Rosie Ledet is an accordionist, singer, and songwriter renowned as the “Zydeco Sweetheart.” A recording artist since 1994, Ledet is recognized as a female pioneer in Louisiana’s male-dominated genre of zydeco music. She follows trailblazer Ida Guillory, zydeco’s first Grammy winner in 1982 and the first female to lead a zydeco band. With a reputation for clever and suggestive lyrics mixed with touches of Creole French and blues, Ledet has recorded more than a dozen albums. She remains a popular attraction at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and performs throughout the United States.

Born Mary Roszela Bellard on October 25, 1971, in Church Point, Ledet grew up listening to music but had little interest in zydeco. Ledet changed her outlook at sixteen after witnessing zydeco pioneer Boozoo Chavis perform at Richard’s Club, a seminal zydeco club in Lawtell. Her future husband, accordion player Morris Ledet, was also at the club and played a few songs with Chavis. Ledet later learned the instrument by watching her husband and practicing with his accordion while he was at work. But Morris recognized Ledet’s talent and stepped aside to become a bass player in her Zydeco Playboys band.

With Ledet’s 1994 debut album Sweet Brown Sugar, the group became a dancehall attraction and zydeco radio favorite in Louisiana and Texas. Released by the Maison de Soul label in Ville Plate, the fifteen-song album, with all original compositions, yielded regional hit songs “Sweet Brown Sugar,” “You’re No Good for Me,” and “Swing That Thing.”

Ledet’s tunes filled more than a dozen CDs over the next two decades. “You Can Eat My Poussiere,” “Kisses in the Wind,” “Little Rosie,” and “Pick It Up” (a playful ode to erectile dysfunction pills) became top requests on zydeco radio shows. In “I’m Gonna Take Care of Your Dog,” Ledet showed off her double-entendre lyricism as she teased a romantic rival:

Don’t let your little dog

Follow me home

‘Cause I got a place

Where he can bury his bone

In 2001 Ledet received the Female Vocalist of the Year Award from C.R.E.O.L.E., Inc., a heritage preservation nonprofit based in Lafayette, and has had multiple appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. She has opened shows for James Brown, Bob Dylan, Chaka Khan, and other stars. Her shows have stretched as far as Europe and Australia.

Despite her bold lyrics, Ledet revealed in interviews that she is shy and feels more at home reading books and composing songs. She has notebooks filled with more than seven hundred original songs.

Ledet and Morris divorced in the early 2000s before giving birth to a daughter, Kasaundra Rose Ledet. Besides spending time with her grandchildren, Ledet continues to perform at clubs and festivals. In 2023 she was a featured guest and performer in “Front Porch Talks: A Convening of Creoles and Culture,” a Texas Folklife cultural initiative held at the Blue Moon Saloon in Lafayette.