Music Minute!

Did you know that Ella Fitzgerald was the first African American woman to win a Grammy Award?

Fitzgerald won trophies for Best Jazz Performance, Individual and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the first Grammy ceremony, which was hosted on May 4th 1959. The only other African American who won a Grammy that evening was Count Basie for Best Performance by a Dance Band.

Throughout her career, Fitzgerald won thirteen Grammys and was the first woman to win the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967. Additionally, four of her albums and two of her singles have been honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

Watch Fitzgerald perform her iconic version of ‘Summertime’ from her 1958 ‘Porgy & Bess’ album, which earned the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2001, below:

Now you know!