Whatever happened to Toni Childs?

Music has always played an important part in my life.
From an early age little gof was provided with, often against his better judgement, a musical education on the pianoforte.  Given his prodigious natural talent and commitment to excellence, it came as no surprise that, as a teenager, he achieved stellar heights of ineptitude and mediocrity, and the world of music has not been troubled by him since.
Be that as it may, I do need to give gratitude to my parents for at least grounding me in the basics of a second language....music.

I cannot imagine life without music.  It is a language to inspire the soul, and let our imaginations fly to distant places.  There is music for all of our human emotions, music for meditation, and music as life markers..... helping us remember events from the past, places we visited, or people who we loved or lost along life's journey.

Within the popular music genre my preference has always been biased towards female singers, particularly those with a unique vocal quality.  In my judgement the very best female singer of popular music in my lifetime is (love her or hate her) Celine Dion.  Her voice has power, range, versatility and perfection, and she has had many wonderful songs written for her, and sings in at least 3 languages that I know of.  And yet, there are other singers who, on some occasions, can sound like Celine.  (Australia has Delta Goodrem whose latest song is very Celine-ish)

My favourite singers are those whose sound cannot  be confused with any other.
Eartha Kitt,  Miriam Makeba,  Enya,  Tracy Chapman,  Heather Small,  Anastacia,  Jennifer Rush,  Dolly Parton, and Joan Armatrading to name a few.

Top of my list of unique voices goes to Toni Childs.  She first achieved international recognition around 1990 with the song "Stop your fussin" and in Australia her career was given greater longevity when a major bank adopted her rendition of "Many rivers to cross" as the theme song for a long running series of TV commercials.
I regret never having had the opportunity to see her perform in concert.  Reviews speak of the extraordinary power of her voice,
delivered with great simplicity, emotion and passion ....perhaps a reflection of the hardships of her own life.   In a world of  electronically enhanced music and rappers indistinguishable from each other,  the Toni Childs' of this world are real musical treasures.

In 2008 it is my great joy to listen to the work of the extraordinarily talented young singer/songwriter Katie Melua.  

So, for all those wonderfully talented musicians who have given me a lifetime of great listening pleasure;
Thank you for the music.