Toni Braxton

Toni Michelle Braxton is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, record producer, actress, television personality, and philanthropist.

Braxton was discovered singing to herself at a gas station by songwriter Bill Pettaway. With Pettaway's help, Braxton and her sisters signed with Arista Records in 1990 as a group dubbed simply the Braxtons.

Braxton attracted the attention of producers Antonio "L.A." Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, later recording a series of songs for them before being signed to their Arista-distributed imprint, LaFace Records. Her self-titled debut studio album (1993) reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States, selling 10 million copies worldwide and seeing the international success of the singles "Another Sad Love Song" and "Breathe Again". The album brought Braxton three Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist.

Secrets (1996), Braxton's second studio album, saw continued commercial success, selling 15 million copies and generating the singles "You're Makin' Me High/Let It Flow" and "Un-Break My Heart", which became her first singles to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. Un-Break My Heart spent 11 weeks in the #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 and is one of the biggest singles by a female artist in Billboard history. Secrets brought Braxton an additional two Grammy Awards, for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. This is only the 2nd time in Grammy history that a female artist has won both Pop & R&B Vocal Performance awards at the same ceremony.

Her third studio album, The Heat (2000), opened at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and saw the success of its lead single, "He Wasn't Man Enough", which reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and brought Braxton her sixth Grammy Award, for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

In 2014, Braxton and longtime collaborator Babyface released a duet album entitled Love, Marriage & Divorce, which earned the duo an additional Grammy Award for Best R&B Album in 2015.

In 2018, Braxton released her eighth studio album Sex & Cigarettes. The album earned Braxton three Grammy Award nominations: Best R&B Album, and Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song for the single "Long as I Live".

Throughout her career, Braxton has sold over 67 million records, including 41 million albums worldwide, becoming one of the biggest selling female R&B artists in history. The Recording Industry Association of America lists Braxton as one of the top selling artists, with 19.5 million certified units in the United States. She has won seven Grammy Awards, nine Billboard Music Awards, seven American Music Awards, among numerous other accolades.

Aside from her success in music, Braxton has become a television executive producer and personality, being involved in the seventh season of the reality competition series Dancing with the Stars and in a reality series entitled Braxton Family Values, where Braxton is executive producer and star since 2011 on We TV. Braxton is also an executive producer of its spin-off, starring her younger sister, Tamar, Tamar & Vince. In 2011, Braxton was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

After passing out during a show, and discovering she has pericarditis, an inflammation of the lining of the heart, Braxton started focusing on heart health. Exercising more and reducing salt-intake, Braxton also has teamed up with Campbell Soup Co. as their spokeswoman for the GoRedWithCampbells campaign which donated money to the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign. Braxton also lives with lupus.