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