Profile of Willa Ford on Famous Like Me

Willa Ford (born Amanda Lee Williford on January 22, 1981) is an American pop singer.

Biography

Willa was born and raised in Ruskin, Florida. She began pursuing her dream of becoming a singer at the age of 8, when she started singing with the Tampa Bay Children's Choir. By the time she reached age 11, she had moved on from the children’s choir to the Tampa-based children’s performing arts troupe, Entertainment Revue. This group consisted of 20 girls ages 5-16. The tour the area and sang at such places as, Walt Disney World and Busch Gardens. Willa worked hard in the group and moved her way up from a chorus member to the role of featured soloist. When Willa was 15, she left the troupe and landed spot with a local foursome FLA. She didn’t stay long with the group before deciding to head out to LA.

In 1999 Willa while performing under the stage name Mandah, she was signed to MCA. While with MCA she released a song on the double-platinum soundtrack ‘Pokémon The First Movie’ called ‘Lullaby’. She also landed a spot as an opening act for the Backstreet Boys. Which managed to attract a lot of attention, for her performances as well as her relationship with one of its members. Soon Willa’s label changed her stage name from Mandah, to avoid confusion with another female singer, to Willa Ford and tried to promote a beautiful singer with a good-girl image. After some negative publicity that tainted their clean-cut image for Willa, MCA decided to drop her, letting her move on to a label that would embrace her bad-girl image.

It wasn’t long before Lava/Atlantic would give Willa a deal and put her in to studio with a diverse variety of writers and producers. Although she had many talented writers working with her, Willa was determined to write most of the lyrics herself, which was unlike other teen singers at the time. She would use her life for material or make up a character that she would want to be.

On July 17, 2001 Willa released her debut album ‘Willa Was Here’. The album contained the single (with a hyper link to the sexy video), ‘I Wanna Be Bad’. The album used smooth pop/R&B grooves, hot dance beats and vocoders. Although Willa has the beauty and talent mixed in with a hit single, her album only reached #56 on the Billboard Charts.

While promoting her album, Willa did a Mall tour for Nautica Kids, served as the spokesperson for Pantene Pro-V’s ‘Pro-Voice’ campaign, and appeared on the in-concert cable special, Teensation. Also MTV got Willa to host their reality series ‘I Bet You Will’. MTV was impressed by Willa’s hosting they got her to also host their Spring Break series, which included ‘The Morning After’. Willa’s song ‘I Wanna Be Bad’ became the theme song for Six-Flags theme parks and was also use by 7-UP for one of their campaigns. Willa also became a model for Bongo Ads. In 2002 Willa co-wrote and sang a duet with Korean Pop star Park Ji Yoon intitled ‘Nastified’, which was on Park's 5th album Man.

In 2003 Willa came back with a hot dance song that forever immortalized a sorority chant, ‘A Toast To Men’, which featured a special guest rapper Lady May. The single was from her unreleased sophomore album ‘Sexysexobsessive’. The single did well, but cause of some legalities at her label her album wasn’t released. This also caused Willa to leave the label and go in search for a new one.

While fans wait for a her sophomore release, Willa has made some appearances. In 2005 Willa was chosen from many candidates to host the fighting competition reality show ‘The Ultimate Fighter’. After the show’s finale Willa got a shot at being the summers guest doll, for the Vegas Pussy Cat Dolls show. As well as being one of the celebrity quarterbacks in the upcoming 2006 Lingerie Bowl III. Which will air during the Super Bowl halftime.

Discography

Albums

• 2001: Willa Was Here

Singles

• 2001: I Wanna Be Bad (feat. Royce Da 5'9)
• 2001: Did Ya Understand That
• 2001: Santa Baby (Gimme, Gimme, Gimme)
• 2003: A Toast To Men (feat. Lady May)

Soundtracks/Others

• 1999: Pokémon: The First Movie [Soundtrack]
• 2001: Pantene Pro Voice Vol 1
• 2001: Spyder Games [Soundtrack]
• 2001: Totally Hits 2001
• 2001: MTV: TRL Christams
• 2002: Park Ji Yoon - Man
• 2002: MTV-The Best Of Trl Pop
• 2002: Undercover Brother [Soundtrack]
• 2003: What A Girl Wants [Soundtrack]
• 2003: Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star [Soundtrack]
• 2004: Gay.com: Winter 2004 Hits

Filmography

Music Videos

• 2001 I Wanna Be Bad
• 2001 Did Ya Understand That
• 2001 Santa Baby (Gimme, Gimme, Gimme)
• 2002 Uncle Kracker's: In A Little While -"Girlfriend"
• 2003 A Toast To Men

TV

• 2001 Pantene Pro-Voice Featuring Jewel - Herself
• 2001 The Mind of the Married Man - Herself
• 2002 Six Flags Commercial - Herself
• 2002 Rasing Dad - Edie "Bully"
• 2002 I Bet You Will - Herself
• 2002 The Miss Teen USA Pageant - Co-host
• 2003 Morning After - Herself
• 2004 VH1's 100 Most Outrageous Celebrity Moments - Herself "commentator"
• 2004 VH1's My Coolest Years: Bad Girls - Herself "featured"
• 2005 VH1's 100 Greatest Kids Stars - Herself "commentator"
• 2005 The Ultimate Fighter - Host
• 2005 My Fair Brady: Episode 3 - Herself "model"

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