Americans for the Arts and The United States Conference of Mayors presented Ledisi with the 2016 Artist Advocacy Award at the mayor’s Winter Meeting.

Ledisi (which means “to bring forth” or “to come here” in Yoruba) is nine-time Grammy nominated R&B and jazz recording artist, songwriter, who tours nationally. In 2015, she received her ninth Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Performance for the single “Like This” from her seventh album The Truth.

First Lady Michelle Obama has invited Ledisi to perform multiple times at the While House, most notably at The Motown Sound: In Performance at the White House, a musical tribute held in celebration of Black History Month and at an event honoring Women Mentors, where she was one of three women the First Lady called out in her remarks.

She first began performing publicly at age eight with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra. She studied classical music and jazz at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts | Riverfront (NOCAA), which is Louisiana’s premier arts training center for high school students and also a 2006 recipient of the Public Leadership in the Arts Award for Excellence in Arts Programs for Youth.

She was nominated for a Shellie Award in 1990 for her performance in a production of The Wiz and performed in an extended run with the San Francisco cabaret troupe, Beach Blanket Babylon. She studied opera and piano for five years at University of California Berkeley in its Young Musicians Program. She portrayed legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in the Oscar-nominated Martin Luther King, Jr. 2014 biopic film, Selma.

Throughout her career, she has never forgotten her New Orleans roots or the opportunity to give back to support its re-emergence after Hurricane Katrina.