Braxton, Toni

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TONI BRAXTON

Born: Severn, Maryland, 7 October 1967

Genre: R&B, Pop

Best-selling album since 1990: Toni Braxton (1993)

Hit songs since 1990: "Breathe Again," "Another Sad Love Song," "Un-break My Heart"

Toni Braxton brought a new degree of sultry sophistication to rhythm and blues music of the 1990s. Unlike her contemporaries such as Mary J. Blige, Braxton had no trouble reaching a mainstream pop audience; her records were equally popular on youthful hip-hop radio stations and "adult contemporary" stations aimed at middle-aged listeners. Braxton's across-the-board success was a combined result of songs that were catchy without being formulaic, good looks, and a distinctive, husky voice that managed to sound both vulnerable and tough. Since most of her songs dealt with the universal subject of love, she was able to transcend boundaries of race, class, and gender in her audience. Her most famous records, steamy ballads such as "Breathe Again" (1993) and "Un-Break My Heart" (1996), received constant radio play and made Braxton a household name.

Born in a small Maryland town to conservative, religious parents who at one point did not allow her to wear pants, Braxton grew up listening to gospel music with her four sisters. Over time, her parents relaxed their strictures and she developed a love of secular vocalists, especially rhythm and blues singers such as Luther Vandross and Anita Baker. After being discovered by producer Bill Petteway, Braxton and her sisters were signed to Arista Records as the Braxtons. Braxton released one single with her sisters, but was soon pulled out of the group by the hot young producers Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Antonio "L. A." Reid, who signed her to their new LaFace label, affiliated with Arista. Although rumor had it that Arista chief Clive Davis was not satisfied with Braxton's vocal ability, any fears were allayed when her debut album, Toni Braxton (1993), became a sensation, eventually selling more than 8 million copies. Braxton and her producers spent a great deal of time working on the album, and the effort showed. Nearly every track is first-rate, and six of its eleven songs became hits. But the album's biggest asset is Braxton herself: On songs like "Another Sad Love Song," "Seven Whole Days," and "You Mean the World to Me," she burrows into the tuneful melodies with her deep, profound voice, and then belts at the top of her range when the music reaches peak moments of intensity. Throughout the album her vocals meld themselves perfectly to the arrangements, creating the feel of a unified, cohesive work. Like Anita Baker's Rapture (1986), it is a perfect mood album, designed for romance by candlelight. In 1994, Braxton won a much-deserved Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

Braxton's second album, Secrets, was released in 1996 and repeated the commercial and artistic success of its predecessor. On Secrets Braxton began to experiment with her sound, developing a tougher, more sexually aggressive persona on the hit "You're Making Me High." With producer Babyface playing a lean, muscular guitar part, Braxton settles assuredly into the song's danceable groove. Because of its references to masturbation and its overall sensual feel, "You're Making Me High" qualifies as perhaps the most torrid moment of her career. Another highlight of the album is "Let It Flow," which also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Waiting to Exhale (1995). Here, Braxton uses the haunting low end of her voice to deliver a powerful message about strength and perseverance. The lyrics are some of the finest Babyface has written: "First thing early Monday morning / I'm gonna pack my tears away." However, the biggest-selling single on Secrets was "Un-break My Heart," a big, dramatic ballad that spent eleven weeks at number one on the pop chart. The song features all the ingredients—lilting melody, strong vocal, subtle but sophisticated orchestration—that marked her previous hits, but it gains extra distinction through an acoustic guitar part that suggests Spanish flamenco music.

In 1997 Braxton was at the top of her game commercially and artistically, but there was trouble on the horizon. Late that year, she filed suit against LaFace Records, claiming that her contract no longer reflected the high sales of her records or the profit she was bringing to the company. When LaFace countersued, Braxton promptly filed for bankruptcy, a move that stalled any further legal action. Appearing on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Braxton claimed that, despite her massive record sales, she was over $1 million dollars in debt because of poor accounting of bills and expenses. During the lengthy legal battle that ensued, she fell out of the pop music spotlight, working instead on Broadway in the Disney musical Beauty and the Beast. By the time the dispute was finally resolved in 1999, Braxton's career had lost some of its momentum.

Remaining with LaFace Records, she released her third album, The Heat, in 2000. Although The Heat contained the type of slow ballads for which Braxton had become famous, it also threw in doses of urban-sounding hip-hop in an attempt to update her sound. Unfortunately, the songs were not as strong as those on previous releases, and a further album, More Than a Woman (2002), pushed Braxton even further into a contemporary hip-hop sound. For the most part critics were not pleased, claiming that Braxton's unique voice had been eclipsed. Comparing Braxton's new sound to that of the teen pop star Britney Spears, USA Today called the album "predictable and so painfully trendy." Despite signs of creative confusion, Braxton seemed happy, announcing that she and her husband, keyboardist Keri Lewis, were expecting their second child.

Her career difficulties notwithstanding, Braxton is one of the freshest, most distinctive singing talents to emerge in the 1990s. More than her excellent voice and sexy appearance, the root of her success is her talent for exploiting contradictions: She offers music that encompasses both middle-of-the-road pop and hard rhythm and blues, a persona both tough and sweet, and singing that skillfully balances calculation with genuine emotion.