American blues singer Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was BOTD, probably in 1886. Born in Columbus, Georgia, she began performing as a teenager, touring in vaudeville and Black minstrel acts with her husband Will “Pa” Rainey. In 1923, she signed a record contract with Paramount and made over 100 recordings in five years, establishing her as one of the most popular and well-paid musical acts of her day. Dubbed “The Mother of the Blues”, she was one of the first American singers to popularise blues music, claiming at one point that she’d invented the term. Openly bisexual, Rainey had relationships with a number of women, including fellow singer Bessie Smith, whom she mentored early in her career. Rainey co-wrote many of her own lyrics, dropping queer-coded references into songs like Prove It On Me (“Went out last night with a crowd of my friends / They must’ve been women, ’cause I don’t like no men / It’s true I wear a collar and tie”). Her career slowed in the late 1920s with the decline of vaudeville, though earnings allowed her to retire comfortably. She died in 1939, aged 53. She has been portrayed onscreen by singer Mo’Nique and by Viola Davis in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a 2020 film adaptation of August Wilson’s play.