International Artist- Ashanti (singer)

Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas (born October 13, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actress. She was first discovered as a teenager and later signed to Murder Inc. in 2002. That year, she was featured on Fat Joe’s “What’s Luv?” and Ja Rule’s “Always on Time”, both of which became two of the biggest hit songs of 2002; Ashanti became the first female artist to occupy the top two positions on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart simultaneously when “Foolish” and “What’s Luv?” were at numbers one and two, respectively.

In 2002, Ashanti released her eponymous debut album, which sold over 505,000 copies throughout the U.S. in its first week of release. The album earned her many awards, including eight Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, and a Grammy Award in 2003 for Best Contemporary R&B Album. The album has since been certified triple platinum in the United States and sold six million copies worldwide. The lead single for the album, “Foolish”, was a critical and commercial success; it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. With “Foolish”, she became the second artist (after The Beatles) to have their first three chart entries in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously. Ashanti wrote and sang for Jennifer Lopez’s “Ain’t It Funny (Murder Remix)”, which also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2003, Ashanti released her second album, Chapter II, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 326,000 copies in the U.S. The album went platinum, selling over 1.5 million copies in U.S. since its release. The album’s singles, “Rock wit U (Awww Baby)” and “Rain On Me”, were both commercial successes, peaking at number two and number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, respectively. Chapter II was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album, and “Rock wit U (Awww Baby)” and “Rain on Me” were each nominated in the categories of Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. In November 2003, Ashanti released a Christmas album titled Ashanti’s Christmas, which was a modest commercial success.

In 2004, Ashanti released her third studio album, Concrete Rose, the title of which took on Tupac Shakur’s pseudonym “The Rose That Grew from Concrete”. The album debuted at number seven in the U.S., with first-week sales of 254,000 copies, and became her third platinum certified album. The first single, “Only U”, reached number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and became her biggest hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number two. A second single, the ballad “Don’t Let Them”, garnered little chart success after Def Jam refused to fund a music video due to Irv Gotti’s legal troubles during his money laundering trial. Her subsequent albums, including The Declaration (2008) and Braveheart (2014), the latter of which was released independently, were less successful. Throughout her career, Ashanti has sold over 15 million records worldwide.

Aside from music, Ashanti has also acted in various productions. In 2005, she made her feature film debut in Coach Carter alongside Samuel L. Jackson, as well as starring as Dorothy Gale in the made-for-television film The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, which pulled in nearly 8 million viewers when it premiered. She has since appeared in the films John Tucker Must Die (2006) and Resident Evil: Extinction (2007).

Career

2015–present: Current activities and upcoming seventh studio album

Ashanti at the MTV video music awards 2019

In 2015, she announced that she had worked on new music for her seventh album, with an unknown release date. Ashanti collaborated with Michelle Obama for her #Let’sMove campaign to spread awareness of drinking water with her new video and song “Let’s Go” released in 2015. In 2016 she collaborated on the song “Seven Day Love” included in the album “Inzombia” by canadian singer Belly. She is also worked with numerous artists, including Sia, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Queen Latifah, Usher and Kelly Clarkson to interpret the songs of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” for the compilation “The Hamilton Mixtape”.

In 2017, Ashanti announced her seventh studio album, which will be released in 2018, but it was denied in June 2018, confirming a future release of an album in collaboration with rapper Ja Rule. Between 2017 and 2018 she returned to the music scene with several collaborations including the single “Say Less” with Ty Dolla Sign, the track “The Road” by Machel Montano and collaborated on the album “Tha Carter V” by Lil Wayne on the track “Start this Shit of Now” with Mack Maine.

In 2019 Ashanti released the single “Floating” and the collaboration “Pretty Little Thing” with Afro B in august 2019. She is also present in the soundtrack of the film she produced, Stuck.