Remembering Tamar Braxton

Don't get me wrong. I love Toni Braxton. Anthems like "Breathe Again", "You're Making Me High" and "Un-Break My Heart" defined the 90s. It's difficult then to explain my total lack of enthusiasm about her soon to be released comeback album despite being one of the few people who actually likes her floptastic lead single "Yesterday". The problem is that everytime I see or hear Toni - I get the urge to kneel down and pray for the return of her infinitely more fabulous sister. Tamar Braxton hasn't released a song since 2000 but the intervening decade has only made my heart grow fonder. Much like La Toya, this long suffering songbird never got a fair go from music fans. It seems there was only room for one deep tranny voice on the charts and Toni got in first. Either that or Tamar was simply too tasteful and elegant (see picture below) for the mainstream. I'm going with the latter! For the uninitiated, the youngest Braxton sister was discovered in the bathroom singing "please get me some toilet paper". Believe me, I wish I was joking. That should have been some kind of omen for the tone of the diva's career but more about that later.

Tamar's stunning approach to fashion inspired a generation

Tamar first came to prominence as part of the family group (who else remembers The Braxtons' amazing cover of "The Boss"?) but was singled out by super producer Christopher "Tricky" Stewart as a solo star and released her first and only album in 2000. The first single was a fierce urban jam that managed to be entertaining despite the unwanted presence of Janet's troll husband. I remember being absolutely transfixed by the classy video, which features some of the best stripper moves ever captured on film. However, the album's finest moment was undoubtedly its second single. "If You Don't Wanna Love Me" is one of my all time favourite ballads. Everything about Tamar's timeless anthem is beautiful - from the heartbreaking lyrics to the diva's powerhouse vocal delivery. The song is as good as, if not better than, anything in Toni's back catalogue and should have been a massive hit. Unfortunately, it barely scraped into the top 30 of the R'n'B chart and effectively killed Tamar's career. Since then she's been reduced to singing back up for Toni. The indignity! Make sure you listen to the original ballad version of "If You Don't Wanna Love Me" because I've decided to post something a little more uplifting. I noticed that the brilliant Hex Hector mix was missing from Youtube - a glaring omission that I decided to rectify immediately. In my opinion, this is one of the legendary DJ's best remixes. Tamar's legacy lives on!