<P> While woman have been underrepresented in jazz as instrumentalists, composers, songwriters and bandleaders, there have been many notable women singers . Bessie Smith sang both the blues and jazz . Lena Horne first appeared in the Cotton Club as a teenager . Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday were known for their ballads during the swing era . Shirley Horn sang both jazz and blues . Nina Simone sang jazz, folk and Rhythm and blues . Etta Jones sang rhythm and blues and jazz . Anita O'Day is known for her contributions to Bebop . Betty Carter sang during the post-bop era . Mary Lou Williams was a singer and pianist during the swing and hard bop eras . Sarah Vaughan is known for her singing in the Cool jazz era . Other notable singers include Rosemary Clooney, Diane Schuur and Flora Purim . Contemporary jazz singers include Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Melody Gardot and singer - bassist Esperanza Spalding . </P> <P> Classical singers typically do both live performances and recordings . Live performances may be in small venues, such as churches, or large venues, such as opera halls or arts centers . Classical singers may specialize in specific types of singing, such as art song, which are songs performed with piano accompaniment, or opera, which is singing accompanied by a symphony orchestra in a staged, costumed theatrical production . Classical singers are typically categorized by their voice type, which indicates both their vocal range and in some cases also the "color" of their voice . Examples of voice types that indicate the range of a singer's voice include contralto, mezzo - soprano and soprano (these go from the lowest range to the highest range). Examples of voice types that indicate both the singer's range and the "color" of her voice type are coloratura soprano and lyric soprano . Whereas popular music singers typically use a microphone and a sound reinforcement system for their vocals, in classical music the voice must be projected into the hall naturally, a skill for which they undertake vocal training . </P> <P> Marian Anderson (1897--1993) was an African - American contralto of whom music critic Alan Blyth said: "Her voice was a rich, vibrant contralto of intrinsic beauty ." Most of her singing career was spent performing in concert and recital in major music venues and with famous orchestras throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965 . Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid-twentieth century . In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall . With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open - air concert on Easter Sunday, 9 April 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. She sang before a crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions . Anderson continued to break barriers for black artists in the United States, becoming the first black person, American or otherwise, to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on 7 January 1955 . </P> <P> A short list of notable classical singers includes: </P>

Who was the first female artist known to have become famous among her contemporaries