Billy Joe Crawford, a Filipino-American recording artist, singer-songwriter, philanthropist and TV host was born on May 16, 1982 in Manila, Philippines. His mother Mayette Ledesma is a Filipina and his father Jack Crawford an American. Billy has two half-brothers in his father’s side. He went to school at the International Christian Academy in the Philippines until he left for the United States. Where he lived in New York City and in Paris for five years and a year in London. He considers English as his second language and he could speak French.
Billy Crawford was first noticed at an early age of three when he was singing at a bowling alley that his mother had frequented. Billy became a regular on the afternoon television show That’s Entertainment which aired in GMA-7. He won an award for the local version of the Academy Awards for Best Child Actor when he was just 6 years old. Billy acted in some movies before he left for the US where Billy started a music career and performed mostly in the United Kingdom and France and some countries in Asia. He lived and performed in Dallas Texas and later moved to New York.
During this time Billy legally changed his name to Billy Crawford. Billy attended the famous school Professional Children’s School and at the Professional Performing Arts School in New York together with other famous children like Mandy Moore, Nina Sky and Lee Thompson. Billy danced with Michael Jackson onstage in 1996 when he was just 14. He was one of Michael’s back-up dancers at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. In 2008 Billy returned to the Philippines to host the reality show, Pinoy Dream Academy and in same year hosted Miss Earth 2008 also here in the Philippines. Billy is now a talent under the management of ABS-CBN. He is a host on the talent show Pilipinas Got Talent and in the noontime show Showtime. Billy also hosted the reality dance competition in GMA-7, Move: The Search for Billy Crawford’s Pinoy Dancers.
Billy Crawford releases five recording albums and 15 singles and completed his Studio Engineering course at New York University in 2008 and intends to study further to earn a diploma. Billy won many awards like bagging the Best Male International artist at the NRJ music awards in Cannes, France in 2003. A year later he was awarded for Best Newcomer of the Year at the NRJ Music Awards in France.
