With an impressive catalog of five albums (alongside 2003’s best-selling “Ultimate Collection”), Toni Braxton has built a worldwide base of music lovers since she first burst onto the contemporary music scene in 1991 with “Love Shoulda Brought You Home” (from the soundtrack of the hit movie “Boomerang”). As the “First Lady Of LaFace Records,” Toni’s creative partnership with Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds yielded a non-stop run of multi-platinum albums: 1993’s “Toni Braxton,” 1996’s “Secrets,” the 2000 set “The Heat,” 2001’s “Snowflakes” holiday album, and 2003’s highly personal and thought-provoking “More than a Woman,” which featured a number of songs written by Toni herself as well as production from the Neptunes and Rodney Jerkins, among others.  With natural musical skills that were immediately evident when she started singing in church with her four sisters in Severn, Maryland, and inspired by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Anita Baker, Chaka Khan, and Whitney Houston, Toni had set her sights on a singing career from her earliest days. It was while studying to become a teacher at Bowie State University that she came to the attention of LaFace owners L.A. Reid and Babyface. Her decade with LaFace was filled with both accomplishment and challenge; while she constantly achieved chart success globally, racking up some 40 million worldwide sales through her five LaFace albums, Toni dealt with a much-publicized bankruptcy in 1997, which she recalled was “a major learning opportunity for me.” Resolved in 1998, Toni began her first Broadway run that year with a starring role in “Beauty & the Beast.” The 2000 success of “The Heat,” her third album, was typified by Top-10 status in over a dozen countries, including the U.S., France, Germany, Holland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Hong Kong, South Africa, Greece, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Israel, and Switzerland. The album’s gold single “He Wasn’t Man Enough” earned Toni a 2000 Grammy Award for “Best Female R&B Vocal Performance,” while the album won two American Music Awards.

http://www.tonibraxton.com/

Posted by Mujay on 28 Feb 2010 • No comments yet

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