Mandisa Lynn Hundley was born on 2 October 1976 in Citrus Heights, California. She attended American River College in Scramento, where she studied vocal jazz. Then she graduated from Fisk University in Tennessee with a bachelor's degree in music with a concentration in vocals. When she auditioned for the fifth season of American Idol in 2006, she asked the judges to call her Mandisa, and she has been billed by that name since.

Mandisa was the ninth-place finalist in that season's run of American Idol, and she never placed in the bottom three during the season. Since her debut on that show, she sang with Gladys Knight at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York and collaborated with bogyMac and Kirk Franklin on tobyMac's recent album, Portable Sounds. Her own first full-length album, True Beauty, was released on 31 July 2007 and she released her first single, "Only the World," on 22 May 2007.

True Beauty debuted at #1 on the Top Christian Albums charts, the first time a new female artist had debuted at that height in the chart's 27-year history. It also made #43 on the Billboard 200, a high mark for a Christian artist for that chart. She also achieved a Grammy Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album nomination that December for True Beauty.

Her latest works include a full-length Christmas album entitled, It's Christmas, and a third album entitled, Freedom, released 24 March 2009. From Mandisa's Web site:

"Mandisa continues the theme with the urban/gospel stylings of 'Freedom Song,' one of several tracks she co-penned with songwriters Matthew West and Sam Mizell. Complete with a gospel choir and B3 organ, Mandisa lets loose on this song she calls a 'praise party' about freedom that can be found in Christ. 'I wanted to do a song that was from the perspective of a lot of different people – a mother and wife who has lost her identity, a child who is from a broken home or maybe a man who has been bound by addiction for several years. All of us, no matter what our circumstances, can find freedom in Christ. And when you've found freedom like that, you've got to shout it out.'"