Willa Ford (born Amanda Lee Williford on January 22, 1981) is an American pop singer-songwriter, producer, and occasional television personality and host.

She first became popular in 2001 as the self proclaimed "Bad Girl of Pop," when she released her debut album, Willa Was Here. Outside of music, Ford has hosted several reality television shows.


Biography

Willa FordFord was born and raised in Ruskin, Florida. As a young girl, she studied opera and began pursuing a singing career at the age of eight, when she started 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 five to 16, who toured the area and sang at such places as Walt Disney World Resort and Busch Gardens. Ford moved her way up from a chorus member to the role of featured soloist. When she 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, California. Ford graduated from East Bay High School with a 4.25 GPA, maintained the Honor Roll throughout high school, and was in Honor/Advanced Placement classes.

In 1999, Ford, then performing under the stage name Mandah, was signed to MCA. With MCA, she released a song called "Lullaby" on the double-platinum soundtrack Pokemon: The First Movie. She also landed a spot as an opening act for the Backstreet Boys, which not only brought her attention for her performances, but for her relationship with Nick Carter, one of the group's members, as well. Soon Ford's label had her change her stage name from Willa Ford, to avoid confusion with Mandy Moore, 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 Ford, MCA decided to drop her, letting her move on to a label that would embrace her "bad girl" image.


Willa Was HereWhile during a mall tour for Nautica Kids, Ford was noticed by Lava/Atlantic Records. It wasn't long before Lava/Atlantic would give Ford a deal and put her into their recording studio with a diverse variety of writers and producers. Unlike some other teen singers at the time, Ford preferred to write most of her lyrics herself.

On July 17, 2001, Ford released her debut album Willa Was Here. The album contained the single "I Wanna Be Bad." The album used pop/R&B grooves, dance beats and vocoders. Despite the hit single, the album only reached No. 56 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Also that year, Ford served as the spokesperson for Pantene Pro-V's "Pro-Voice" campaign, and appeared on the in-concert cable special Teensation. Ford also hosted MTV's Total Request Live and Say What Karaoke. MTV was impressed by Ford's hosting and she received a contract with them.

In 2002, Ford co-wrote and sang a duet with South Korean pop star Park Ji-yoon entitled "Nastified," which appeared on Ji-yoon's fifth album, Man. Also, Ford hosted The Morning After, which lasted throughout 2003, along with her debut reality series – I Bet You Will. Ford'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. Ford also became a model for Bongo clothing ads.

I think Willa may do very well on Dancing With The Stars.