40 Fun Facts About Willow Smith

Which debut single, released days before Willow Smith turned ten, reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100?

Whip My Hair made Willow a pop star at nine and was later certified triple platinum in the United States. Its video earned a Video of the Year nomination at the BET Awards.

Willow Smith made her film debut as the daughter of her real father's character in which post-apocalyptic thriller?

I Am Legend cast Willow as the six-year-old daughter of a man left alone in a deserted New York. She is seen in his memories of the city's chaotic evacuation.

Which rapper and label boss signed Willow Smith in 2010, making her the youngest artist on his company's roster?

Jay-Z signed her to Roc Nation, the entertainment company he founded in 2008. She stayed with the label for more than a decade, leaving before her 2024 album.

Willow Smith was attached to star in a film remake of which musical before she aged out of the role?

Annie reached cinemas in 2014 with Quvenzhané Wallis in the title role instead. Willow's father had been named as a producer when the remake was announced in 2011.

To promote their album The Anxiety, Willow Smith and her bandmate spent 24 hours inside what at a Los Angeles museum?

A glass box held the pair in silence at the Museum of Contemporary Art, days before the first COVID-19 lockdowns. They wrote affirmations on its three canvas-covered walls.

Willow Smith released her second album, The 1st, on her 17th birthday, which falls on which holiday?

Halloween is her birthday: she was born in Los Angeles on October 31, 2000. She wrote and produced nearly all of The 1st herself.

Willow Smith voiced the young Gloria, her mother's character in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, who is which animal?

A hippo, Gloria is voiced as an adult by Jada Pinkett Smith. Willow plays her in the opening scenes, when the four friends are youngsters at the Central Park Zoo.

Red Table Talk, the family talk show Willow Smith co-hosted with her mother, streamed on which platform?

Facebook Watch carried the show from 2018 until 2023, when the platform scrapped all of its original programming. Its producers were reported to be seeking a new home for it.

After Willow Smith's debut single leaked in 2010, comparisons to which pop star earned her a "Baby" nickname?

Rihanna was the comparison critics reached for, so "Baby Rihanna" became her nickname. Time, CNN and Billboard all covered the song on the evening it surfaced.

In the video for her 2010 debut single, Willow Smith dips her braids into what to brighten a drab cafeteria?

Paint fills a boombox in the clip, and she flicks it across the room from her braids. Ray Kay, who shot Lady Gaga's Poker Face video, directed.

Which rapper featured on Fireball, the 2011 single Willow Smith released a year after her chart debut?

Nicki Minaj raps a guest verse and joins Willow on the city streets in the video. The single followed 21st Century Girl, released earlier the same year.

Which drummer features on Transparent Soul, the 2021 single that returned Willow Smith to the Hot 100 after a decade?

Travis Barker, the Blink-182 drummer, co-wrote the song with Willow. It was the lead single from Lately I Feel Everything, and he returns on a later track of the album.

Which Canadian singer duets with Willow Smith on Grow, a track from the 2021 album Lately I Feel Everything?

Avril Lavigne shares the song with Willow on an album that also features Tierra Whack and Cherry Glazerr. It was the first Willow album to reach the US Billboard 200.

Willow Smith played the younger version of which actress's title character in Nickelodeon's True Jackson, VP?

Keke Palmer starred as True, a teenager made vice president of a fashion company. Willow appeared as the young True in two episodes.

With which family member did Willow Smith record Summertime in Paris and share a co-headline tour in 2019?

Her brother Jaden featured her on the song for his album Erys, and they debuted it together on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The pair also shared a fashion award in 2016.

Adrienne Banfield-Norris, a co-host of Red Table Talk beside Willow Smith, is related to Willow in which way?

Her grandmother, known on the show as Gammy, is Jada Pinkett Smith's mother. Putting three generations of one family at the table was the premise of the series.

In her 2007 film debut, Willow Smith played a girl named after which musician, whose songs feature in the film?

Bob Marley is discussed by the hero, and Three Little Birds and Redemption Song are among the tracks heard. Willow's character dies soon after the outbreak begins.

Willow Smith sang her debut hit as an opening act on the UK leg of which teen pop act's world tour?

Justin Bieber took her on the British dates of his My World Tour. She also sang the song on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and at the 2011 Kids' Choice Awards.

Which 2015 Willow Smith song became a sleeper hit four years later after inspiring a viral dance challenge?

Wait a Minute! soundtracked the #HereRightNow challenge on TikTok in 2019, then surged again in 2022 through a sped-up remix. It has been certified double platinum in America.

Which song from Willow Smith's duo the Anxiety went viral in 2021 and peaked at number 21 in America?

Meet Me at Our Spot took off on TikTok more than a year after its release and became Willow's biggest American hit since her debut. It also reached the top 10 in Britain and Australia.

Where did Willow Smith give the first full performance of her second single, 21st Century Girl?

The Oprah Winfrey Show hosted the debut as the single went on sale. The upbeat dance track was produced by the Swedish team Twin.

Willow Smith sang her debut hit in 2011 at which annual White House event for children?

The Easter Egg Roll came three weeks after she performed the same song at the Kids' Choice Awards. She was ten years old at the time.

Which actress played the title role in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, the 2008 film featuring a young Willow Smith?

Abigail Breslin played Kit, a would-be reporter in Depression-era Cincinnati. Willow played Countee, and the film's young cast shared a Young Artist Award for their ensemble work.

Ardipithecus, the title of Willow Smith's 2015 debut album, is the scientific name of what?

An extinct hominid known from Ethiopian fossils over four million years old gave the album its name. Willow said she chose it because she wrote the songs in a transitional state.

Which musician co-produced Willow Smith's self-titled 2019 album and later formed the duo the Anxiety with her?

Tyler Cole wrote and produced the album Willow with her, then shared the 2020 album The Anxiety. He also co-wrote her single Transparent Soul.

Which genre did Willow Smith embrace on her 2021 album Lately I Feel Everything, leaving alternative R&B behind?

Pop-punk had shaped her musical upbringing, and the album mixes it with emo and grunge. Billboard named her its Comeback Artist of the Year for 2021.

Willow Smith's mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, fronted which nu metal band, an influence on Willow's own turn to rock?

Wicked Wisdom, formed in 2002, opened for Britney Spears and played Ozzfest in 2005. Its singer performed under the name Jada Koren.

Which rapper featured Willow Smith on Emo Girl, a 2022 single from the album Mainstream Sellout?

Machine Gun Kelly then took Willow on the road as a support act on his Mainstream Sellout Tour. The single arrived the day he announced the album's release date.

Which former Fifth Harmony singer featured Willow Smith on Psychofreak, a track from the 2022 album Familia?

Camila Cabello co-wrote Psychofreak with Willow and has said one of its lines looks back on her exit from the group. Familia was Cabello's third studio album.

Which rapper put Willow Smith on his 2016 song Rose Golden and later joined a remix of Transparent Soul?

Kid Cudi featured her as a teenager on his album Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin'. She later appeared in A Man Named Scott, the documentary about his career.

Willow Smith promoted Coping Mechanism the day after its 2022 release as musical guest on which television show?

Saturday Night Live had her perform Curious/Furious and Ur a Stranger, two songs from the album. Reviews of the record averaged 82 out of 100 on Metacritic.

Which 2024 Willow Smith album, steeped in jazz and funk, earned Grammy nominations for its arrangement and engineering?

Empathogen was her first album after leaving Roc Nation, and it swapped the guitars of her rock records for jazz, funk and Indian influences. A deluxe edition followed that September.

Which musician plays piano and drums and sings on Home, the opening track of Willow Smith's 2024 album?

Jon Batiste also co-wrote and co-produced Home, which came out as a single the day before the album.

Which guitarist, whose signature guitar Willow Smith plays on Transparent Soul, later guested on her song Pain for Fun?

St. Vincent co-wrote and sings on Pain for Fun, from Willow's 2024 album. Her Ernie Ball Music Man signature model is the instrument heard on Transparent Soul.

Willow Smith voiced Beth the Pup Princess in the 2018 series finale of which Cartoon Network show?

Adventure Time closed with the special Come Along with Me, in which Beth and her friend Shermy hear the story of the final battle a thousand years on.

Willow Smith was a support act in 2025 on the Music of the Spheres World Tour, headlined by which band?

Coldplay were on the eighth concert tour of their career, and the singer Elyanna also opened nearly every 2025 date.

Which award did Red Table Talk, co-hosted by Willow Smith, win in 2021 as an informative talk show?

A Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Informative Talk Show went to the series in 2021. One of the nominees it beat was its own spin-off, Red Table Talk: The Estefans.

Black Shield Maiden, the 2024 book Willow Smith co-wrote with Jess Hendel, belongs to which genre?

Historical fantasy lets the story carry Yafeu, an African warrior, to Viking Age Scandinavia. Willow took the idea from the TV series Vikings.

Willow Smith and her siblings were child ambassadors for a Hasbro-backed project aiding AIDS orphans in which country?

Zambia gave Project Zambia its name: the humanitarian initiative was set up with the toymaker to help children who had lost their parents to HIV/AIDS.

Which veteran actress pulls Willow Smith out of the desert sand in the music video for 21st Century Girl?

Cicely Tyson plays a nomadic tribal woman in the clip. Willow and her friends then haul an entire city up out of the sand.