Singer and songwriter Ledisi (LED-uh-see), who leaped onto the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with her debut CD Lost And Found, has been tapped by actor, writer, and producer George Clooney for his new film Leatherheads, which arrives in theaters December 17th. Ledisi will portray a 1920s nightclub singer in the vintage football comedy, much the way Dianne Reeves played an Ella Fitzgerald-like chanteuse in his 2005 '50s drama Good Night And Good Luck.

The opportunities are coming fast and thick for the Oakland, California-based Ledisi, whose background includes opera training, two previous independent CDs, and several theater gigs on Broadway, where she workshopped an early version of The Color Purple and was an understudy for the Tony-winning hit Caroline Or Change.

The singer encountered some rough patches on the road to solo recognition, and is grateful that she didn't quit performing, something she seriously considered. She explained: "I really just had to strip down and leave everything and move to New York, you know, I slept on the floor at a friend's house with two suitcases and I worked on Broadway, and just focused on, 'what did I want to do now?' Because really I just didn't want to get back onstage with my own stuff, just kinda chill out and be a teacher or something. Yeah, I was gonna walk away, it was too much pressure."

Ledisi's first single from Lost And Found is "Alright."



More Smooth Jazz Music News