Ella Fitzgerald

1917 – 1996

Ella Jane Fitzgerald was an American jazz vocalist known as the First Lady of Song, celebrated for the purity of her tone, impeccable diction and intonation, and her virtuosic improvisational scat singing. Her Verve Records "Songbook" series of the 1950s and 1960s—devoted to the work of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Irving Berlin, and others—is widely considered the definitive recording canon of the Great American Songbook. She won 14 Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM