Willa Ford is trying to set things straight after saying that the terrorist attacks on 9/11 marked the end of her career as a pop singer.
“A lot of people don’t realize this, but my second single was released on September 11, 2001,” Ford told Billboard in an interview published earlier this week. “Everything that happened that day froze; the world stood still, as it should have. My second single didn’t do well because anything that launched that day kind of got canned.”
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Ford was disappointed to see that media outlets took that to mean she blamed her failed career on the tragedy, telling People that “could not be further from the truth.”
“In a recent interview with Billboard, I made a comment about the release of a single by my record label on September 11, 2001, where I stated ‘Everything that happened that day froze; the world stood still as it should have.’ During the past day, other news outlets have taken the liberty to say that I somehow blamed 9/11 for my song not taking off . . . this could not be further from the truth.”
“It was meant to be an inspirational piece about how the universe sent me in a new and different direction, one that has led me to success and joy in other areas of my personal and professional life,” she added.
Ford burst onto the music scene in 2000 with her hit single, “I Wanna Be Bad,” but the follow-up single and album didn’t see the same success. The 36-year-old singer has been working as an interior designer ever since and doesn’t know if she’ll ever return to music.