Music intro by: Gail Nobles

Photo credit: LBJ Library - https://www.flickr.com/photos/lbjlibrarynow/33697379208/
Usage: Wikipedia CC0

Shemekia Copeland is an electric blues vocalist. To date, she has released ten albums and been presented with eight Blues Music Awards.

On June 12, 2011 at the 2011 Chicago Blues Festival, Copeland was presented Koko Taylor's crown, and officially given the honor as the new "Queen of the Blues" by Koko Taylor's daughter, Cookie Taylor.

In 2013, Copeland was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the Contemporary Blues Female Artist' category. She won the title in 2016.

In October 2015, her album Outskirts of Love peaked at number 6 in the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart. In 2017 she participated in Mahindra Blues Festival, Mumbai. In August 2018, her next album, America's Child, entered the same listing at number 3. The recording won both the 'Album of the Year' and 'Contemporary Album of the Year' titles at the 40th Blues Music Awards in 2019.

In May 2020, Copeland was presented with another Blues Music Award in the 'Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year' category.

In July 2022 she won the award Blues artist of the year at the annual Downbeat Critics Poll. She released her tenth studio album, Done Come Too Far, on August 19, 2022. In 2023, Copeland triumphed in the 'Instrumentalist - Vocals' category at the Blues Music Awards.

So if you haven't heard Shemekia Copeland, you might want to check her out. Look for Shemekia Copeland.


I'm Gail Nobles on Podcast and Blues.