Dr. Toni's First Love
As a little girl, Dr. Toni's earliest memory of a song was at 2 years old as she'd sit in the window, singing, Just My Imagination by The Temptations! You Light Up My Life by Debby Boone, Endless Love with Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross, Home with Stephanie Mills, Somewhere by Barbara Streisand, and The Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston were some her childhood favorites! Singing on church and school choirs was where Dr. Toni found her freedom, where space and time seemed so far away! On a bitter cold weekday morning, on the corner of a busy intersection, the warmth in her heart overshadowed the chill in the air as she sang the lead, Ave Maria with her class choir. Singing in Travis Winkey's Talented Teens weekend experience is one of the highlights of her teenage years! A truly defining moment that led to the loss of her son's eyesight, actually gave her insight in which she created The Attractive Thinker Movement for visionaries, trail-blazers, path-finders, and risk-takers who desire to see beyond their current circumstances and focus on their goals until their manifest! As a result of showing her son how to see without eyes, it enabled her to show people with eyes how to properly see in life! This defining moment inspired her to write her first book, Don't Be Afraid: He's Preparing You! Although life took some turns, her dreams of becoming a vocal artist that heals never died! One of her favorite sayings is "Dreams don't die, but people do! Your dreams are right where you left them! Dr. Toni believes that as long as you're still breathing, your dreams are still alive and are waiting for you to pick them back up and start creating again! As a married mom of 2 children , and with another baby on the way, Dr. Toni's passion for singing led her to enroll in vocal lessons with the wife of Morgan State University's choir director, Jean Carter at the New Shiloh's School of Music. In 2014, Dr. Toni released her first single, Your Lady which expresses the moment when you realize that you're already enough for the love that you desire! As a singer and songwriter, she writes songs that soothe the soul, shifts the perception, and ignites hope, like The Attractive Thinker which describes the journey of a person with a big vision, yet surrounded by a very small environment. Her song, When You Can't Breathe was inspired by the pandemic and protests of 2020 where she brings our attention to the virus and the violence both having to do with breath and how one man's breath affected all of the rest! In her pursuit to share Christmas cheer, Dr. Toni released several Holiday songs, including I Am a Christmas Tree, My Gift to You, and Solemn Worship! Dr. Toni hosted her very own radio show, The Attractive Thinker Radio Program at Radio One for 2 years where weekly, she dispelled myths, mental barriers, and negative self-chatter which keeps people with dreams in cycles of depression, procrastination, and self-doubt! Dr. Toni received an Executive Citation and a Governor's Citation for the transformation that she provides in the community, an honorary doctorate, and numerous awards and acknowledgments for her passion to provide solutions to those who desire to accomplish big dreams and create, live, and leave a legacy that speaks when they no longer can! As a homeschooling mom of 4, she enjoyed 11 years of educating her children not only in the area of academics, but in life skills and mental tools that'll last a lifetime! Now that she's experiencing an empty nest, her heart is fully into sharing her musical talents with the world! Stay tuned for more songs by Dr. Toni because she's just getting started!
Dr. Toni's singing career is inspired by artists like Diana Ross, Fantasia Taylor, Pattie LaBelle, Alicia Keyes, Jill Scot, Aretha Franklin, Billy Holiday, Phyllis Hyman, Stephanie Mills, Whitney Houston, Sade`, Barbara Streisand, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Chaka Kahn, and so many other incredible artists!