Last Updated on February 29, 2024
Who is Ashanti?
Ashanti is a world-class American artist recognized globally for her ground-breaking success in music and acting. Since the dawn of the 2000s, Ashanti has rocked the world with her phenomenal music career, making her one of the most famous and successful women in modern music history.
For young Ashanti, singing was simply a means to express herself and lift her spirit. Being a singer himself, her father was instrumental in her development as a singer. He groomed her and built her confidence in her skills, paving the way for a career that would crystallize her as an icon for generations to come.
In her early teenage years, Ashanti began to show strong signs of rising to fame and fulfilling the American Dream. She often practiced her singing and consistently participated in local talent hunts and small festivals in her area. She also dabbled into her first taste of acting by casting as an extra in Malcolm X, the widely-acclaimed movie by Spike Lee.
During this period of her life, her mom developed a strong impression of her daughter’s talent. One day, as Ashanti sang Reminisce, Mary J. Blige’s hit song, her mom, Tina, overhead the singing and was wowed. That day, Tina became a fan of her own daughter!
Despite the firm promise that Ashanti’s talent held, her breakthrough into the limelight was not one without tears and blood. After some unsuccessful relationships with some labels, she continued to push her music in New York until her music trajectory spiked, and she was signed into Murder Inc. recording studio.
Quick Facts
Full Name: | Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas |
Popular Name: | Ashanti |
Gender: | Female |
Birth Date: | October 23rd, 1980 |
Age: | 42 years |
Parents: | Ken-Kaide Thomas Douglas and Tina Douglas |
Siblings: | Kenashia Douglas |
Birth Place: | Glen Cove, New York |
Nationality: | American |
Ethnicity: | African-American |
Education: | Glen Cove High |
Marital Status: | Single |
Sexual Orientation: | Straight |
Wife/Spouse: | N/A |
Children: | N/A |
Dating: | N/A |
Net Worth: | $8 Million |
Source of Wealth: | Music, Acting, TV Personality |
Height: | 5ft3 (1.6m) |
Weight: | 50kg (110.2 lbs) |
Early Life and Career Information
Ashanti’s legal name is Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas. Her name stems from a historic African empire; Ashanti, which ruled the West-African country of Ghana between 1670 and 1957. On the 23rd of October, 1980, she was born in Glen Cove, New York, where she lived for most of her life and career.
Ashanti was born into the home of two creatives who had solid musical inclinations. Her dad was a singer, and her mom was a dancer. Together, they raised her in the creative halo that birthed the Ashanti we know today.
Interestingly, Ashanti’s first taste of lights and cameras came through Hollywood when she starred as a child extra in some widely acclaimed movies, one of which was Spike Lee‘s Malcolm X. She also appeared in Who’s the Man? by Ted Demme.
Around the same time, she made appearances in music videos like MC’s Act Like They Don’t Know by KRS-One and Ghetto Girl by 8-Off.
Ashanti’s meteoric rise to stardom took its crescendo in 2001 when she appeared as a featured artist on the Fast and Furious soundtrack. The following year, she featured on two hit songs that etched her name on the lips of Americans for months.
The songs were Ja Rule‘s Always on Time and Fat Joe’s What’s Luv? Both songs subsequently became two of the hottest singles of the year, placing numbers one and two on the U.S Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Ashanti’s debut album was a massive hit. The leading song, Foolish, which was her debut single, is still her biggest hit. The song spent a whopping ten weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. The album itself debuted at no. one on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart and is currently certified triple platinum.
The debut album earned Ashanti numerous awards, including 8 Billboard Music Awards, 2 American Music Awards, and one Grammy Award in 2003 for Best Contemporary R&B Album. That same year, she was also honored with a Comet Award and 2 Soul Train Music Awards.
Ashanti’s second album, Chapter II, was released in 2003, and it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Its first single, Rock wit U (Awww Baby), was the album’s biggest hit and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. She also received a Lifetime Channel Achievement Award for one of the songs on the album.
After releasing Concrete Rose, her third studio album, Ashanti focused on her acting career, making her acting debut alongside Samuel L. Jackson in Coach Carter. She later starred in other movies, including The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, John Tucker Must Die, Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), and Christmas in the City.
Since then, Ashanti has released three more studio albums, all of which have been significant successes in the United States.
Ashanti’s Net Worth
Ashanti’s exploits in the limelight are not all there is to the American superstar. She has also been endorsed by multiple brands and is a businesswoman to the core.
In fact, she is extolled as the first black female artist to cofound a Web3 business, reflective of her drive and entrepreneurial tenacity. Added to her exploits in Hollywood and her long list of successful music releases, Ashanti’s net worth is a mesmerizing $8 Million
Lessons From the Life of Ashanti
Maintain Your Successes
One thing Ashanti’s life models is the ability to keep success coming. Despite the ground-breaking success of her debut, the songstress has, through her consistent accomplishments, proven that she can handle her wins and multiply them when possible.
Her actions, more or less, are an invitation for you to closely examine the areas you’ve recorded success in the past. Now, go back to those areas, and do what needs to be done in practice. At the end of the day, make it your norm to excel in the things you do.
Don’t Be Pressured by Society.
Ashanti is a 42-year-old woman with neither a husband nor a child. For some women, that is a tragic life they could never live. But not Ashanti. The beautiful and talented artist is living her best life, undisturbed by the crude opinions of naysayers. You can do that too!