Toni Braxton celebrates her 59th birthday. Her famous song “Un-Break My Heart” turns 30. We’ve gathered the key facts from the Diva’s life

On October 7, Toni Braxton turned 59. She celebrated in her own way, posting five shots from a photo shoot on Instagram: a black bodysuit with sheer panels, a feathered train and voluminous curls in place of her familiar short crop. The caption was about embracing her age: “Every fold. Every wrinkle. If it’s up to me … I’m still feeling SEXY.” And below it: “Damn near 60 today! Happy Birthday to ME!”

Within a day the post had drawn more than 160,000 likes and nearly 12,000 comments. Tina Knowles, mother of Beyoncé, called her “forever youthful, forever beautiful” in a comment, as Hot 97 reports. On the same day in 1996, Un-Break My Heart was released as a single, so the song is now thirty years old, although the birthday post did not say a word about it. We have gathered the highlights of her life: from the church choir to Broadway and Vegas, an illness she kept quiet about for a long time, and a marriage the world learned about from court documents.

A minister’s daughter from Maryland

Toni Michele Braxton was born on October 7, 1967, in Severn, Maryland, the eldest of six children. Her father was a minister, and her mother had once sung opera. The children were raised strictly, and Toni’s first stage was the church choir. At first she had no plans to sing professionally: she was studying at Bowie State University to become a music teacher when she was spotted by songwriter William Pettaway, who wrote the Milli Vanilli hit Girl You Know It’s True.

In 1989 the five Braxton sisters signed with Arista as The Braxtons. Their first single, Good Life, peaked at only No. 79 on the R&B chart, but it caught the ear of producers L.A. Reid and Babyface. For their new label, LaFace, they signed only Toni — as a solo artist. Her first success came with the soundtrack to the Eddie Murphy film “Boomerang,” and her 1993 debut album Toni Braxton topped the Billboard 200 and went eight times platinum. In 1994 she took home two Grammys, including Best New Artist.

“Un-Break My Heart”: the song she didn’t like at first

Un-Break My Heart was written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster, and it became the second single from the album Secrets (1996). Many years later Warren told Rolling Stone that she considered the song a perfect fit for Toni in particular, and Arista head Clive Davis agreed, but the singer herself was not very fond of it. The single spent eleven consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and earned her the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The official video on YouTube is approaching 900 million views.

The other side: how the clubs heard the ballad

The US 12-inch of Un-Break My Heart did not include the ballad at all — only house mixes. One side carried Hex Hector with the duo Soul Solution; the other, the Franktidrama Club Mix by Frankie Knuckles, who is called the godfather of house. Satoshi Tomiie is credited as co-producer on his mixes. The vocal was not re-recorded: a new song was built around the same voice, and from December 1996 it spent four weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s club chart. In 1998 Knuckles received the first-ever Grammy for remixers, and the Recording Academy explicitly listed his club mixes for Toni Braxton among his work. Knuckles died in 2014, and his remix of Jamie Principle’s Your Love is now preserved in the Library of Congress registry.

The first to take her to the top of the club chart was David Morales, with his mix of You're Makin' Me High that same year, 1996; this summer he played the Glitterbox season at Amnesia. In all, Braxton has six No. 1s on Billboard Dance Club Songs, from 1996 to 2018, and since the chart was retired in 2020, the tally is final. The sharpest contrast is 2000’s Spanish Guitar: No. 1 in the clubs and only No. 98 on the Hot 100. On ONE//FM it is exactly this side of her that gets airplay: four of her house remixes and not a single original ballad. The most frequent is the Chris Malinchak version of 2010’s Make My Heart, even though the single itself never even made the club chart.

Broadway, Vegas and two bankruptcies

In 1998 Braxton made her Broadway debut: from September 9 she played Belle in the musical “Beauty and the Beast,” becoming the first Black performer in the role. To win her over, Tim Rice promised her a song of her own — together with Alan Menken he wrote A Change in Me, and the song stayed in the musical. In 2003 Braxton returned to Broadway, this time in the title role of Elton John and Tim Rice’s “Aida.”

Behind the scenes, things were far less glamorous. In January 1998, a few weeks after Braxton sued LaFace and Arista to get out of her contract, she filed for bankruptcy. She did so again in October 2010. Her first Las Vegas residency, Revealed at the Flamingo, opened in August 2006 and was cut short in the spring of 2008: the singer was hospitalized with chest pains, and the remaining shows were canceled so she could focus on her health. The second bankruptcy case was closed with a settlement in 2013.

Lupus and the sisters on screen

In 2008 she was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus, a disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s own organs. At the time, only heart problems were mentioned publicly; she first spoke about lupus in November 2010. She later admitted that it took her years to get the diagnosis: “I felt like a hypochondriac.” Despite her illness, in the fall of 2008 she danced on the seventh season of “Dancing with the Stars,” and in 2021 she appeared on “The Masked Singer” in a Pufferfish costume — with a medical mask underneath it as well.

In 2011 the family became a TV series: the reality show “Braxton Family Values,” about Toni, her sisters and their mother, aired on WE tv until December 2020, for seven seasons. Her sister Traci died on March 12, 2022, at the age of 50, of esophageal cancer. In August 2024 the Braxtons returned to WE tv with a new show, “The Braxtons” — the first without her. And on October 7 the youngest of the sisters, Tamar, wished Toni a happy birthday on Instagram, calling her her best friend.

Sons, Keri Lewis and Birdman

On April 21, 2001, Braxton married Keri Lewis, keyboardist of the band Mint Condition — they met when the band was opening for her concerts. They have two sons: Denim (2001) and Diezel (2003). The younger was diagnosed with autism in early childhood, and Braxton became a public spokesperson for Autism Speaks. The couple separated in 2009, and the divorce was finalized in July 2013. Both are grown now: Denim graduated from college in spring 2025, and Diezel received his diploma from Howard University that May.

She and Birdman — rapper and co-founder of Cash Money Records — were first seen together at the BET Awards in June 2016. In February 2018 Braxton announced their engagement, in January 2019 Birdman wrote “It’s over…” — and by spring the couple were back together. In early 2024 she insisted that they had never been married and that both of them were single. Then in April 2025 TMZ published court documents: they had secretly wed on August 8, 2024, about two weeks later she filed for divorce, and in January 2025 the petition was withdrawn. By the fall of 2025 Braxton was talking about the marriage herself on a TV show, and on October 7 Birdman wished her a happy birthday with a video from that same birthday photo shoot.

Nearly sixty: albums, Vegas, film and a tour

Over the past decade she has released three studio albums: Love, Marriage & Divorce (2014) with Babyface, which earned her a seventh Grammy, Sex & Cigarettes (2018) on Def Jam, and Spell My Name (2020). The single Long As I Live brought her two Grammy nominations, and the album Sex & Cigarettes itself one more; her sisters Tamar and Towanda appeared in the song’s music video.

In April 2024 she returned to Las Vegas with Love & Laughter, a show with comedian Cedric the Entertainer. Since November 2025, Lifetime has been airing films named after her hits — He Wasn't Man Enough and Breathe Again — and she stars in both herself. Burna Boy built his 2022 hit Last Last on a sample of He Wasn't Man Enough and earned a Grammy nomination with it. And in early 2026 Braxton set off on The New Edition Way arena tour with New Edition and Boyz II Men; at the tour’s opening show in Oakland she closed her set with Un-Break My Heart, wearing a white dress with angel wings.

“I’m still affecting the culture. My music is part of the aquarium of life,” Toni Braxton told Grammy.com in late 2024.

How old is Toni Braxton?

According to the most widely accepted date, she was born on October 7, 1967, in Severn, Maryland, so she turned 59 on October 7, 2026. Reference sources also give 1966 and 1968, but the Library of Congress lists 1967.

Is Toni Braxton married to Birdman?

Yes. According to court documents published by TMZ in April 2025, they secretly married on August 8, 2024. A divorce petition filed shortly after the wedding was withdrawn in January 2025, and that fall Braxton spoke about the marriage herself.

How many Grammys does she have?

Seven wins out of fourteen nominations. They include Best New Artist in 1994, awards for Un-Break My Heart and You're Makin' Me High in 1997, and Best R&B Album in 2015 for Love, Marriage & Divorce, recorded with Babyface.

What illness does Toni Braxton have?

She has systemic lupus erythematosus: she was diagnosed in 2008 and spoke about it publicly in 2010. The disease has also affected her heart, but Braxton continues to perform: in early 2026 she went on an arena tour with New Edition and Boyz II Men.

Which of her songs are played on ONE//FM?

Four house remixes: Make My Heart in the Chris Malinchak version, Un-Break My Heart in the Franktidrama Club Mix and I Don't Want To in the Franktified Club Mix by Frankie Knuckles, plus You're Makin' Me High in the Classic Mix by David Morales.

From a church choir in Maryland to Broadway, Vegas and arenas — over thirty-three years of her solo career, Toni Braxton has come through two bankruptcies, an illness she long kept quiet about, and marriages the tabloids followed closely. And at 59 she still sings on stage the same ballad that came out on her birthday thirty years ago, and writes under her birthday photos: “Every fold. Every wrinkle.”