Big Freedia

A central figure of New Orleans' bounce scene, Big Freedia, born Freddie Ross Jr. in 1978, honed their style in the city's clubs and block parties in the late 1990s, first as a backing vocalist and dancer alongside rapper Katey Red before launching solo performances. Rooted in local hip-hop, Big Freedia's music relies on fast rhythms, repetitive basslines and a pronounced use of call-and-response, designed for dance and direct interaction with audiences. The first album, "Queen Diva," was released in 2003, followed by the compilation "Big Freedia Hitz Vol. 1" in 2010 and "Just Be Free" in 2014, which helped capture in the studio an aesthetic that had until then been mainly a live phenomenon. Big Freedia then released several shorter-format works — "A Very Big Freedia Christmazz" (2016), "3rd Ward Bounce" (2018) and "Louder" (2020) — before the album "Central City" in 2023, and has featured on numerous pop and rap tracks with artists such as Beyoncé, Drake, Kesha and Icona Pop. At the same time, Big Freedia starred in the reality show "Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce" (2013–2016) and published the autobiography "God Save the Queen Diva!" in 2015, consolidating their place in New Orleans' cultural landscape and beyond.