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| 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. While during a mall tour for Nautica Kids, Willa was noticed by Lava/Atlantic Records. 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. In 2001, Willa served as the spokesperson for Pantene Pro-V's "Pro-Voice" campaign, and appeared on the in-concert cable special "Teensation". Also, Willa hosted MTV's TRL and Say What Karaoke many times. MTV was impressed by Willa’s hosting and she received a contract with them. 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. Also, Willa hosted "The Morning After," which lasted throughout 2003, along with her debut reality series - "I Bet You Will." 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 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 kept herself busy outside of music. In 2005 Willa hosted the first season of the fighting competition reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter. After the show’s finale Willa got a shot at being the 2005’s summer’s guest doll for the Las Vegas Pussycat Dolls show. In 2006 Willa was one of the four celebrity quarterbacks for the Dallas Desire’s in the third Lingerie Bowl, which was shown on pay-per-view during halftime of Super Bowl XL. February Willa showed how "bad" she really is by posing nude for the March 2006 issue of Playboy Magazine. For Valentines Day Willa joined Nicollette Sheridan, Cindy Margolis, and DJ Am for the special St. Valentines day show. In mid-April Willa became one of the celebrity poker players in “Calvin Ayre’s Poker Wild Card”[1]. In the May issue of Stuff Magazine, Willa ranked #48 in the supplement 101 Sexiest Online Women. |
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