Jenny Lind in Antebellum Period
Jenny Lind (1820-1887) was a Swedish soprano who debuted in Europe in 1838 and made a spectacular American debut from 1850-52 thanks to marketing by her manager, P. T. Barnum. She then got married and lived in Dresden and London.
Unlike most of Barnum's other gimmicks, Lind was real. Barnum's magic in selling her American debut was his ability to expand her appeal to a mass audience, who would appreciate the natural quality of her voice and the way she sang from the heart. Although Americans had never heard her voice, Lind's ship was greeted by thousands, who then followed her to her hotel. The first tickets to her grand national tour sold for $250, and she was guaranteed $187,000 of committed money from her promoters. Jenny Lind thus became the first modern music superstar.