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BIOGRAPHY

Willa Ford
	BIOGRAPHY | GALLERY | GOSSIP | BLOG

Willa Ford, born Amanda Lee Williford on January 22, 1981, is an American pop singer and songwriter. She became popular in 2001, when she became the self-proclaimed "Bad Girl of Pop". She has also worked as a TV personality and TV host.

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 to 16 who toured the area and sang at such places as Walt Disney World and Busch Gardens. Willa 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 called FLA. She didn’t stay long with the group before deciding to head out to Los Angeles.

In 1999 Willa, then performing under the stage name Mandah, was signed to MCA. While with MCA she released a song called "Lullaby" on the double-platinum soundtrack Pokémon The First Movie. She also landed a spot as an opening act for the Backstreet Boys, which brought her attention for her performances as well as her relationship with one of the group's members Nick Carter. Soon Willa's label changed her stage name from Mandah, to avoid confusion with another female singer, to Willa Ford and tried to promote her as 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 into ther recording studio with a diverse variety of writers and producers. Unlike some other teen singers at the time, Willa preferred to write most of her lyrics herself.

On July 17, 2001, Willa released her debut album Willa Was Here. The album contained the single "I Wanna Be Bad". The album used smooth pop/R&B grooves, hot dance beats and vocoders. Despite the hit single, the album only reached #56 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

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, Willa hosted the MTV reality series I Bet You Will. MTV was impressed by Willa’s hosting and 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 used 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 entitled "Nastified", which appeared 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 guest rapper Lady May. The single was from her unreleased sophomore album Sexysexobsessive. The single did well, but because of some legalities at her label her album wasn’t released. This also caused Willa to leave the label and go in search of a new one.

While fans wait for 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 summer's guest doll, for the Vegas Pussycat Dolls show, as well as being one of the celebrity quarterbacks in the upcoming 2006 Lingerie Bowl III, which will be shown, on pay-per-view, during the halftime of Super Bowl XL. In February Willa will be featured in the March 2006 issue of Playboy Magazine, where she will be posing nude. Willa is currently dating UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Chuck Liddell.