Billy Crawford

Billy Joe Ledesma Crawford (born May 16, 1982) is a Filipino actor and singer.

Crawford is a recipient of two NRJ Music Awards, a FAMAS Award and a special Ani ng Dangal award from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

Crawford made his television debut as a child performer on the variety show That's Entertainment.

As a child actor, he received repeated acclaim for his performances in films such as Lost Command and Sandakot Na Bala (both 1988) and television programs such as Lovingly Yours, Helen.

For his performance in the latter's episode "My Brother, My Friend" in 1988, Meg Mendoza of the Manila Standard stated that Crawford was "the most natural child actor we've seen after Jay Ilagan", though she noted that his Tagalog can be improved upon.

He attended the Imus Unida Christian School in the Philippines until his departure for the US when he was 12 and balanced both his professional acting and his studies.

In the United States, he started a music career, performing mostly in the United Kingdom and France, as well as in Asia.

His early career started in Dallas, Texas, where he lived and performed his singing and then moved to New York City.

During this time, he legally changed his stage name to Billy Crawford.

He first went to P.S./I.S. 217 Roosevelt Island Public School and then to Professional Performing Arts School in New York City with other famous professional children, such as Lee Thompson Young, Mandy Moore and Nina Sky.

In 1994, at age 12, Crawford left the Philippines for the U.S., enrolling at the Professional Performing Arts School, New York City; less than one year later, he was chosen to be one of Michael Jackson's back-up dancers for a performance at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards.

Following his eventual graduation from performing arts high school, and subsequent return to the Philippines, Billy Crawford: It's Time was staged at the Araneta Coliseum as his homecoming special.

In 2022, he was announced as the grand winner of the French dance competition program, Danse avec les Stars (English: ‘dance with the stars’).

Having sold an estimated 2 million records worldwide, Crawford is among the best-selling Filipino artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

He released three studio albums under V2 Records, the first being his self-titled debut album.

In 1995, when he was 13, he landed his first professional gig as a backup dancer for Michael Jackson for his performance of Dangerous at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards.

Crawford recorded his self-titled first album Billy Crawford (which included hits such as "Urgently in Love" and "Mary Lopez") when he was 15 years old.

In 2001, "Trackin'" was the first single from the album Ride and can be deemed as the singer's most successful hit single: it peaked at number five for five weeks in France and was certified platinum.

In 2002, he released his sophomore album Ride.

It was a commercial success, being certified Gold in Switzerland by the IFPI and Platinum in France by the SNEP.

It produced his most successful single, "Trackin", which was a massive chart success across Europe.

It reached No. 1 in the Netherlands, peaked at No. 11 on the European Hot 100 Singles and sold 500,000 units in France.

Billy Joe Ledesma Crawford was born in Manila, Philippines, to a Filipino mother from Jaro, Iloilo City named Mayette Ledesma and an American father named Jack Crawford.

He has two half-brothers.

Crawford was discovered at the early age of 3 years, singing at a bowling alley that his mother often visited.

He became a series regular on an afternoon GMA Network television show called That's Entertainment under the name Billy Joe.

Afterwards, he acted in various screen works such as the films Lost Command and Sandakot Na Bala and the anthology drama series Lovingly Yours, Helen, with his performances being consistently acclaimed.

By April 2002, Crawford was back on the scene with his second album, Ride.

This was certified gold in France (selling 100,000 copies) within just a few weeks and gold in Switzerland.

The album went on to achieve platinum status in the French market (selling 300,000 copies) and a total of 600,000 copies has been sold to date.

As for singles, following the success of the second track, "When You Think About Me" (over 250,000 copies sold in France), Crawford returned in September 2002 with a third single from the Ride album, "You Didn't Expect That", which went directly into the top 5 and was certified gold in December, having sold more than 250,000 copies in just a few weeks.

In the UK, the song was released as the third single after "You Didn't Expect That" in August 2003 and reached No. 32 on the UK chart.

After this grand success, he returned in 2003 with two versions of a previously unreleased track: the English version of "Someone Like You" and a special Franco-English version for France, "Me passer de toi", which stayed in the singles charts for some weeks.

The album Big City was produced by some of the best producers in the American music industry such as Kovas (Ghettobeat Production), J Que (from "The Clutch"), Tricky Stewart and Laney Stewart (RedZone Entertainment), The CornaBoyz, Pale Face, Desmond Child and Stargate.

He left his old company, V2 records, wanting to expand his career into something bigger.

Big City Tour Live is the live release DVD album from Crawford.

The DVD was released in France in 2005.

It was directed by Michel Jankielewicz, produced by Yves El-Baze and distributed by UMG (2005) (worldwide) (DVD).

As of August 2014, it was the 74th best-selling single of the 21st century in France, with 343,000 units sold.

The song reached No. 1 in the Netherlands, No. 2 in Belgium, No. 3 in Switzerland and No. 20 in Germany.