The R&B singer-songwriter and actress, Toni Braxton, was born in Severn, Maryland, in 1968. Braxton began her career singing with her sisters.
In 1990, Braxton studied to become a music teacher when she and her four sisters, who all sang at their church, recorded a song, The Good Life, with Arista Records.
That single brought Braxton to the attention of producers Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds.
Braxton signed with LaFace and moved to Atlanta a year later to start her solo career. She released her debut self-titled album, with songs like You Mean the World to Me and Breathe Again.
In 1996, Braxton released her second album, Secrets, which included her famous singles Un-Break My Heart and You Make Me High.
However, after contract problems with Arista, Braxton said she deserved a larger cut of her record sales and filed for bankruptcy in 1998.
The next year, Braxton reached an agreement with the record company, and in 2000 she released her third album, The Heat.
Braxton’s talent was also visible in acting. In 1998, she became the first Black actress to play Belle in the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast. After that, she starred alongside her sisters on the reality show Braxton Family Values.
Despite announcing her retirement in 2013, the singer went back to recording shortly afterward and announced a new solo album in 2018.
Braxton said she was going through a loss of musical inspiration: “It’s not affecting me, making me feel that thing I’ve always felt when I perform. It’s leaving me. I’m not sure what’s going on in my life. Maybe a female mid-life crisis? My heart isn’t in it anymore. I hate to say that. For what I do I have to love it. I have to feel that excitement and it’s gone,” she said.
Braxton was part of The New Edition Way Tour alongside New Edition and Boyz II Men, which ran across North America through early April 2026.
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