Ella Quotes

My name is Ella; that’s who I am at school, hanging out with friends, while I’m doing homework. But when I’m up on stage, ‘Lorde’ is a character.

I loved Judy Garland growing up, and I also loved Ella Fitzgerald.

I was into all sorts of music as a kid. I was very curious about ethnic music and different styles. I loved Django Reinhardt. I loved Ella Fitzgerald. I was also influenced by all the crooners of the day, like Johnny Ray, Frankie Lane.

My mom played me all kinds of music, from Ella Fitzgerald to Celine Dion. I listened to everything growing up, old and new.

People like Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Marlene Dietrich and Sammy Davis Jr. all walked me down this path of entertainment.

That’s nice, to be compared to Joanna Lumley. She played my mother once in ‘Ella Enchanted.’ I was one of the ugly sisters, and she was the stepmother, so that was great. I’ll take that comparison, thank you.

I have a fondness for jazz, particularly for jazz singers, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald all the way through the Sinatra era.

I look at the careers of people I’m standing on the shoulders of. People like Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., and Sarah Vaughan. These are icons I wanted to emulate, and I feel like they’ve been holding me up for quite a long time.

I would love to sing with Ella Fitzgerald.

When Hank Jones had his night off, I would get somebody to take my place as intermission pianist and I’d play the show with Ella, so I would get a chance to play with Ray Brown and Charlie Smith as well.

I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.

You know, we were outdoorsy types, my folks, and one of the first tapes I got, a friend gave me a cassette tape of Ella Fitzgerald singing with the Count Basie orchestra. And it was the first time, really, that someone’s voice had really spoken to me, and it was just so pure.

I would say my greatest musical influences have been Ella Fitzgerald and Mary J. Blige.

The three great moments of my life had to be the concerts of Ellington in 1938, Dizzy in ’48, and Ella in ’52.

No one in the world can beat Ella Fitzgerald as a riff singer.

I was raised in a mostly white neighborhood. I was this little white girl jamming out to Ella Fitzgerald and Bobby Brown.

I write in that space between Ella’s childhood and mine. I know it all sounds a bit sinister.

Imagine a singer with the virtuosity of Joan Sutherland or Ella Fitzgerald, the public persona of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the audience of Elvis, and you have Umm Kulthum.

I remember Ella Fitzgerald sort of coming into my life like a bolt of lightning – like, what is that? It was one of the purest examples of God in art that I’d ever seen.

My style of singing has always been referred to ‘soul’ singing when it fact it’s more influenced by English R&B Blues Shouting. I’m closer to Led Zeppelin as a vocalist than to Ella Fitzgerald. It was torture dealing with major labels.

Whitney Houston and Ella Fitzgerald are my musical mothers. I learned everything I know about true R&B, pop and jazz singing from these stunning performers and unparalleled musicians.

I didn’t really grow up on hip-hop. Ella Fitzgerald and the old school jazz divas are more my comfort zone.

I have struggled for decades now with the fear of and resistance to change – mostly in the realms of technology, transportation, and the ways people choose to communicate. If I had a theme song, it would be that lovely song ‘I’m Old-Fashioned,’ as sung by Ella Fitzgerald.

I was living in New York. Sometimes, our gang of musicians would go to Louis Armstrong’s home and play records. It was a lesson, like going to school at night. Ella Fitzgerald was an inspiration, too, a unique artist. When you had an opportunity to be with people like them, you cherished it.

My background was always more soulful pop. I was named after Ella Fitzgerald, and when I was a kid, I was listening to Lauryn Hill, Etta James, Joss Stone. For me, it was always about the voice.

When my daughter was born, I called her Ella Bella Mandela, because she was born the day after Mandela was released from prison.

When I was 12, I didn’t know about Nirvana or Oasis or any of those people. I was listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Gershwin.

Ella can work nightclubs that Duke might not be able to work, because of having the big band. Where they go now is strictly a matter of their own names and talents.

The album that defined my childhood was probably Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Greatest Hits,’ whereas my half-sister, who didn’t have the same conservative upbringing, was listening to Cash Money and crunk.

I grew up listening to all kinds of music. When I came up, you would hear people like Marvin Gaye talking about Sarah Vaughan. You would go to a show and see Ella Fitzgerald performing the music of the Beatles.

I actually got thrown into my Bar Mitzvah because my teacher, my Cantor, did not tell me that they would all say ‘amen’ at the end of each, for want of a better word, paragraph. And that threw me completely. I almost went into an Ella Fitzgerald sort of scat.

I have always loved creating and entertaining. It started with music, singing. I grew up in a household filled with music – not pop but old-school stuff, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong.

Germany is probably the richest country in Western Europe. Yet they wouldn’t take any television with Duke and Ella, their reaction being that people weren’t interested in it.

The premieres are, kind of exciting, especially to Ella, who loves limousines.

If my dog Ella, named after the Rihanna song ‘Umbrella’, could be with me at all times, that would make me happy.

My parents were into The Mills Brothers, Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Sarah Vaughn, and all those people sung the most wonderful songs – and even when I got into rock ‘n’ roll, that stayed with me.

Growing up, I had a natural love for women like Diana Ross, Mary Wells, Ella Fitzgerald. Then I got into Dionne Warwick, Nina Simone, and Patsy Cline.

One of my biggest musical influences is definitely Ella Fitzgerald as a vocalist.

The window in which it’s acceptable to listen to Ella Fitzgerald’s 1960 record ‘Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas’ is short, so I keep it in heavy rotation throughout the festive season.

Popular music is one endless love song that, I suspect, the basically solitary Ella Fitzgerald approached much as the basically solitary Marianne Moore approached poetry: reading it with a certain contempt for it, Moore said, you could find a place in it for the genuine.

There is no singer I can think of who can touch Ella Fitzgerald. And when Billie Holiday sings, she’s merciless about it. Her voice has just this immaculate sadness – even in happy songs, there was something that was so broken about it.

The best vocalists I can think of are female. There is no singer I can think of who can touch Ella Fitzgerald. And when Billie Holiday sings, she’s merciless about it. Her voice has just this immaculate sadness – even in happy songs, there was something that was so broken about it.

I’m comfortable singing jazz. The only thing I was concerned about is that everybody, even in jazz, has their own style. To me, the queen of doodling was Ella Fitzgerald, and scatting is something I never thought I could do.

Frank Sinatra changed people’s approach to singing. Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, van Gogh, they were all part of movements that allowed people to think about their craft differently. They changed the game. These people changed the game.