Few entertainers have ever commanded such depth of artistry in every medium. Fewer still have been rewarded with Broadway’s coveted Tony Award (Best Featured Actress in a Musical for The Wiz), nominated for the London theater’s West End equivalent, the Laurence Olivier Award (Best Actress in a Musical for Lady Day), won three Grammy Awards (Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2011 for Eleanora Fagan: To Billie with Love from Dee Dee Bridgewater, Best Jazz Vocal Performance and Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocal in 1998 for “Cottontail” arranged by Slide Hampton, on Dear Ella), and France’s top honor, Victoire de la Musique (Best Jazz Vocal Album in 1998).

Dee Dee captured the hearts of audiences worldwide in The Wiz with her signature song, “If You Believe.” According to Nick Ashford of Ashford and Simpson, Dee Dee’s rendition “personified a generation and gave us all hope.”