Tamar Braxton’s dances into the light
If there’s one lady who’s been keeping herself real busy, it’s Tamar Braxton. Competing in Dancing With The Stars, talking on The Real, keeping it real on The Braxton’s Family Values and other reality shows, and calling all lovers as a singer. Oh yeah, and she’s a wife and mother too!
There’s a lot you can say about the Braxton family, but they definitely know how to rise above a lot of backlashes. Even if you didn’t follow Tamar’s big sister Toni Braxton’s career, I’m sure news of bankruptcy and illness have reached you, and all the while Toni gets back on top of things.
Well, you can say the same for Tamar. Her road to success has been full of setbacks. While, originally, all Braxton sisters were signed to Arista records, the girl group failed to succeed commercially, leaving Arista to look towards dropping them.
LaFace Records were asked to have a listen to the girls and only wanted Toni, who went on to become a true R&B icon. Once an icon, she made sure her sisters were given a big break. Even though two sisters backed out of the project, Tamar, Trina and Towanda continued.
They released their album “So Many Way” as The Braxtons in 1996, containing the singles “So Many Ways”, "Only Love", “Slow Flow” and “The Boss” (a Diana Ross cover). They did pretty well in Europe, but had trouble engaging a large audience in the States, so the label didn’t want to continue the project.
For Tamar, this meant many years of doing whatever she could; acting, singing background vocals, and every once in a while an opportunity for a solo career would pop up. However, the big break she needed, was never in there, until.... the Braxton Family Values hit the TV screens.
I remember catching an episode, while being in the States a few years ago, and well… I wish I hadn’t. You have this idea in your head on what families like that could be like, and they just weren’t anything like that. It could just be the fact that I’m not into reality TV all together, but the show didn’t work for me.
However, the show has had several seasons since and Tamar has played her part as a loud mouthed “diva” really well. It’s led her to a reality show spin off of her own, together with husband Vincent, and it gave her the big musical break she was seeking.
Her comeback solo album, “Love and War” was released in 2013 and did extremely well, selling 114,000 copies in it’s opening week. Three Grammy nominations followed. I got turned on to all of this while I ran into one of the songwriters of the album on Twitter, Tiyon “TC” Christian. The two have a close brother-sister working relationship and would even teamed up again later.
“Love and War” showed off her vocal acrobatics, taking full advantage of the four octaves her voice can reach. A Christmas release, after, failed commercially, but a new track “Let Me Know” from the new album caused a commotion online, when it went to number one on SoundCloud an hour after she’d posted it.
The awaited new album, “Calling All Lovers”, was released last week and sold 43,000 copies since. The only woman selling better last week, was Janet Jackson, with her “Unbreakable” album. Most of her tracks have become available on YouTube and have received millions of views.
Again, it’s a vocally strong album that deals with a lot of heartbreak. When asked by Wendy Williams, what inspired her to do a heartbreak album now, when she’s at her happiest in her life, she replied she still had a lot to work through. ”We all have a past”
Personally, I like the melody lines she sings. They go everywhere on the scale and the songs have surprising elements in them, that never leave you bored. You can hear she's inspired by singers like Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, but there’s a little more drama in her voice. I know, you have to have a taking for these kind of vocals. It's not for everybody. But I think she can do a little victory dance for making it after all. She stepped out of her sister's shadow and into the light.
