During her lifetime, she received 13 Grammy Awards and released more than 40 albums. Her dominant feature was a precise, spirited, and "ageless" voice with beautiful color and a range of three octaves.
During her peak career, from 1959 to 1967, she published a nineteen-part songbook with almost two and a half hundred songs. First Lady of Song excelled in scat singing passages and singing improvisation, she displaye a great feeling for jazz rhythm as well as humor and longing for folk ballads. She enchanted the audience with her voice and color. She is the first singer of popular music to be awarded a state award for artists. She has made a significant contribution to the American music.
Her repertoire has never been only jazz. She also sang gospels, blues, ballads, soul, and cowboy songs. She also performed in Prague, in 1969. She sang with dance orchestras, but still liked jazz big bands. However, she also performed with a single backing guitar.
She really liked duets, one of the most popular ones are those with Louis Armstrong. As she liked to say, she sat in two chairs all her life. One was jazz, the other pop. Her work in the recording studio was always perfect and she was a role model for many singers.
However, her old age meant frequent heart problems. She had operated on a pacemaker, could barely see, and had to sit on a chair when performing. Yet crowds of people still came to her.
She passed away in her Los Angeles home on June 15, 1996. Despite her extraordinary popularity, she remained a simple and uncomplicated being.