What nickname is most associated with jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald?

Ella Fitzgerald’s best-known nickname is the First Lady of Song. The title reflects her extraordinary control, clear tone, rhythmic precision, and mastery of improvisational scat singing.

Fitzgerald won an amateur singing contest at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in 1934, helping launch her professional career. She joined Chick Webb’s orchestra in 1935 and achieved a major hit with “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” in 1938. After Webb’s death, she led the band briefly before beginning a celebrated solo career.

Fitzgerald became particularly famous for her “Song Book” recordings, a series of albums devoted to major American composers such as Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Duke Ellington, and George Gershwin. Her nickname is sometimes confused with Billie Holiday’s “Lady Day” or Aretha Franklin’s “Queen of Soul.” Fitzgerald’s career earned her 13 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.