Big times are ahead for the second tier of girl-pop tarts. Jessica Simpson releases her second album this week. Mandy Moore's second record comes out June 19. And in July, the debut album finally arrives from the woman who might be the most controversial of the pop tarts -- and the most banal at the same time. Her name is Willa Ford.
It's been a long road to this first album for this 20-year-old singer. She grew up in Tampa as Amanda Williford before moving to L.A. to pursue her life dream of dancing around on MTV half-naked.
It's been tough for Willa to figure out her image over the last couple of years. First she was "Mandy Williford." Then she appeared on the soundtrack to the Pokemon movie under the name "Manduh." Then she went for a more adult persona with the name "Willa Ford."
Willa got one big break, though, one responsible for most of the controversy that revolves around her. She became the love interest of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter. She was the opening act for the Backstreet Boys on their Millenium tour. She should have been embraced by TRL nation, right?
Wrong. Rather than be embraced by Backstreet fans, Willa was reviled. Among many teenage girls she is placed somewhere between Hitler and Stalin on the scale of evil. The Web is filled with anti-Willa websites with names like Say No to Willa Ford and Willa Da Witch.
Backstreet fans have littered the web with stories of their horrible experiences with Willa. One fan writes, "I have seen her at a concert pull Nick away and yell at him when me and my friend were getting autographs." Another reports that Willa once followed Nick into a bathroom to keep fans away from him. Willa-haters even post soundclips of her allegedly berating the other Backstreet Boys backstage.
Willa broke up with her Backstreet boyfriend last October and finally got her career into gear. Her album Willa Was Here will be released July 17. She's appearing on a number of MTV's summer programs like Say What Karaoke. Her new video "I Wanna Be Bad" is now a TRL-staple, although the anti-Willa websites ask fans to call TRL specifically requesting they not play it.
It seems like a lot of extraneous hatred for a run-of-the-mill pop singer. "I Wanna Be Bad" is pretty typical of the pop tart genre, with bouncing beat and faux-naughty lyrics proclaiming that she's "losing all my cool/I'm about to break the rules/I wanna be bad." She's yet another aspiring role model teaching America's teen women that their paramount employment objective should be "stripper." Yawn.
Nonetheless, now that Willa has begun to appear on MTV, those who did not hate her before are beginning to discover her. Willa Ford searches are now about ten times what they were just four weeks ago. This week she received more searches from Lycos users than the self-proclaimed "most downloaded woman on the Internet" Cindy Margolis.
Will Willa beat Jessica and Mandy into the Lycos 50? Will she be the new Britney (or at least the new Christina)? Will the combined promotional forces of MTV and Atlantic Records conquer the massive anger of grassroots Willa haters? Only the future knows?
