Ledisi

It also garnered three Grammy nominations at the 54th Grammy Awards including for Best R&B Album.

Ledisi Anibade Young (born March 28, 1972), better known simply as Ledisi, is an American R&B and jazz recording artist, songwriter, music producer, author and actress.

Her name means "to bring forth" or "to come here" in Yoruba.

In 1995, Ledisi formed a band after her middle name Anibade.

After unsuccessfully trying to get signed to a major label, she formed LeSun Records with Sundra Manning.

Ledisi and Sundra decided to release Ledisi's debut album entitled Soulsinger (black and white cover on the LeSun Music independent label) featuring the song "Take Time", which gained substantial airplay from San Francisco area radio stations.

In 1995, Ledisi formed a band called Anibade, won acclaim in the San Francisco Bay Area with a cult-like following of die-hard fans who referred to themselves as "Ledheads" and meet her with love at every event, singing along verbatim to songs that though unrecorded at the time, were well known by their fans.

During this time, Ledisi met keyboardist Sundra Manning and recorded an album "Soulsinger" and shopped it around to a many major labels, all of them turned her down.

Since releasing her debut Soulsinger in 2000, Ledisi has released eleven studio albums and earned fourteen Grammy Award nominations to date, winning her first for Best Traditional R&B Performance for "Anything For You" in 2021.

Aside from music, Leidsi has embarked a career in film and television as an actress.

In January 2000, Ledisi released her first album, Soulsinger, independently on her label, LeSun Records.

The album had fan favorites, "Soulsinger", "Take Time", "Get Outta My Kitchen", and "Good Lovin'".

After the release of Soulsinger, Ledisi began performing outside of the Bay Area.

In 2002, Ledisi re-released her first album, titled Soulsinger: The Revival under Tommy Boy Records., featuring a bonus track with Grammy Award Winner Meshell Ndegeocello on bass.

Ledisi also released her second album, Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue, which won "Outstanding Jazz Album" at the California Music Awards.

In 2002, Ledisi released her second album, Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue, which was also released independently.

The album featured the singles "Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue" and "Autumn Leaves".

Also in 2002, Ledisi re-released Soulsinger as Soulsinger:The Revival, on Tommy Boy Records.

In 2003, Ledisi won "Outstanding Jazz Album" forFeeling Orange but Sometimes Blue at the California Music Awards.

In 2006, she signed with Verve and released "Blues in the Night" which featured on the tribute album, We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song.

In 2005, Ledisi signed a record deal with Verve Forecast and released her third album, titled Lost & Found, on August 28, 2007; it sold almost 217,000 copies and earned her two Grammy nominations, including one for Best New Artist.

In August 2007, Ledisi's third album, Lost & Found, was released.

Ledisi stated that she was unsure of wanting to stay in the music industry.

In response, Ledisi wrote the song "Alright" to express her life.

"Alright" became the lead single and debuted at #45 on the Billboard Hot R&B chart.

In 2008, Ledisi released her Christmas album, It's Christmas.

In 2009, Ledisi released her fourth album Turn Me Loose, which earned her two Grammy nominations, followed by her fifth album Pieces of Me (2011) which debuted on the US Billboard 200 album chart at number eight, becoming the first top-ten album of her career and her highest-charting album to date.

In 2013, she received a nomination for Best R&B Performance at the 55th Grammy Awards for her collaboration with fellow R&B and jazz musician Robert Glasper for the album cut "Gonna Be Alright" from his fifth album Black Radio (2012).

In 2014, she released her sixth album The Truth to critical acclaim and moderate sales, subsequently followed by albums Let Love Rule (2017), The Wild Card (2020) and Ledisi Sings Nina (2021), all of which have earned varying degrees of chart success and multiple Grammy Award nominations.

She portrayed gospel icon Mahalia Jackson in the films Selma (2014) and Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story (2022).

Other roles include a guest appearance as Patti LaBelle in the BET docudrama American Soul, a cameo appearance as a choir member in the FX drama Pose (both 2020), as well as co-starring as Gladys Knight in the upcoming film Spinning Gold (2023).

She is also set to star in her first Hallmark original movie All Saints Christmas (2022).

Ledisi was born in New Orleans and was raised Catholic in Oakland, California.

Ledisi first began performing publicly at age eight with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra.

Ledisi moved to Oakland, California, where she attended McChesney Junior High School, now Edna Brewer Middle School.

She was shy about her singing abilities and would sing only upon request when students in her gym class would implore her to sing Deniece Williams's version of Black Butterfly, bringing the entire classroom audience under the spell of her very mature, melodious voice.

As she sang more publicly her music career blossomed and she earned a scholarship to study opera and piano for five years at University of California Berkeley in their Young Musicians Program.

Right after graduating from high school she was nominated for a Shellie award for her performance in a production of The Wiz That nomination would lead her to be a long time cast member with the San Francisco cabaret, Beach Blanket Babylon.

While working at Beach Blanket Babylon, Ledisi worked at a record shop and waited tables part-time.

It was not until she began performing regularly at local clubs like Cafe DuNord, The Elbo Room, Bruno's, Mecca, and Rasselas that she began making a name for herself in the local club scenes in the Bay Area.