Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas was born on October 13, 1980, better known as Ashanti, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, dancer, model and fashion designer who rose to fame in the early 2000s.

She is most famous for her eponymous grammy award winning debut album Ashanti which featured the hit song "Foolish", and sold a record-breaking 503,000 copies (gold) in its first week of release in the USA in April 2002.

In the same week, she became the first female performer to simultaneously hold the top two places on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Foolish", and "What's Luv" (with Fat Joe).

She broke records again by having three Top Ten songs (Foolish, What's Luv, and Always on Time (with Ja Rule)) on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the same week, being the first female to accomplish this feat and being second only to The Beatles.

Ashanti also wrote and sang background on the song "Ain't It Funny" (Murder Remix) sung by Jennifer Lopez which was also in the top 10 charts at the same time as "Foolish", "Always on Time" (with Ja Rule), and "What's Luv" (with Fat Joe).

In 2002, she was acclaimed as the "Princess of Hip Hop and R&B." By 2007 Ashanti had sold more than 7 million albums in the U.S., and more than 12 million albums worldwide.

Ashanti cites Mary J. Blige, Ella Fitzgerald, and Blue Magic as her musical influences. She is currently working on her fourth studio album entitled The Declaration, which is due out in December of 2007.

Ashanti appeared in the Sci-Fi horror thriller Resident Evil: Extinction as a fire-powered Florence Nightingale named Nurse Betty.