Ledisi

Ledisi is the stage name of American singer-songwriter Ledisi Anibade Young, who achieved critical acclaim in the early to mid-aughts for a series of jazz-influenced R&B releases. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 28, 1972, she began singing during her teenage years in Oakland, California. After studying opera and piano at the University of California Berkeley, she became a cast member of the San Francisco cabaret Beach Blanket Babylon and later founded the short-lived band Anibade, which developed a cult following in the Bay Area. Soulsinger, her independently released studio debut, appeared in 2000 and was followed by a second album titled Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue in 2002. Even though these albums received little to no media attention, Ledisi continued to perform and managed to land a record deal with Verve in 2006. Lost & Found (2007), her first release for the label, peaked at number 10 on the US R&B charts and earned her a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Following the release of the holiday album It's Christmas in 2008, Ledisi re-emerged in 2009 with Turn Me Loose, a funk-tinged album that featured production by Raphael Saadiq, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, and James "Big Jim" Wright. Driven by singles such as "Goin' Thru Changes" and "Higher Than This," Turn Me Loose became a huge success, reaching number 1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Her musical journey continued over the next few years on well-received albums like Pieces of Me (2011), The Truth (2014), Let Love Rule (2017), all of which cracked the Top 10 of the R&B charts and turned her into a mainstay of the genre. In 2021, Ledisi won Best Traditional R&B Performance at the Grammy Awards for the single "Anything for You," included in her 2020 ninth studio effort The Wild Card. That same year, she also paid homage to Nina Simone on the tribute album Ledisi Sings Nina, recorded with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and the Metropole Orkest. The singer returned to the charts two years later with the soulful ballad "I Need to Know," which went to number 24 on the Adult R&B Songs chart in 2023. The Good Life, her first batch of original songs since 2020's Wild Card, came out in 2024 via Listen Back Entertainment and BMG. It featured the promotional singles "I Need to Know," "Sell Me No Dreams," and "Perfect Stranger" with Kenny Lattimore.