Shirley King was born in West Memphis, Arkansas, on October 26, 1949. She first became aware of her father's career as a blues musician when she was three years old, but she also grew up with a frequently absent father, as B.B. was constantly on the road. When she was nine years old, she began singing in the choir at church, and when she turned 13, her father introduced her to the great R&B diva Etta James. James became Shirley's first inspiration as a vocalist, but as she grew into her late teens, she developed a passion for dancing and would entertain customers at the restaurant where her mother worked as a cook. In 1967, Shirley moved to Chicago to marry her boyfriend, but when he dropped her to take up with one of her friends, she stayed in town and joined a local dance troupe. Shirley went on to a successful career as a nightclub dancer, performing as "Shirley King the Body Queen," and she performed in Rudy Ray Moore's cult favorite film The Human Tornado.

In 1990, King brought her career as a dancer to a close, and began re-branding herself as a singer. After six months of playing gigs in Chicago, she landed a residency at the Windy City blues club Kingston Mines, where she honed her skills and won an audience. By 1992, she was playing blues clubs all over Chicago and touring Europe; she landed a deal with the Japanese blues label GBW, which brought out her first album, Jump Through My Keyhole. 1999 saw the release of Shirley's second album, Daughter of the Blues; by this time, her father had become convinced of Shirley's talent, and she began performing occasionally at his concerts; her audience grew thanks to her association with her iconic dad. B.B. King died in 2015, and in the last years of his life, Shirley and her family often found themselves dealing with media figures who presented inaccurate reports about her father's physical and mental well-being. Hoping to set the record straight, King published her first book, Love Is King: B.B. King's Daughter Fights to Preserve Her Father's Legacy, in 2017, co-written by David Smitherman. She next signed a record deal with Cleopatra Blues, a division of the independent Cleopatra label, and her first album for the company, Blues for a King, arrived in 2020. The album included guest appearances from a number of well-known blues artists, including Joe Louis Walker, Junior Wells, Duke Robillard, Elvin Bishop, and former Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre.