Ledisi Anibade Young (born 1972) is an American R&B and jazz recording artist, songwriter and actress. Her first name means "to bring forth" or "to come here" in Yoruba. Ledisi is known for her jazz influenced vocals. In 1995, Ledisi formed the group known as Anibade. After unsuccessfully trying to get the group signed to a major label, she formed LeSun Records with Sundra Manning. Along with her group, Anibade, Ledisi released an album titled
Take Time. The album gained major airplay from local radio stations. She is a nine-time Grammy Award nominee.
In 2000, Ledisi released her first album, titled
Soulsinger: The Revival. Ledisi and her group toured in 2001, performing various shows. 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 in the top ten of the US
Billboard 200 album chart at number eight, becoming her 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" off of his Grammy Award-winning fifth album
Black Radio (2012). In 2014, she released her sixth album
The Truth to critical acclaim and moderate sales. She is set to portray the legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in the Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic entitled
Selma.