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Toni Braxton Soul Train Legend Award: A Queen

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CAU chapter.

Toni Braxton is definitely an Alto Muva. With her amazingly deep, raspy like, and powerful voice, there’s no question why Toni is this year’s Soul Train Award Legend recipient. Toni has won Grammy’s, Billboard Awards, and American Music Awards and it should be no surprise. Toni is the godmother of her time. With hits such as Unbreak My Heart, Love Shoulda Brought You Home, Seven Whole Days, and many, many more to add to her belt Toni is reigning as our queen. If you aren’t in love with Toni now, read this article because you should most definitely be stanning.  

 

Toni Braxton started off in 1992 with a hit titled Love Shoulda Brought You Home, originally written for Anita Baker. Anita specifically turned it down and suggested the woman who sampled the song, A.K.A. Toni, should sing it for the hit movie Boomerang. With this launch, Toni Braxton went straight to the top. It seemed like overnight the singer became a superstar and she played the role very well. She was the girl next door. She had the beauty, the talent, and the drive. Within two years Toni accumulated three Grammy’s, two AMA’s, two Soul Train Awards, 8x platinum in the U.S., and had over ten million sales. Toni Braxton brought the soul, the pain, and the heartache to R&B. This wasn’t enough for our girl though. Toni wanted to bring sexy. She was tired of the same old love songs. She brought us You’re Making Me High. That took her vocals and her image to a completely different level. She has gone through sickle cell and returned in 2013 with a new album,  Love, Marriage, and Divorce. This won her and Babyface, the collaborating artist, a Grammy.

 

In all, Toni Braxton deserves this legend award. Where would we be without her? She has even better things set for the future. If you haven’t listened to her recent single Deadwood you should go check it out. The video will be linked below. Toni is still aspiring artists to come up. These artists include Luke James, Jessie J, and Ro James who performed her tribute for the legend award at the Soul Train Awards. She may be the face of heartbreak R&B, but she is definitely filled with love that she receives from her fans everyday. If you’re not on the Toni Train at this point, what are you doing?

Check out Deadwood here: https://youtu.be/-4qwqG8a32k

Hey, my name is Demetri Dulaney. I am currently a sophomore at Clark Atlanta University. I'm from Columbus, Ohio and I am nineteen years old. I am a writer for HerCampus. I am a Mass Media Arts major with a concentration in Journalism.