Arts writer
CANOC Live have announced that legendary R&B superstars Toni Braxton and Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds will perform in South Africa and Zimbabwe between August 28 and September 4. The double bill will see each artist perform their own shows, featuring songs from their catalogues of classics at the Grand Arena at GrandWest on September 1.
Known and loved around the world for their chart-topping radio hits, both iconic singer/songwriters have contributed to R&B throughout the 1990s, both as individual performers and as collaborators.
Decades after Give You My Heart, the 1992 hit single on which they first sang together, the two paired up to share their experiences of love on the 2014 co-written Grammy winning duets album Love, Marriage and Divorce. It struck a chord with local fans who made it the highest selling album in the country in 2014.
“Each date of this tour guarantees a night of authentic R&B music filled with romantic love songs in the form of two spectacular shows from these Grammy Award winning artists,” says Pleasure Letsoalo of Canoc Live.
A hit-making machine with enviable longevity, 11-time Grammy-award winning Babyface has to his name no less than 130 Top 10 R&B and pop hits, 43 number 1 R&B hits, and 55 Top 10 pop hits.
He is the recipient of numerous awards, including Soul Train Music Awards, BMI Awards, NAACP Image Awards and American Music Awards. He was also the recipient of the third BET Walk of Fame Award, and was named BET’s Entertainer of the Year at the First Annual BET Awards Ceremony.
Over the course of her storied career Braxton has earned a total of seven Grammy Awards and sold over 66 million records worldwide.
Among other achievements, she’s received nine Billboard Music Awards and seven American Music Awards and been inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. She appeared on the seventh season of Dancing with the Stars, and helped bring the hit reality show WE TV’s Braxton Family Values to life, as both an executive producer and star.
Expanding her pop culture imprint, she serves as an executive producer on Tamar & Vince. Transferring her dynamic presence to the stage, she has starred in Broadway productions of Beauty and the Beast, Aida and After Midnight. Most recently, her 2014 collaboration with Babyface, Love, Marriage & Divorce, debuted at #4 on Billboard’s Top 200 (her sixth Top 10 entry on the chart) and #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It also went on to win a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album.
Braxton continues to enchant audiences worldwide with everything she does.
l Tickets start at R450, from www.ticketpro.co.za