Charon Shemekia Copeland (born April 10, 1979) is an American

electric blues Electric blues is blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 1930s and John Lee Ho ...

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

. She has released 12 albums, won nine

Blues Music Award The Blues Music Awards, formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards (or "The Handys"), are awards presented by the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to foster blues heritage. The awards were originally named in honor of W. C. Handy, " ...

s, and won five Blues Blast Music Awards. In 2024, Copeland received nominations at the

67th Annual Grammy Awards The 67th Annual Grammy Awards honored the best recordings, compositions, and artists from September 16, 2023, to August 30, 2024, as chosen by the members of the Recording Academy, on February 2, 2025. In its 22nd year at Crypto.com Arena in L ...

for Best American Roots Performance, Best American Roots Song, and Best Contemporary Blues Album.

Early life

Copeland was born in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, United States. She is the daughter of Texas

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

guitarist and singer

Johnny Copeland John Clyde Copeland (March 27, 1937 – July 3, 1997) was an American Texas blues guitarist and singer. In 1983, he was named Blues Entertainer of the Year by the Blues Foundation. He is the father of blues singer Shemekia Copeland. In 2017, ...

. She began singing at an early age and her first public performance was at the

Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a 20th-century nightclub in New York City. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue from 1923 to 1936, then briefly in the midtown Theater District until 1940. The club operated during the United States' era of P ...

when she was about 10. Copeland graduated in 1997 from

Teaneck High School Teaneck High School (known as The Castle on the Hill) is a four-year comprehensive public high school in Teaneck, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the ...

Teaneck, New Jersey Teaneck () is a Township (New Jersey), township in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. The town is know for their pancake throwing contest held ...

Career

In 1998, Copeland landed a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...

with

Alligator Records Alligator Records is an American, Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971. Iglauer was also one of the founders of the '' Living Blues'' magazine in Chicago in 1970. History Iglauer started the label using ...

, which issued her debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, ''Turn the Heat Up!''. Her second album, ''

Wicked Wicked may refer to: Books * ''Wicked'' (Maguire novel), a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire that inspired the musical of the same name * ''Wicked'', a 1997 novel series collaboration between Australian children's authors Paul Jennings and Morris ...

'', was released in 2000 and featured a duet with

Ruth Brown Ruth Alston Brown (; January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of R&B". She was noted for bringing a popular music, pop music ...

. It earned her three

s. The follow-up record, ''Talking to Strangers'', was produced by Dr. John, and in 2005 she released ''The Soul Truth'', produced by

Steve Cropper Steven Lee Cropper (born October 21, 1941), sometimes known as "The Colonel", is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He was the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as ...

. In 2008, Copeland signed with Telarc International, and released her first album, ''Never Going Back'', with that label in February 2009. The album was nominated for "Best Contemporary Blues Recording" at the Blues Blast Music Awards. She went on to win the "Rising Star - Blues Artist" in the '' DownBeat Critics Poll'' announced in the December 2009 issue. In 2010, Copeland was nominated for "Best Female Blues Artist" at the Blues Blast Music Awards. On June 12, 2011 at the

Chicago Blues Festival The Chicago Blues Festival is an annual event held in June, that features three days of performances by top-tier blues musicians, both old favorites and the up-and-coming. It is hosted by the Chicago, Illinois, City of Chicago Department of Cu ...

, she 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 "Contemporary Blues Female Artist" at the

. The same year, she received her second nomination for "Best Female Blues Artist" at the Blues Blast Music Awards. In October 2015, her album ''Outskirts of Love'' peaked at number 6 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Top Blues Albums chart. In 2016, she won both the

for "Contemporary Blues Female Artist" and the Blues Blast Music Award for "Best Female Blues Artist". In 2017, she participated in the Mahindra Blues Festival in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. In August 2018, her next album, ''America's Child'', entered at number 3 on the ''

'' Top Blues Albums chart. The album won both the "Album of the Year" and "Contemporary Album of the Year" titles at the

Blues Music Awards The Blues Music Awards, formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards (or "The Handys"), are awards presented by the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to foster blues heritage. The awards were originally named in honor of W. C. Handy, ...

in 2019. The same year, Copeland received four Blues Blast Music Award nominations for "Album of the Year", "Contemporary Blues Album", "Contemporary Female Blues Artist", and "Instrumentalist - Vocals". In May 2020, Copeland won her second

for "Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year". She won the awards for "Contemporary Blues Album" and "Female Blues Artist" at the Blues Blast Music Awards in 2021. In July 2022, she won the award for 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 won the 'Instrumentalist - Vocals' category at the

. She also picked up two Blues Blast Music Awards in the "Best Female Blues Artist" and "Best Vocals" categories. In December 2024, Copeland was nominated for a

Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance The Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance is an award category at the annual Grammy Awards. It was first presented in 2015. The award was first approved by the board of trustees of the Grammy Awards in June 2014. According to NARAS, t ...

and a

Grammy Award for Best American Roots Song The Grammy Award for Best American Roots Song is an award category at the annual Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the American Roots Music ...

. Her album ''Blame it on Eve'' was also nominated for a

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album was awarded from 1988 to 2011 and from 2017 onwards. Until 1992 the award was known as Best Contemporary Blues Performance and in 1989 was awarded to a song rather than to an album. The award was ...

. On March 19, 2025, Copeland's ''Blame it on Eve'' was nominated for a Libera Award for Blues Record.

Discography

*1998: ''Turn the Heat Up'' (

Alligator An alligator, or colloquially gator, is a large reptile in the genus ''Alligator'' of the Family (biology), family Alligatoridae in the Order (biology), order Crocodilia. The two Extant taxon, extant species are the American alligator (''A. mis ...

ALCD-4857) *2000: ''

'' (Alligator ALCD-4875) *2002: ''Talking to Strangers'' (Alligator ALCD-4887) *2005: ''The Soul Truth'' (Alligator ALCD-4905) *2009: ''Never Going Back'' (Telarc CD-83692) *2011: ''Shemekia Copeland - Deluxe Edition'' (Alligator ALCD-5614) - compilation *2012: ''33 1/3'' (Telarc/ Concord TEL-33199) *2015: ''Outskirts of Love'' (Alligator ALCD-4966) *2018: ''America's Child'' (Alligator ALCD-4984) *2020: ''Uncivil War'' (Alligator ALCD-5001) *2022: ''Done Come Too Far'' (Alligator ALCD-5010) *2024: ''Blame it on Eve'' (Alligator ALCD-5022)

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Copeland, Shemekia 1979 births Living people 20th-century African-American women singers 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers American blues singers American gospel singers Musicians from Manhattan People from Harlem Soul-blues musicians Teaneck High School alumni 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers Alligator Records artists 21st-century African-American women singers