Freddie Ross aka Big Freedia is an American musician best known for work in the New Orleans genre of hip hop called bounce music. Freedia has been credited with helping popularize the genre, which was largely underground since developing in the early 1990s.

Freedia started singing in the choir of her neighborhood Baptist church, Pressing Onward M.B.C., and started her professional performance career around 1999. In 2003, she released the studio album Queen Diva.

She first gained mainstream exposure in 2009, and her 2010 album Big Freedia Hitz Vol. 1 was re-released on Scion A/V in March 2011, as well as a number of music videos.

Freedia has been featured in publications such as Village Voice and New York Times, and has performed on Last Call with Carson Daly, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and at SXSW, where she received a positive review from Rolling Stone. In 2011 she was named Best Emerging Artist and Best Hip-Hop/Rap Artist in January's "Best of the Beat Awards," and was nominated for the 2011 22nd GLAAD Media Awards.

In 2013, she got her own reality show on the Fuse Channel, which chronicles her life on tour and at home. On July 7, 2015, she released her autobiography God Save The Queen Diva.

At the end of 2016 Freedia was featured in a local New Orleans television ad for the Juan LaFonta Law Office, in which she is shown rapping with bounce music and dancers.

She releases music with the 2018 EP, Third Ward Bounce.

Freddie Ross was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a child, Freedia took piano and sang in choir, and has said music was always a part of her life. Her mother exposed her to artists such as Patti LaBelle, and she was also influenced by the late disco singer Sylvester, Michael Jackson, and Salt-n-Pepa.

In 1999, Freedia released 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 Lil Wayne on a mix tape. She released her first studio album, Queen Diva, in 2003.

Freedia first began to gain national exposure after a 2009 fest-closing gig with Katey Red and Sissy Nobby at the Bingo Parlour Tent and the 2009 Voodoo Experience. On January 18, 2010, she self-released the album Big Freedia Hitz Vol. 1 on Big Freedia Records. The album was a collection of previously performed singles from 1999 to 2010.

In May 2010, Freedia began touring with DJ Rusty Lazer and a team of "bootydancers," along with pop band Matt & Kim. She performed at Hoodstock in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn in May 2010, and afterwards was written up in the Village Voice. She performed for contemporary art mogul Jeffrey Deitch at Basel Miami and at New York's MoMa art museum. Upon returning to New Orleans, she was pursued by a New York journalist and was featured in The New York Times on July 22, 2010. She continued to tour throughout the United States, and in Fall 2010 had her first national television appearance on the Last Call with Carson Daly. In October 2010, the New Orleans Times-Picayune called her an "overnight sensation".

In 2011 Freedia was named Best Emerging Artist and Best Hip-Hop/Rap Artist in January's "Best of the Beat Awards." Big Freedia Hitz Vol. 1 was nominated by the 22nd GLAAD Media Awards in 2011. The album was re-released on Scion A/V in March 2011, along with a number of music videos She also won an MTV 0 Award in 2012 for "Too Much Ass for TV."

She appeared on HBO's Treme, a drama following residents of New Orleans as they try to rebuild after Katrina. She performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on January 25, 2012. Her performance at SXSW in 2012 was reviewed by Rolling Stone as "Probably this writer's favorite SXSW set."

Freedia toured with The Postal Service in 2013, opening for the band at numerous venues throughout July and August.

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 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 now 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!"

Artist, like Beyoncé and Drake promoting Big Freedia have been criticized for using Big Freedia's voice but leaving her completely visually absent from their videos.

In August 2016, The Fader premiered the "big room banger", "Marie Antoinette feat. Big Freedia", a song by New Orleans-based artist Boyfriend (rapper). In December 2016, Big Freedia released A Very Big Freedia Christmazz which she also collaborated on with Boyfriend (rapper) who co-produced and co-wrote 4 songs on the EP.

On 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.

"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 new song "Nice for What" features Big Freedia's introduction on the track.

After signing her first major record deal with Asylum Records, Freedia released the first single off her June 1 EP, Third Ward Bounce. The song, entitled "Rent" was also available as a music video.

Freedia operates an interior design business whose clients included the administration of Ray Nagin when he was the mayor of New Orleans.

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