Amanda Lee Williford was born on 22 January 1981 in Ruskin, Florida, and is known by her stage name Willa Ford. She began singing with the Tampa Bay Children's Choir at age eight. moving on to the Tampa-based children's performing arts troupe when she was 11, and by the age of 18 she was performing under the stage name Mandah, and was signed to MCA Records. This didn't last long, and after she was dropped from MCA she signed to Atlantic Records, who placed one of Ford's songs, 'Lullaby', on the soundtrack of the 1998 film 'Pokémon: The First Movie'. Ford changed her stage name from Mandah to Willa Ford to avoid confusion with Mandy Moore, and in 2001 she was signed to a new label, Lava Atlantic Records, while on a mall tour for Nautica Kids. She wrote most of her own lyrics, and served as executive producer for most of her first album, with 'Willa Was Here' being released in July 2001. It included the single 'I Wanna Be Bad' which featured rapper Royce da 5'9", and the album reached 56 on the Billboard 200. A second single from the album, 'Did Ya' Understand That', failed to attract as much attention, which was blamed on it being released on September 11 2001, and being overlooked in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. Ford went on to guest-host MTV's TRL and Say What Karaoke, which led to a hosting contract with Viacom, fronting the MTV reality shows The Morning After and I Bet You Will. In 2003, she released the single 'A Toast To Men', which was the lead track from what was have been her second album 'Sexysexobsessive', after the title was changed from her original suggestion of 'Porn Poetry'. However, the album was cancelled following issues within the record company, even though 'A Toast To Men' had received positive reviews, with some critics praising its feminist message. The title track, 'Sexysexobsessive', was to be the second single, but after the album was cancelled it was only released through Ford's official website. Tracks from the album have leaked, and so as it's fairly easy to piece it together, here is Willa Ford's second album, which should have appeared in 2004.
Track listing
01 Sexysexobsessive
02 F*ck The Men (A Toast To Men)
03 All The Right Moves
04 Who I Am
05 Not Such An Innocent Girl
06 Did Ya Understand That
07 Rock Tonight
08 Back Back Back
09 Nastified (feat. Park Ji Yoon)
10 All The Right Moves
Most of those tracks are from 2001, not from the 2003 second album's sessions. Out of those, only "A toast to men", "Who I am" and "Sexysexobsessive" are from the unreleased album. Some real album tracks have leaked, like "I See You" and "Pieces" but are not out there online, just few fans have them and we can't share them publicy.
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