Amanda Grace Sudano Ramirez (born August 11, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and model. She is a member of the musical duo Johnnyswim.

Early life

Sudano was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, to singer Donna Summer (1948-2012) and songwriter Bruce Sudano (1948). She has two older sisters, Mimi Sommer Dohler, from her mother's first marriage to actor Helmut Sommer, and actress Brooklyn Sudano. Her maternal cousin is the music producer and rapper Omega Red, and her paternal uncle is Fr Glenn Sudano, a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest and founding member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in New York City. Sudano spent the early part of her childhood in

Thousand Oaks, California Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, located in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles. Approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown Los Angeles, it is named after the many oak trees pr ...

. In 1995, when she was 13, her family moved to

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, where she attended high school at Christ Presbyterian Academy and college at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

Modeling career

Sudano is a model with the Bella Agency in New York. In 2010, Fabrizio Viti chose Sudano to model for Louis Vuitton's Spring/Summer 2010 shoe campaign. Sudano is the first black model to be featured solely in Louis Vuitton advertisements. In September 2011, Sudano placed second out of twenty in '' Vogues "Special Edition Best Dressed" feature.

Music career

In 2005, Sudano met songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Abner Ramirez in Nashville. They struck up a friendship and formed the band Johnnyswim. The duo have performed covers of eclectic songs like

Edith Piaf Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English word , meaning ''wealth'' or ''prosperity'', in combination with the Old English , meaning '' strife'', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian lang ...

's " La Vie En Rose" and

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Cultural impact of Brit ...

's " Till The World Ends", as well as originals like "Home", the theme song to the hit HGTV show '' Fixer Upper''. Johnnyswim released their first self-titled EP in 2008. A second EP, ''5-8'', arrived in 2010. This was followed by the singles ''Bonsoir and Good News'' in 2011, a third EP called ''Home, Vol. 1'' in 2012, and four studio albums: ''Diamonds'' (2014), ''Georgica Pond'' (2016), ''Moonlight'' (2019), and ''Johnnyswim'' (2022).

Personal life

In 2009, Sudano married her Johnnyswim bandmate Abner Ramirez in Florida. Her father, Bruce Sudano, paid tribute to her in the song "The Amazing Amanda Grace" on his award-winning record ''Life and the Romantic''. Footage from her wedding was featured in the video for another track from the same record, "It's Her Wedding Day", which was actually written about her sister

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

's marriage in 2006. Sudano lives with her husband in Los Angeles, California and gave birth to a son, Joaquin, in February 2015. In 2018, she gave birth to a daughter, Luna. In November 2019, the couple announced on social media that Amanda had given birth to a second daughter named Paloma. As of 2021, Sudano and her family are the stars of two

Magnolia Network Magnolia Network is an American basic cable network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery in partnership with Chip Gaines, Chip and Joanna Gaines, the founders of lifestyle company Magnolia. It broadcasts personality-based lifestyle programs related ...

television shows: ''Home on the Road with Johnnyswim'' and ''The Johnnyswim Show''.

References

External links

Johnnyswim website

Amanda Sudano @ Bella Agency

Interview
(2010) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sudano, Amanda 1982 births African-American women singer-songwriters American women singer-songwriters American female models American people of Italian descent American women pop singers American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters American soul singers African-American Christians Donna Summer Living people Singer-songwriters from Tennessee Singer-songwriters from California Spanish-language singers of the United States 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singer-songwriters