Willa Ford Artistfacts

January 22, 1981
Born Amanda Lee Williford, Willa Ford grew up in Ruskin, Florida, where she started singing in local choirs as a child. By the time she was 18, Ford landed an ill-fated record deal with MCA, who wanted to market her as a squeaky-clean bubblegum-pop singer. She balked and wrote the defiant "I Wanna Be Bad" in response. The song caught the attention of Atlantic Records - where she issued her debut album, Willa Was Here, in 2001 - and became her first hit.
Ford originally went by the stage name Mandah but decided to change it to avoid confusion with another up-and-coming pop singer, Mandy Moore.
Ford had high hopes for her second single, "Did Ya' Understand That," but it had an unfortunate release date: September 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks against the US understandably overshadowed any music released on that date and, as a result, Ford's single didn't appear on any charts.
A year before she released her debut album, Ford was a supporting act for The Backstreet Boys during their 2000 Millennium Tour. She ended up dating the most popular member of the boyband, Nick Carter, the blonde heartthrob that legions of teen girls pined for. Even though the romance was short-lived, several anti-Willa Ford websites by jealous BSB fans popped up on the internet while "I Wanna Be Bad" was building steam on the radio.
From the ages of 12 to 17, Ford trained as an opera singer, but she gave it up when she couldn't handle the strict rules anymore. "I was a 16-year-old girl, and my teacher was telling me, 'You can't talk on the phone because you're straining your vocals' and, 'You can't drink that' and, 'You can't eat this,'" she told Glamour in 2019. She shifted to pop when she realized she wanted to "dance and have fun and write fun music."
For 25 years, Ford only had one album in her catalog. She made her comeback in 2026 with her sophomore release, Amanda. The singer said a major reason for her hiatus was a traumatic experience she endured during her time in the music industry. Years later, the psychological stress from the incident ended up causing a seizure disorder (psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES)) and she turned to songwriting to cope, which inspired her to make her return. The Amanda track "Disassociate" describes her experience with the illness.
After she stepped back from the music industry, Ford carved out a career as an interior designer, which, she explained, isn't all that different from making music: Music is about creating a song, while design is about creating a space.

"It's like a bassline is a rug," she told People magazine in 2026.

She started her own interior design firm, W Ford Interiors, and co-starred on Scott Disick's house-flipping reality show, Flip It Like Disick, in 2019.
Ford attempted an acting career, with roles on the TV series Leverage and the 2009 remake of Friday The 13th, but she found it unfulfilling. Her first big role was portraying the late Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith in the 2007 biographical film The Anna Nicole Smith Story. Anna Nicole made headlines for marrying an 89-year-old billionaire and later became the star of her own reality show that often portrayed her as a ditzy blonde.

Ford found a different angle on the model in her research. "I think she was one of the most interesting people we'll see in her lifetime," she told Billboard in 2017. "I don't think she was dumb - I just think she looked at the world differently than us. It was fun to see the world through her eyes for a while."
In 2007, Ford married hockey player Mike Modano, who at the time played center for the Dallas Stars. They divorced in 2012, and Ford married former NFL linebacker Ryan Nece of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Detroit Lions. They have two kids, a son and a daughter.
Ford became a gay icon after the release of "I Wanna Be Bad," which the LGBTQ community embraced as an anthem of self-acceptance. When the singer was feeling hesitant about her comeback, she thought of her queer fanbase. "There was a community that was being crapped on every day, and they might need me," she told People. "So can I change five people's lives? Okay, I'll do it."
Ford was featured on MTV Cribs in a 2007 episode, where she showed off her 7300-square-foot Dallas mansion with then-fiancé Mike Modano. Working with a designer on the house, which boasted four bedrooms and 5.5 baths, is what inspired her to pursue interior design.
Ford competed on the third season of ABC's Dancing With The Stars in 2006. She was paired with professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, and the duo did the foxtrot to Spandau Ballet's "True," the mambo to Sean Paul's "Get Busy," the jive to Rihanna's "S.O.S. (Rescue Me)," and the waltz to Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life." On the fifth week, they were eliminated after doing the rumba to The Police's "Every Breath You Take."

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