The pastor’s daughter who sang her way into Babyface’s studio

Toni Braxton’s first stage was a church pulpit. Born in Severn, Maryland, in 1967 to a Methodist clergyman and a mother who was a former opera singer, pastor and cosmetologist, she was the eldest of six children in a strict religious household. She said that singing in the choir gave her a finer-tuned ear and that the congregation was her audience.

She enrolled at Bowie State University to become a teacher, but a chance meeting changed her plans. William E. Pettaway Jr., who worked at a service station in Annapolis, recognized her from local performances and offered to produce her. In her own words she decided to take a chance. In the late 1980s she and her sisters Traci, Towanda, Trina and Tamar performed as the Braxtons and signed to Arista Records in 1989. Their single “Good Life” in 1990 was not successful, but it caught the attention of record executive Antonio “L.A.” Reid.

Reid and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds signed her to LaFace Records as a solo artist. Her self-titled 1993 debut reached number one on the Billboard 200 and sold ten million copies worldwide. It produced “Another Sad Love Song” and “Breathe Again” and won three Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist. Secrets followed in 1996 with the Hot 100 number ones “You’re Makin’ Me High/Let It Flow” and “Un-Break My Heart”, and The Heat in 2000 brought the international top-five single “He Wasn’t Man Enough”.

Later albums arrived amid contractual disputes and health issues. In 2014 she and Babyface released Love, Marriage & Divorce, which won Best R&B Album at the Grammy Awards, and she later made Sex & Cigarettes and Spell My Name. Alongside music she competed on Dancing with the Stars and produced Braxton Family Values. With seven Grammy Awards in all, her story runs from a church choir to the top of the charts.