Born in Stockholm, she was noted for her singing voice from a very young age. When she was nine years old, her singing was overheard by a passerby, who the next day came with a music master and paid who had charge of Lind to give her up. She began to sing on stage when she was ten, and by the age of 16 she was a favorite in the Royal Swedish Opera. Her first great role was Agathe, in Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz in 1838. She was received throughout Europe with tremendous acclaim. She studied in 1841 with Manoel Garcia in Paris. Her first performance in England was on May 4, 1847, in the role of Alice in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable, which led to great successes in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Berlin, and Stockholm.

In January 1849, she performed in concert in Norwich, the first concert was organised by the Norwich Choral Society. She liked the city so much that she gave two free concerts a fortnight later. These concerts raised £1,253 for charitable purposes. The money raised was used to buy a house in Pottergate, which was converted into an infirmary for sick children. This hospital closed in 1898 and moved to a temporary site in Tombland before moving in 1900 to the newly-built Jenny Lind Infirmary for Sick Children in Unthank Rd. until its closure in 1975 and the transfer of children's services to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, St Stephen's Rd. In 1982 the Jenny Lind name was revived as the paediatric department at the Norfolk and Norwich was named the Jenny Lind Children's Department. That tradition continued with the move from the old Norfolk and Norwich to the new Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in 2001 where to this day the paediatric department is named the Jenny Lind Children's Department.

In winter term 1849/50 Jenny Lind became member of the students fraternity Burschenschaft Hannovera in Goettingen, Germany. She is the only female member in a classical german fraternity.

In 1850, Lind sailed to the United States and under the management of P.T. Barnum, went on a concert tour of a number of cities. Her first American performance was given in New York City on October 24, 1850. The tour was a great success, and she became known in the press as the "Swedish Nightingale". While in the States, she married a young pianist, Otto Goldschmidt, at 20 Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill, Boston. They returned to Europe together in 1852. Her tour of America created much excitement throughout the country. Even though she only performed on the East Coast many things were named after her, such as the gold rush town of Jenny Lind, California. During her visit, Lind was reported to have slept in a bed with turned spindles, so a bed or crib with such spindles was afterward called a Jenny Lind bed, or Jenny Lind crib.

Although she ceased her professional singing career with her return to Europe, she continued to perform in a number of oratorios, concerts, and choruses, with a particular interest in Bach. She lived in England for the remainder of her life, where she became a philanthropist, and for some years a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music. Her last public performance was at Düsseldorf on January 20, 1870, where she sang in "Ruth", an oratorio composed by her husband. Jenny Lind lived her last years at Wynd's Point, behind the Little Malvern Priory, and is buried in the Great Malvern Cemetery in Malvern, Worcestershire.

The artwork on the Swedish 50 krona banknote has a musical theme, the front of the note featuring a large portrait of Jenny Lind as a tribute to her memory.

Such was her fame that several objects were named after her. There was a Jenny Lind polka by Allen Dodsworth in 1846. The Jenny Lind cot (or crib or cradle) is the kind that has vertical bars on all sides. There is a plaque commemorating her in The Boltons, Kensington, London. Under the name "Jenny Lind Goldschmidt" she is commemorated in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, the only woman to be mentioned there. In January 2005, Elvis Costello announced that he was writing an opera about her, called "The Secret Arias". It includes songs by Hans Christian Andersen, who fell in love with Jenny. She did not return his affection.

In 1941 Ilse Werner starred in the German-language film "Schwedische Nachtigall" as Jenny, with Joachim Gottschalk as Hans Christian Andersen.

See also: List of Swedes in music