Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, actor and author Ashanti, is a native of Glen Cove, Long Island. Ashanti burst onto the music scene with her smash hit, self-titled debut album “Ashanti.” It landed the #1 spot on both the Billboard Top 200 and R&B album charts, selling a whopping 504,593 units in it’s first week. Her first week showing set a Soundscan record as the most albums sold by any debut female artist in the charts history, granting her a spot in Guinness Book of World Records. With her hit song, “Foolish,” Ashanti also secured the #1 top spot on SIX Billboard charts simultaneously, including: Hot R&B/ Hip-Hop Airplay, The Billboard 200, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and Tracks, Hot 100 Airplay, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Hot 100! “Foolish” stayed on the Billboard charts for 11 consecutive weeks. She made Billboard history by having her first three chart entries land in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time and holding the #1 and #2 spots simultaneously on this chart. She is the first female to accomplish this feat, previously only attained by the Beatles.
That year she was awarded 8 Billboard awards. Her album “Ashanti” topped the Billboard Album Chart and also won the Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album. That year she won 2 American Music Awards and the Soul Train Aretha Franklin Entertainer of the Year Award. In addition to her Grammy, she’s also received multiple Soul Train Awards, a MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Award, a Comet Award (Grammy Equivalent in Germany), Lady of Soul Award, a Teen Choice Award and Nickelodeon’s Kid Choice Award, along with many other nominations including an MTV movie award nomination and an NAACP Image Award Nomination for her role as Kera in the film “Coach Carter.”
Ashanti’s other albums include “Ashanti’s Christmas,” “Chapter II,” which debuted in the number 1 slot for two consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 Album Chart and spawned two Top 10 singles. “Concrete Rose,” a remix album titled, “Collectibles by Ashanti” and “The Declaration,” which she Executive Produced. “The Declaration” album was also the start of her own Record label, “Written Entertainment”. The album was the first release on Written Entertainment, and it was distributed by Universal. Ashanti is the CEO of the company and the first artist on the label. Since its inception, Ashanti has released numerous projects on the label. “The Declaration” featured producers and artists: Babyface, LT Hutton, Diane Warren, Nelly, Jermaine Dupri, Pharell, Robin Thicke, Brian Cox, and Neffu to name a few. The first single off of “The Declaration,” “The Way That I Love You” won the Music Choice Video of the Year Award in 2009 and was produced by LT Hutton.
Ashanti’s fifth studio album, the highly-anticipated “Braveheart”, was released on March 4, 2014 on her label, Written Entertainment and distributed by eOne Music. The album features the heart-wrenching single, “Never Should Have” that won the 2013 Soul Train Award for Best Independent R&B/Soul Performance! “Braveheart”, also includes the tracks “I Got It” featuring Rick Ross, “First Real Love” featuring Beenie Man and hot single “Early in The Morning” featuring French Montana. The video was released September, 2014. Braveheart was the #1 Independent Album in the Country, made the top 10 Billboard 200 and was the #1 R&B Album in iTunes! Ashanti made her directorial debut for her video “The Woman You Love” featuring Buster Rhymes.
Ashanti is currently working on a Joint Venture with Producer Metro Boomin’ for an EP to be released later this year and her 6th Studio Album not yet titled to be released at the top of 2019. It features producer DJ Mustard, Ty $, Nipsey Hustle, Belly, J Roc, Dre Moon & A1, Insomiackz, LT Hutton, Sway Lee, Tory Lanez, producer Dun Dea, Chubbie baby and more!
She made her telefilm debut starring as Dorothy in The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, opposite Miss Piggy and Kermit. She also starred in the Disney animated series The Proud Family. She got her start in acting on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and portrayed Dionne Warwick on American Dreams. She has also played herself and performed on the hit TV series Vegas. She appeared as the special guest for the successful ABC ‘s Extreme Makeover Home Edition and was a special guest performer on NBC’s The Biggest Loser. She also was a guest star on Law and Order SUV.
In her feature film debut Coach Carter, she co-starred with Samuel L. Jackson in the #1 box office hit (MTV/Paramount). Ashanti’s other films include yet another #1 box office hit, Resident Evil Extinction, where she starred as “Nurse Betty” opposite Milla Jovovich (Sony Screen Gems). Previously, she starred in the hugely successful John Tucker Must Die (Twentieth Century Fox) alongside Jessie Metcalfe. She can be seen as an Indian songstress who sings in Hindi and English as she dances in the Bollywood film Bride & Prejudice with Aishwarya Rai (Miramax/Casablanca).
Ashanti wrote the title track for the film Dream House, produced by Morgan Creek and starring Daniel Craig. The track is titled “Never Too Far Away,” and was released on her label, Written Entertainment. In addition, she helped contribute to the soundtrack of the new film Tupac “All Eyez on Me”, slated for release June of 2017, also produced by Morgan Creek and Lions Gate with LT Hutton as Executive Producer.
She has written her first book of poetry through Hyperion titled Foolish/Unfoolish: Reflections on Love, which is currently in its eighth edition and is also an Audio Book/Spoken Word.
Ashanti made her theatre and stage debut with the starring role as Dorothy, in the Tony Award-winning Broadway adaption of The Wiz. She appeared in the 5th Anniversary of the Broadway smash Wicked, alongside Joy Behar and sang “Defying Gravity.” She was a part of the 70th Anniversary of the Classic Wizard of OZ at Tavern on the Green where she sang the Judy Garland version of, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” She released her version of the song in iTunes, through her label, Written Entertainment.
Ashanti is an entrepreneur! She has her own fragrance, “Precious Jewel,” originally exclusively sold at Wal-Mart then to 1st and 2nd tier stores, as well as a dietary supplement vitamin called “Ashanti’s OPC-3 Beauty Blend”. Her endorsements include: Herbal Essences, where she is the first African American to land a national hair campaign, Candies Apparel, as well as a MUDD Jeans’ line “Delicious Curves” sold in Macys and had a Johnson & Johnson’s national campaign for their exclusive Body Care Product .
Ashanti has performed before Presidents and royalty at the Whitehouse and Party in the Park in for Prince Albert in England. She has performed duets with the likes of Pattie Labelle, Smokey Robinson, Ronald Isley, Stevie Wonder and Kenny Chesney to name a few. She has appeared on shows ranging from: The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Ellen, The Queen Latifah Show, The Arsenio Hall, The Tonight Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Live With Kelly and Michael, Saturday Night Live, The View, Dr. Oz, The Rachael Ray Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, E!’s Chelsea Lately, BET’s 106 & Park, MTV’s TRL, VH1’s Hip Hop Honors, and Fuse TV among others. She has performed on virtually every music show and award shows from the Grammys to the American Music Awards, the MTV Video Music Awards, MTV Europe Awards, VMAs Japan, The BET Awards, The World Music Awards, The Much Music Awards, the Soul Train Awards, Teen Choice Awards and the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.
She Executive Produced her first television special on ABC Family currently Freeform. Ashanti partnered with Warren Miller to Executive Produce and shoot a pilot for a docudrama for E! She was an Executive Producer of “Fuse News,” on FUSE network TV. She was also a lead anchor on the show.
She continues to reign at the top as one of Billboard’s Top Females of the Decade from 2000-2010. She is currently on the list of The Twenty Best Selling Music Singles for her single “Foolish,” which has sold 10.2 million copies to date.
With all of this amazing success, Ashanti has never lost sight of who she is and how important it is to give back to the community. She has been very active supporting a large list of charities and good causes. Ashanti is the Ambassador for the Jumpstart reading program and an advocate for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She became the Youth of the Year Ambassador for the Boys and Girls Club of America and was inducted into their Hall of Fame. She became a member of their “BE GREAT” Campaign with Denzel Washington, with whom she shot a National PSA on education. The PSA was directed by Oscar Winner Ron Howard. She is also the Ambassador of Entertainment for Long Island, NY.
Ashanti’s starring role as LaTasha Montclair in the #1 Lifetime television series Army Wives, produced by ABC. One of her songs titled “Never Should Have” from her album “Braveheart” was used in the closing finale episode in a montage of the series Army Wives was sold in iTunes and went to #1 as a result.
Ashanti starred in the Lifetime movie “Christmas in the City”. She wrote 3 original Christmas songs and did a re-make cover of the Classic Christmas song “Let It Snow” that were all used in the movie as well. “The Let it Snow” song led the entire Lifetime Christmas Campaign “It’s A Wonderful Lifetime”. She released a Christmas EP Titled “A Wonderful Christmas with Ashanti” in iTunes thru her label, Written Entertainment for Christmas 2014, through her label Target added 5 new Christmas songs to the EP for an exclusive Christmas Album as a DELUXE edition for the 2015/16 holiday Season titled “A Wonderful Christmas with Ashanti”.
Ashanti starred as “Preacher,” an assassin who kills mutants in the SyFy movie “Mutant World” which aired on the SyFy channel. This TV movie also included one of her songs off her Braveheart Album “Early in the Morning” fea. French Montana. She recently had a role in the new CBS pilot “Murder”.
Ashanti starred as Eve in the feature film “Stuck” shot in NYC on subway along with Oscar Winner Amy Madigan and Giancarlo Esposito from Breaking Bad. She is also an Executive Producer and has written songs for the film. This film is a musical drama and will be released on November 16, 2018. It has been in several film festivals including the Breckenridge Film festival where Ashanti won the “Best Actress” Award. The film has also won Best Film and Best Ensemble. At the Woodstock Film Festival. The Napa Valley Film Festival has awarded “Stuck” with the narrative feature prize, which included a cash prize of $10,000 and winner for audience choice award for a total of 5 awards.
Continuing in through the past few years, she has appeared on several TV and Sports shows such as: Fashion Police, Katie Couric, The Chew, The Marie Osmond Show, VH1 Morning Buzz, (WWHL) Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Bloomberg, ESPN Answers-First Take, GMA and The View 4 times including a Christmas performance of “Santa Baby” from her Christmas Album, “A Wonderful Christmas with Ashanti”. She has appeared on the The Meredith Vieira Show 4 times, The Steve Harvey Show 2 times and has made a special guest judge appearance on “Ru Pauls” Drag Race Season 10 in June of this year!
This past spring she was the star of her episode of “Crashed” a Verizon go90 series that has a her crashing a fan performing one of her songs “Foolish”.
For the NBA All Star Weekend in NY, she wrote and performed a commercial for Shaq O’Neil’s show on ESPN Shaqtin’ A Fool. She even played in the MLB All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game for 2 years in a row.
Ashanti is America’s sweetheart singing God Bless America for MLB World Series and the 25th Anniversary of the WWE, The National Anthem for the NBA All-Star game, NFL Playoffs and sang it for the Manny Paquio vs. Bradley world champion fight in Vegas.
She also sang the National Anthem for the Historic Home Opener for the New York City Football Club, (NYCFC), at Yankee Stadium.
This past August Ashanti also sang the National Anthem for the MLS All Star game in Atlanta for
a record breaking audience of 172 thousand fans!
While still working on her own album, she took on a project with former former First Lady Michelle Obama, Dr. Olajide Williams and Dr. Oz for a Hip Hop for a Healthier America Event, where she wrote a song for Michelle Obama’s hip hop album, “Just Believe” The Video for “Just Believe” has a cameo of former President Obama and former Vice President Biden. The video was released and premiered on the CBS Entertainment Tonight Show with an additional record breaking # of TV and on-line social media views.
Ashanti was the face of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” Campaign, called “Drink Up” with the Partnership for a Healthier America! She donated a song she wrote titled “Let’s Go” to the campaign which is currently in iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and several other music outlets. She also shot a video for the campaign as well and performed personally for the former FLOTUS, Michelle Obama at the FNV “Fruits and Vegetables summit. As part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Campaign Ashanti was invited to the last White House Let’s Move Kitchen Garden event where she donated her Drink Up Ashanti water bottles for the children. She actually picked vegetables in the garden with the children that were cooked and eaten there. Former President Obama and Michelle were in attendance and joined in the festivities and group picture. She also has individual pictures with both The former President and former 1st Lady.
Ashanti is an Executive Producer on the film Mothers & Daughters that was released on May 6th , 2016 where she appears in the film as well. She also has her song “Mother” she wrote and was produced by Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds in the film.
She is the Executive Producer and owner on a TV pilot with the late Robin Leach and Executive Chef Barry Dakake titled “Celebrity Food Adventures”.
Ashanti and Ja Rule are worked on the infamous eleven Tony Award winning Musical “Hamilton” with Lin-Manuel Miranda. They remade the song “Helpless” in the musical that Lin says was inspired by both of them and was added to the Hamilton Mixtape. The Mixtape went to #1 on the Billboard top 200 and the “Helpless” song went to #1 on the Billboard top100 and iTunes.
Ashanti and Ja Rule Sold out 4 US tours, 1 European Tour and 1 Australia/New Zealand tour during 2016/2017. They are currently on tour again now that will go thru Spring of 2019.
Ashanti released her new single “Say Less” produced by DJ Mustard and featuring Ty Dolla $ign off of her Label Written Entertainment in April of 2018 as well. She has released a Ciroc National Campaign Ad with Diddy, French Montana and DJ Khaled which includes a Billboard on Sunset Blvd. in LA and a digital released version with her single “Say Less” in the commercial.
Ashanti also just completed the campaign for the release of the Black Panther DVD. She was the face of the social media segment and had to give a private intimate Black Panther Party with family and friends where they watched the film and saw the Bonus footage for the first time. Ashanti snapped and shot instagram stories along with Black Panther cast member Chadwick Boseman to send to Disney/ Marvel.
Look for this independent young lady to conquer the world in 2018 and the future!
