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Tamar Braxton
Braxton at the 2012 Eye on Black: Salute to Directors
Background information
Born	(1977-03-17) March 17, 1977 (age 35) Severn, Maryland, United States
Genres	R&B, soul, pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, background singer, television personality, dancer
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Dreamworks Casablanca Universal Republic
Associated acts	The Braxtons, Toni Braxton

Tamar Braxton-Herbert (pronounced Tay-mar) (born March 17, 1977) still commonly known as Tamar Braxton is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and reality television personality. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a founding member of the R&B group, The Braxtons. Braxton is the youngest sister of prominent R&B singer Toni Braxton.

In 2011, Tamar Braxton reunited with her sisters, The Braxtons, for the WE tv reality show, Braxton Family Values. The first season was the #1 rated reality show on WE tv and the network ordered a 13-episode second season of the show after the third episode.^[1][2]

Early life[link]

Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland to Michael and Evelyn Braxton. The youngest of the Braxton's six children, Tamar started singing as a toddler. Evelyn, an amateur opera singer, recognized her children's talents when one day, Tamar sang "Can you please get me some toilet paper!" Evelyn began training her girls. The Braxton children also would eventually enter in their church choir, where Michael Braxton was pastor.

Pre-solo career (1990—1997)[link]

The sisters worked as backup singers for Toni (they can be seen in Toni's video "Seven Whole Days"). Eventually, the girls (minus Toni & Traci) would release an album for Atlantic in 1996, So Many Ways.

[edit] Ridiculous & Tamar (1998—2002)

In 1998, Tamar disbanded from the group and went on to embark on a solo career; she first explored her gospel side on T.D Jakes's Sacred Love Songs compilation on the song "Now I Only Dance for You." Later, Tamar would meet up with Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, a rapper/producer (also famous for bringing Blu Cantrell to national attention) based in Atlanta, Georgia. She recorded her solo debut album, Ridiculous, so named because of the many different musical styles on the album.^{[citation needed]} The album spawn off a total of two buzz singles ("Let Him Go" and "Just Cuz") in hopes of garnering attention from the public eye; however, when the songs failed to gain impact on urban radio outlets, the album was pushed back and cancelled; instead of shelving the album, Tamar altogether abandoned several tracks from Ridiculous, retooled it and renamed it Tamar. The album would still be released via Dreamworks, only lead by an official lead single with a music video; that single would be known as "Get None", a raunchy-female anthem, informing deceitful men that she is not a "one night stand." The song featured production and verses from Janet Jackson's ex-boyfriend, Jermaine "J.D." Dupri, alongside guest vocals by former Jay-Z apprentice, Amil, and uncredited background vocals and songwriting work by R&B singer, Mya. Soon as the song began to pick up airplay, Tamar announced the album would be released in early 2000, alongside a second single from the album called "If You Don't Wanna Love Me." Tamar would later announce the album would feature production from Missy Elliott, Tim & Bob, Tricky Stewart and Troy Johnson; in spite of the popular collaborations, the album flopped on the Billboard charts in its opening week, peaking at a disappointing #127 on the Billboard 200, averaging an estimate of 100,000 units sold by the end of the year. In hopes of reviving the album, Tamar's label still went on to release "If You Don't Wanna Love Me", with an accompanying music video, as promised. However lack of significant radio airplay for the song made matters much worse, thus resulting her label to drop her from their roster.

In 2000 Tamar began to work alongside her sister, Toni Braxton, in a number of songs and music video cameos, including the video for "He Wasn't Man Enough". She performed background vocals on Toni's next three albums, The Heat (2000), Snowflakes (2001), and More than a Woman (2002). In 2001 Tamar's previously unreleased song "Try Me" was featured in the soundtrack for the film Kingdom Come. In 2002, Tamar was featured in Toni's Irv Gotti-produced song "Me & My Boyfriend".

Second album & reality show (2004— present)[link]

By 2004, Tamar was briefly signed to Tommy Mottola's Casablanca Records and began work on a second album, which has yet to be released and titled. The first and latest single from the album is "I'm Leaving" (a "Grindin'"-influenced produced song, aimed toward the hip-hop audience), which was released in 2004 and featured remixes from the likes of Sheek Louch, Styles P., Ali Vegas and Bump J. Tamar would go on to release another single for the album that same year, however, when Casablanca was merging and entering new business deals (interfering with the process of Tamar's album being completed), Tamar split from the label, leaving her to retool and rework several songs for her yet-to-be titled second album; as of 2012, Tamar has yet to release the long awaited project.

In 2006, Tamar sang backup in her sister Toni's Las Vegas show, Toni Braxton: Revealed, but she was replaced by singer Sparkle. In 2010, she signed to Universal Records, where she still currently works on her second album at her own record company with husband, producer Vincent Herbert. She went on to showcase her acting and television appearances with a brief cameo on the BET television series Tiny & Toya which first broadcasted in June 2010.

In July 2010, she released a single "The Heart In Me" which was included on the Adidas 2: The Music compilation with Hasan.

In January 2011, WEtv Network confirmed that it had signed Toni Braxton and her mother and sisters for a reality series, Braxton Family Values. The show debuted April 12, 2011.^[3] Along with working on her own music, Tamar also was a featured background vocalist in Lady Gaga's song Born This Way.^[4] On December 15, 2011, it was confirmed that Braxton and her Husband Vincent would star in their own reality series centered around her solo career and their married life.^[5]

Personal life[link]

Marriage[link]

In 2008, Tamar married music executive and close musical partner, Vincent Herbert; wedding photos of the couple emerged via several magazines and made their way via the television debut of Braxton Family Values.^[6]

Vocal Ability[link]

Tamar Braxton has a 5 octave vocal range which goes from a low F3 to a high D7 as heard in "Money Can't Buy You Love"; she has also hit a whistle note much similar to Mariah Carey.^[7]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles & other songs[link]

• "Get None" (featuring J.D., Amil and Mya) (1999)
  • #59 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs;^[8] #21 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales;^[9] #52 Hot Singles Sales^[10]
• "If You Don't Wanna Love Me" (2000)
  • #30 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs;^[11] #8 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales;^[12] #15 Hot Singles Sales;^[13] #34 Hot Dance Club Play^[14]
• "I'm Leaving" (2004)
  • First buzz single from Tamar's second album
• "Feels Like I'm Dead" (2008)
  • Demo leak from Tamar's second album
• "The Heart In Me" (2010)
  • from the 2010 compilation, Adidas 2: The Music
• "Don't Go" (Silk featuring Tamar Braxton) (2001)
  • from Silk's album, Love Session
• "Call Me" (featuring Sam Salter and Scott Galbraith) (1998)
  • from the 1998 NFL compilation, NFL Jams
• "Now I Only Dance for You" (1999)
  • from T.D. Jakes's 1999 compilation, Sacred Love Songs

References[link]