Posted by | Ray Cornelius
Grammy-winning vocalist Toni Braxton is calling it quits and has decided to officially retire from the music industry.
The “Un-Break My Heart” singer told The Grio recently that she no longer wants to record new music but would rather focus on her new passion, which is acting.
“For what I do I have to love it. I have to feel that excitement and it’s gone,” Braxton confessed. “I’m just not going to do any albums anymore; maybe touring occasionally here and there because I love performing, but not as much as I did in the past. But no new projects.”
As previously reported, Braxton is starring in Lifetime’s Twist of Faith, a new film where she plays an Alabama choir singer who falls for an Orthodox Jewish man. The movie also features Mykelti Williamson, David Julian Hirsh and Braxton’s real life son Diesel. She also appeared in the 2002 dramedy Kingdom Come and guest starred on Broadway as Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
The mother of two also revealed that her dream role is to play a lesbian on the big screen, a part that is totally opposite of the character she portrays in Twist. “I would like to play a lesbian,” she said. “I don’t know why. And do a whole make-out scene and the whole thing; just something completely different than people would expect from me. Not a lipstick lesbian, either.”
In the meantime, you can catch Toni and the rest of her clan, in season three of the hit reality-series Braxton Family Values, premiering on March 14. While the show has proven to be a huge success, she is still not comfortable being labeled a “reality star.”
“I hate to have reality star behind my name,” Braxton said. “That’s just not what I wanted to be when I grew up. For me it’s challenging because the artists that I grew up to be; me, the late great Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, we were taught to be aloof. No one needs to know about your life. But now in the age of reality you have to talk about your life and expose it.”
Twist of Faith debuts TONIGHT on Lifetime at 8pm EST.