Toni Braxton Net Worth

What Is Toni Braxton’s Net Worth

It’s almost impossible to talk about R&B without referencing Toni Michele Braxton, popularly known as Toni Braxton. In fact, many have crowned her the queen of R’n’B music.

An award-winning singer and songwriter, Braxton has sold approximately 70 million records around the globe.  This places her on the list of artists with the highest number of records sold.

As of 2023, Toni Braxton’s net worth is estimated to be $10 million.

This article will discuss everything you need to know about Toni Braxton. This includes her early life, struggles, and relationships.

Early Life

Toni Michele Braxton was born on October 7, 1967, in Severn, Maryland, to Michael Conrad Braxton and Evelyn Jackson.

The oldest of six children, Braxton had a strict religious upbringing. In fact, her maternal grandfather was a minister.

Her parents were members of the clergy and, thus, enforced strict religious rules in their household.

s a result of their strict religious background, Braxton and her sisters weren’t exposed to secular music early on. It’s, therefore, no surprise that Braxton’s first experience as a singer was in the church choir.

However, with time, the Braxton sisters — Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar — devised a means of listening to secular music without their parent’s knowledge. They also secretly watched the musical television program Soul Train.

Some of the artists they listened to were Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Quincy Jones, and Whitney Houston.

In her twenties, Toni Braxton attended Bowie State University. There, she was studying to become a music teacher.

However, she later decided to drop out to pursue her music career. This was after songwriter William Pettaway Jr. convinced her to take up singing as a profession.

Toni Braxton’s Success In Music

During the 1980s, Toni Braxton and her four sisters formed the group called the Braxtons. And with the help of Pettaway, the group signed a deal with Arista records in 1989.

There, they released their first single titled “The Good Life.” The song wasn’t much of a success.

However, it managed to draw the attention of both L.A. Reid (Record Executive) and Babyface (Record Producer).

Afterward, they both decided to sign Toni Braxton to the Arista subsidiary, LaFace, in 1991. This made her the first female artist to sign with the record label.

Braxton’s big break came in 1992 when she got the opportunity to sing for the soundtrack to Boomerang, an Eddie Murphy movie. Her single, “Love Shoulda Brought You Home,” was a huge hit and brought Braxton into the limelight.

The single and her duet with Babyface titled “Give You My Heart” created a lot of anticipation for her debut album.

Finally, in July of 1993, LaFace Records launched Toni Braxton’s eponymous album. The album titled “Toni Braxton” would go on to become number one on the US Billboard 200.

The album also topped the music charts of various countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Its remarkable success earned Braxton three grammy awards and two American music awards. This makes her one of the richest singers in the world, next to the likes of Jesseca Dupart, Miranda Lambert, Kellie Pickler, Angelyne and more.

Subsequently, Toni Braxton released many more albums, which were all significantly successful. They include:

• Secrets(June 1996)
• The Heat(April 2000 )
• Snowflakes (October 2001)
• More Than a Woman (November 2002)
• Libra(September 27, 2003)
• Pulse (May 2010)
• Love Marriage and Divorce(February 2014)
• Sex and Cigarettes(March 2018)
• Spell my Name(August 2020)

For these albums, Braxton won 4 other Grammys, 5 American Music Awards, and 9 billboard music awards.

1. Toni Braxton’s Legal Battles and First Bankruptcy

The 1990s was the peak of Toni Braxton’s music career. Copies of her albums had sold out in millions.

Toni Braxton had also gone on tours, which made a lot of money. However, the public soon realized that the record label had the lion’s share of the profits made.

This information became public when Toni Braxton sued her record labels, Arista and LaFace. The move was to terminate the unfavorable contract with the record labels.

According to her lawyer, Braxton only received a 33 percent profit from each of her albums. Unfortunately, the lawsuit was unsuccessful.

Afterward, Toni Braxton filed for bankruptcy. During this period, Toni Braxton had to sell most of her properties.

Nevertheless, she was able to get back on track financially after receiving a settlement check from her record label.

2. Toni Braxton’s Second Bankruptcy

In 2010 Toni Braxton filed for a second bankruptcy. This was because she had to cancel several self-financed shows in Las Vegas, citing health challenges.

This came after she was diagnosed with a heart condition.

According to her lawyers, filing for bankruptcy the second time was the only alternative in reaching an arrangement with major creditors. She also had to take into consideration the welfare of her children and the payment of her taxes.

3. Toni Braxton Bounce Back From Bankruptcy

Toni Braxton experienced two major cases of bankruptcy and bounced back from both. After her last case of bankruptcy, Braxton was able to work on various album projects, which gained some level of success.

What’s more, she wrote a book titled “Unbreak my Heart” in 2011. This book chronicles her struggles through life, right from childhood.

Braxton and her sisters also created a reality tv series called “Braxton Family Values.” The series details the life of the Braxton sisters.

Currently, Toni Braxton’s major source of wealth is from live performances and making public appearances. She allegedly charges $200,000 and above to make a public appearance at an event.

She also has a line of skincare products, Nude Sugar, which is expected to boost her income.

Key Factors to Success of Toni Braxton

Despite her huge success in music and show business, Braxton suffered a few setbacks that harmed her career. She had a painful history of monetary issues and filed for bankruptcy for the first time in 1998; she was in a $5-million-dollar debt at that time.

Braxton since then recovered from her financial turmoil after her 2000 winning album “The Heat” sold more than 2 million copies. However, after ten years, Braxton filed for bankruptcy once again and was reported to be in a $50 million dollar debt at the time of the filing.

It was reported that Braxton owed money to a bunch of creditors including AT&T, Tiffany & Co., the IRS, Neiman Marcus, and a few others.

As part of her foregoing bankruptcy case, Braxton lost the rights to many of her popular songs. This means she is no longer going to receive royalties for the sales of some of her top-selling music.

Later on, the court made the decision to eliminate a significant portion of Braxton’s debt. Currently, she makes a substantial income of up to a million dollars per year from her personal appearances and live shows.

Assets and Net Worth

Toni Braxton has some real estate. According to Forbes, Toni Braxton purchased a $3 million mansion close to Sheree Whitfield and Tyrone Gilliams.

She made this purchase in 2010, 6 months after filing for her second bankruptcy. The property is in the Oaks of Calabasas.

In 2022, Braxton placed two of her condos in Los Angeles for sale. Their prices? $3.3 million and $2.8 million.

Apart from houses, Toni Braxton also owns some expensive automobiles. She has a Mercede-Maybach GLS 600 and a Bentley SUV which the rapper Birdman gave her as a gift.

Relationship

Toni Braxton got married to Keri Lewis on the 21st of April 2001. Braxton and Lewis were together for about 12 years before getting divorced in July of 2019.

The couple has two children. The name of their first son is Denim Cole Braxton-Lewis, while the second is Diezel Ky Braxton Lewis.

Subsequently, in May 2016, Braxton began dating Birdman. They announced their engagement in February 2018 but eventually called it off in January 2019.

Bottom Line

Toni Braxton had a lot of challenges. She fought several legal battles and ran into bankruptcy on two occasions.

Apart from these, she also faced some health challenges. However, she came out on top of these problems.

As a result of her resilience and hard work, she has continued to remain relevant, amassing a net worth of about $10 million.