Big Freedia

Freddie Ross was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a child, she took piano lessons and sang in the choir of the neighborhood Baptist church, "Pressing Onward M.B.C.", and has said that music was always a part of her life. Freddie's mother exposed her to artists such as Patti LaBelle, and she was also influenced by disco singer Sylvester, Michael Jackson, and Salt-N-Pepa. Ross attended Walter L. Cohen High School, where she continued to perform in choir and also became the choir director. This experience made her realize she could write and produce. According to Freedia, she initially suffered from stage-fright, and had to coax herself onto stage until she became comfortable performing. In 1998, a young drag queen by the name of Katey Red performed bounce music at a club near the Melpomene Projects where Ross grew up. Ross, who had grown up four blocks away from Katey Red, began performing as a backup dancer and singer in Red's shows. In 1999, Katey Red released Melpomene Block Party on the city's leading bounce label, Take Fo' Records. Freedia adopted her stage name after a friend dubbed her "Freedia" (pronounced "Freeda"). According to Ross, "I wanted a catchy name that rhymed, and my mother had a club called Diva that I worked for. I called myself the queen of diva—so I coined it: Big Freedia Queen Diva." ==Career==

Early years In 1999, Freedia began her professional career with the release of her first single, "An Ha, Oh Yeah", and began performing frequently in clubs and other venues in New Orleans. Other local hits included "Rock Around the Clock" and "Gin 'N My System", which was later quoted by local rapper Lil Wayne on a mixtape. She released her first studio album, Queen Diva, in 2003. Freedia was often described in her early career as an artist within the "sissy bounce" subgenre, She appeared on HBO's Treme, a drama following residents of New Orleans as they try to rebuild after Katrina. In 2013, music television channel Fuse aired the first season of Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce, a reality show chronicling Freedia's growing mainstream attention and her life back in New Orleans. During publicity for the show, Freedia led a crowd of hundreds in New York City to set the Guinness World Record for twerking. The second season of the show aired in 2014 and followed her mother Vera Ross's battle with cancer, which she lost on April 1, 2014, while Freedia was away doing a show. Freedia immediately flew back to New Orleans and planned a jazz funeral through the streets of the city, which the show aired. The show has been airing for six seasons, was expanded from 30 minutes to an hour, and is now called Big Freedia Bounces Back. On July 31, 2014, Freedia headlined "4th Year Anniversary of Bounce" at Republic, as well as the next year's event at the same venue. The book, Big Freedia: God Save the Queen Diva!, written by the "gay, self-proclaimed mama's boy who exploded onto the formerly underground Bounce music scene" along with Nicole Balin, was released July 2015. On February 6, 2016, Beyoncé released a surprise single, "Formation", and an accompanying music video, filmed in New Orleans, which sampled speech from Messy Mya and Big Freedia. Freedia is heard saying, "I did not come to play with you hoes, haha. I came to slay, bitch! I like cornbread and collard greens, bitch! Oh yas, you besta believe it," in the music video. Beyoncé also uses Freedia's voice to open her 2016 "Formation" World Tour. Freedia says, "Oh Miss Bey, I know you came to slay! Give them hoes what they came to see. Baby, when I tell you, I'm back by popular demand. I did not come to play with you hoes. I came to slay, bitch! Oh yes, you best believe it, I always slay. You know I don't play!" For the show at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in Freedia's native New Orleans, Beyoncé brought her on stage to introduce the show live. Artists, such as Beyoncé and Drake, promoting Big Freedia have been criticized for using Big Freedia's voice but leaving her completely visually absent from their videos. However, in a 2018 interview with Wendy Williams, Freedia said she was out of the country doing a show and therefore she could not be in the "Formation" video with Beyoncé. Big Freedia has performed onstage with Beyoncé in at least one location of her Formation Tour. In 2021, she collaborated a song "Goin' Looney" for the Space Jam: A New Legacy soundtrack. Recent work In August 2016, The Fader premiered the "big room banger", "Marie Antoinette feat. Big Freedia", a song by New Orleans-based artist Boyfriend. In December 2016, Big Freedia released A Very Big Freedia Christmazz, which she also collaborated on with Boyfriend, who co-produced and co-wrote 4 songs on the EP. In September 2017, Big Freedia released the single, "Dive" which featured rapper Mannie Fresh, who is also from New Orleans. They decided to work together after Fresh appeared on her show, Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce. The song was originally going to be included on a joint mixtape called The Bounce Back, but the album was scrapped for unknown reasons. "Make It Jingle" is part of the track list for the rhythm music game Just Dance 2018, as well as the song's inclusion on the Office Christmas Party soundtrack. In April 2018, Drake's number-one hit "Nice for What" featured uncredited vocals from Freedia in the introduction to the track. After signing her first major record deal with Asylum Records, Freedia released the first single from her June 1 EP, Third Ward Bounce, featuring artists such as Lizzo. The song, titled "Rent", was also available as a music video. On October 24, 2019, Freedia was featured on Kesha's "Raising Hell", the lead single for her fourth studio album High Road. They promoted the song together at the 2019 AMA's and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In 2020, Freedia released a documentary film about her New Orleans upbringing and the issues of gun violence. The film, Freedia Got a Gun, is a response to her brother's 2018 murder and explores Freedia's experience with gun violence in the community and tries to uncover the root causes of the issue. In April 2020, Freedia collaborated with New Kids on the Block, Jordin Sparks, Naughty by Nature and Boyz II Men on the song "House Party", a song written during social distancing during COVID-19. The video for "House Party" was shot on cell phones. On February 10, 2021, a remix of Rebecca Black's song "Friday" was released, featuring Big Freedia along with Dorian Electra and 3OH!3. Freedia appeared as a guest judge on ''RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars'' season 6 episode 2 in June 2021. On September 15, 2021, she appeared as a guest judge in episode 3 of the sixth season of Nailed It!. In April 2022, Freedia was named Artist Ambassador for US Independent Venue Week. In June 2022, Freedia appeared on Beyoncé's single "Break My Soul". In March 2025, it was announced that Freedia is featured on In the Garden, a concept album and musical by the artist Boyfriend set for release on May 09, 2025. The album reimagines the story of Adam and Eve but through Eve's lens. The project features Boyfriend as Eve alongside Billy Porter (narrator), Jake Shears (Adam), Freedia (God), and Peaches (Serpent). Freedia is releasing the album on her label Queen Diva. ==Personal life==

Big Freedia and Devon Hurst were partners for 20 years. In May 2025, Hurst died from diabetes complications. Freedia operates an interior design business whose clients included the administration of Ray Nagin when he was the mayor of New Orleans. Later that year, she pled guilty to all charges. She was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to pay $35,000 in restitution and perform 100 hours of community service in lieu of a jail sentence. In addition, she was ordered to live in a halfway house prior to sentencing after testing positive for marijuana and methamphetamine and was ordered to undergo drug testing as a condition of her probation. In 2018, Big Freedia revealed in an Instagram video that the judge in the case had granted her request to end her probation one year early for good behavior. In 2021, Big Freedia endorsed Democratic candidate Gary Chambers in the 2021 Louisiana's 2nd congressional district special election, recording a song and filming a music video in support of Chambers and his campaign. Gender and pronouns Freedia stated in 2020: Big Freedia uses she/her pronouns and is a gay man. She considers herself gender fluid and is comfortable with people using either he/him or she/her pronouns. In a 2015 interview, Freedia stated, "I wear women's hair and carry a purse, but I am a man." and "...I'm a straight-UP gay man. I love my feminine side. She is the diva in me. I think gender identity is on a spectrum and that means there's lots of grey area!" By 2018 and 2020, Freedia expressed a lack of preference for any one pronoun in particular. In 2020, responding to the question, "Do you feel like you've been pressured to gender yourself?" Freedia responded: ==Discography==

• Just Be Free (2014) • Central City (2023) • Pressing Onward (2025) == Filmography ==

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