3 for a 2021 remix of Rebecca Black's viral single "Friday" and guested on another Beyoncé track, "Break My Soul." Freedia additionally served as a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race and Nailed It!. By 2023 the long-anticipated sophomore album Central City was ready. Released that June, the set advanced Freedia further into the mainstream with bounce-infused, pop-leaning anthems including "$100 Bill" featuring Ciara and the driving "El Niño" alongside boundary-pushing feminist rapper Boyfriend and fellow New Orleans icon Lil Wayne.