Singer Toni Braxton is retiring from the music business, reports E! Online on Feb. 12, 2013. The 45-year-old singer is quitting to pursue a career on "the small and big screen." "For what I do I have to love it. I have to feel that excitement and it's gone," said Braxton. "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."
The singer, who appears in the reality TV show "Braxton Family Values," is also not afraid to experiment with new things in her pursuit of acting. "I would like to play a lesbian. 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." Braxton said. "I hate to have reality star behind my name. That's just not what I wanted to be when I grew up."
Braxton entered the scene with her 1993 debut album "Toni Braxton," an album that sold millions of copies worldwide and made her a star. She went on to make more albums and win many awards, including six Grammys.
However, her revelation that she suffers from autoimmune disease lupus, caring for an autistic son and financial problems have been some of her latest headlines. In 2010, the singer filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in California. "It's my life, and I have to take responsibility for it. People don't understand this business; a lot of my personal money went into tours," said Toni. "You never get out of the red. Every light bulb, costume, band member, hotel, gas for the tour bus, airplane ticket--everybody has to be paid, and the artist has to pay them. In this business, the product--the artist--pays for everything, and then [we] get what's left over."
Can Braxton make it as an actress? Even though it's 2013, roles for African American women are not as plentiful as they could be. Said James Braxton Peterson, the director of Africana studies at Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, Penn, to USA Today in 2012, "While some progress has been made, Hollywood has a long way to go in order to present the full range of women of color on the big screen and for African-Americans in general."
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