She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in about 1892. Several members of her extended family were musicians; the drummer Paul Barbarin was her cousin. In 1913 she began touring in vaudeville with the performer and playwright Irvin C. Miller; they later married. In 1917 Bigeou appeared as a singer, dancer, and recitalist in the revue Broadway Rastus, written by Miller, at the Standard Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Lafayette Theater in New York City, and the Orpheum Theater in Baltimore, Maryland. She recorded for OKeh Records in 1921 and 1923 and toured the Theater Owners Booking Association vaudeville circuit with the Billy King Company in 1923. From 1923 to 1925 and 1927 to 1930, she toured as a single act in the American South, Midwest, and Northeast.
The blues writer Chris Smith said that Bigeou was "a singer at the pop end of African-American entertainment" and that she "seems to have retired, aged only 35, to settle in New Orleans, where reports indicate that she died circa 1936". All of her recordings were reissued in 1996 by Document Records on the CD Esther Bigeou: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (1921–1923) (DODC-5489).
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By Ron DePasquale
Blues singer Esther Bigeou grew up in one of New Orleans' most musical families (she was a cousin of drummer Paul Barbarin), but ended up with a style more vaudevillian than blues or jazz oriented. In 1923, she recorded with Rickett's Stars, Piron's New Orleans Orchestra and Clarence Williams. After Mamie Smith's Crazy Blues was a resounding success, Bigeou began recording blues songs. She spent the 1920s touring the country with the TOBA circuit, leaving the music business and returning to New Orleans in around 1930.