Entertainment

The Lion's Share

By GERMAINE SMITH, Staff Reporter

Toni Anderson - Contributed

CANADIAN BORN JAMAICAN Brenda Anderson seems to have done it all with music, but she wants more.

The soft-spoken singer has hit career highs in Canada as a back-up singer, actress, and theatre performer, but she decided to up the ante and step into the solo world under the name Toni Anderson.

Not your typical career move, but Anderson believes she has the goods to succeed. Apart from supplying background vocals to lead regage and canadian acts, she recorded a single with Luciano which generated a buzz in her native Canada, and scored big with the leading role in the Disney hit play turned movie The Lion King in Toronto. Added to this, she has been featured in several other Canadian plays, and a few film appearances as well.

The talented actress, however, decided she needed more, and risked it all by venturing out on the solo world.

"I've done back up but no solo projects until now, and I just wanted to express my personal self on my own project," she stated as her reason.

More than a melody

"Music to me is more than a melody, it portrays who I am, it expresses me and I believe you have to express who you are. When you act it out as in a play or film, not that it is not good, but you are expressing a director's ideas. That is fine, but music expresses who you are inside."

She has begun to work with producers Andrew Stephens and Byron Treasure to get her act out there.

Her move, however, has not come without challenges.

"A lot of producers I have worked with have their own artistic vision for the projects, and they want you to reflect this for them, and this is not necessarily your vision. Being able to express my artistic message in my music has been the challenge for me," she noted.

Despite these moments, Anderson feels that her time is here to launch out. The music video for her single You're The One has been getting rotation on local cable stations, and her album, which she hopes will show her many sides, is almost complete.

"My aim for the next 10 years is to be collecting awards, doing more movies and just doing more music. You name it, I want it on my mantle."