Etta James, born Jamesetta Hawkins, in Los Angeles, California, on January 25, 1938, is an American blues, soul, R&B, rock & roll, gospel and jazz singer with a contralto range, and a songwriter. She is the winner of four Grammy Awards and seventeen Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and had records inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008. In the 1950s and '60s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer. She is best known for performing the song, "At Last," which has been featured in many movies, television shows, commercials, and web-streaming services since its release.

Born to an unmarried 14-year-old African-American, Dorothy Hawkins, Jameseeta had a rough life growing up. However, she received her first professional vocal training at the age of five, from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir, at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles where she was considered to be somewhat of a gospel prodigy.

Then in 1950, Jamesetta's family moved to San Francisco, where she soon teamed up with two other girls to form a doo-wop singing group, which became known as Etta James & the Peaches. When the girls were 14 years old, band leader Johnny Otis heard them sing an answer song[a] to Hank Ballard's "Work With Me, Annie," called "Roll With Me Henry." Otis particularly liked the song and, without their mothers' knowing, in 1954 Etta James & the Peaches went to Los Angeles to record it for Modern Records.

"Roll with Me Henry" was renamed "The Wallflower" or sometimes called, "Dance with Me, Henry", because the radio stations were reluctant to play it due to the name's sexual connotations. It was released in 1955 and it reached #2 on the rhythm and blues charts that year. Its huge success attracted the attention of the R&B world.

Soon after the song's success, the Peaches and James parted company, resulting in James going on tour with Little Richard. On the tour, according to James, she witnessed and experienced situations to which minors are not usually privy.

She continued to record and release albums throughout much of the '50s, and enjoyed more success.

In 1960, James signed a recording contract with Chess Records and with their subsidiary label, Argo Records. James began to have major hits off the label, first with a pair of duets with her then husband and singer, Harvey Fuqua, "If I Can't Have You" and "Spoonful." She had her first major solo hit with the R&B-styled tune, "All I Could Do Was Cry," which quickly went up the Billboard R&B chart, peaking at #2 in 1960. This was followed by the Top 5 R&B hit, "My Dearest Darling" the same year.

Around the same time, James also sang background vocals on Chuck Berry's hit, "Back in the USA," and released her debut album entitled, At Last!. At Last! featured all of James' hits, and also included a few standards, such as "Stormy Weather," "I Just Want to Make Love to You," and "A Sunday Kind of Love."

Chess Records' co-owner & head producer, Leonard Chess imagined James as a classic ballad stylist who had potential to cross over onto the Pop charts. Chess began backing James up on her recording sessions with violins and other string instruments, which was first seen on her 1961 hit single, "At Last." The song went to #2 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1961, and also peaked at #47 on the Billboard Pop Chart, Although it wasn't as successful as expected on the Pop charts, it did become the most remembered version to receive airplay and ultimately it became her signature song.

To a younger generation, James is known for the Muddy Waters song, "I Just Wanna Make Love to You," used in television commercials for Coca-Cola and in the U.K. for John Smith's Bitter Beer. (Etta's version was a surprise Top 10 UK hit in 1996.) The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry and Foghat have also recorded the song.

Between the balance of the '60s through the beginning of the millennium, James continued to record albums with moderate to great sucess and she performed live at many prestigeous events, such as the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1977, 1989, 1990 and 1993, nine times at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival, and five times at the San Francisco Jazz Festival. She still performs often at free city outdoor summer arts festivals throughout the US.

In 2001, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In 2003, she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked her #62 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

In 2008, James was portrayed by R&B singer and actress Beyoncé Knowles in the film Cadillac Records, which was released to theatres on December 5, 2008. The film is loosely based on the rise and fall of James' record label, Chess Records, and how producer Leonard Chess helped the career of James and her other counterparts at the label, although the film fails to reflect the fact that James was already a successful hit-recording artist before she joined Chess, and was not discovered by Leonard Chess as the film suggests. Also, contrary to the impression created in the film, it is doubtful that James and Chess were lovers.

On April 7th, 2009, Etta James appeared on Dancing with the Stars as a guest performer, singing her classic hit, "At Last," at age 71.

In Memphis Tennessee on May 7th, 2009, the Blues Foundation awarded Etta James the 2009 Soul/Blues Female Artist of the Year - making Etta a nine times winner of this prestigious award.

Personal life: Despite all her successes, or perhaps because of them, few R&B singers have endured travails on the monumental level that Etta James has and have remained on earth to talk about it. Up until the early 1990s, when James began receiving major industry awards from the Grammys and the Blues Foundation, James wasn't taken very seriously. Much of it her own doing.

In the early 1970s, James encountered a string of legal problems due to her heroin addiction. She was continuously in and out of rehabilitation centers. Her husband, Artis Mills, whom she married in 1969, took the fall when they were both arrested for heroin possession in 1972, and he served a 10-year prison sentence for the offense.

While Mills was in prison, in 1974, James was arrested for passing bad checks, forgery and possession of heroin. She was sentenced to drug treatment instead of serving time in prison and spent 17 months in the Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital, in Los Angeles, California. However after leaving treatment, James' substance abuse continued into the 1980s. It wasn't until 1988, at age 50, when James entered the Betty Ford Center, in Palm Springs, California, that she conquered her drug problem. She claims to have been sober ever since, though she has been known to drink wine onstage at concerts.

Over the course of her career, James' musical style has changed in various ways. When beginning her recording career in the mid-50s, James was marketed as an R&B and doo wop singer. After signing with Chess Records in 1960, James broke through as a traditional pop-styled singer. However during the late 60s, her style took a different musical approach with with upbeat soul-inspired songs. Over the past several years, James' voice has deepened and coarsened, moving her musical style back to the genres of soul and jazz.

In recent years, she has been recognized as instrumental in bridging the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. James has influenced a wide variety of American musicians including Janis Joplin, Diana Ross, Shemekia Copeland, Alex Mills, Rod Stewart, Christina Aguilera as well as British artists The Rolling Stones and Adele. James has two sons, Donto and Sametto, with Artis Mills, with whom she is still married, and several grandchildren. Today, Ms. James lives in Riverside, California. She's paid her dues many times over as an R&B and soul pioneer. In concert, Etta James is a sassy, no-holds-barred performer whose suggestive stage antics sometimes border on the obscene. Long may she continue to shock the uninitiated!

_______________________ [a]An answer song (or answer record) is, as the name suggests, a song made in answer to a previous song, normally by another artist. The concept became widespread in blues and R&B recorded music in the 1930s through 1950s. Answer songs were also extremely popular in country music in the 1950s and 1960s, most often as female responses to an original hit by a male artist. Today, this practice is most common in hip hop music, especially as the continuation of a feud between performers. Sometimes an answer record imitated the original very closely and occasionally a hit song would be followed up by the same artist.