This is one of the wilder stories I've read. According to The Call, a singer named Trina Johnson Finn was booked to play a gig in Suriname. (Johnson Finn is a Kansas City native.) She was hired to impersonate Toni Braxton for what she thought was a birthday party -- sort of like a Las Vegas-style impersonator, it sounds.
Only the promoter had been selling tickets for a show starring the real, authentic Toni Braxton. So the audience started throwing things when Johnson Finn took the stage, the immigration authorities got involved and now the poor singer is facing charges in Suriname. She denies that she ever tried to say that she was the real Toni Braxton.
Hat Tip: Many thanks, Joe White!
Top Photo: File image of the real Toni Braxton.
Right Photo: Handout photo of Trina Johnson Finn.
So I do feel bad for her but: she did not see a flyer or a poster or anything before hand??? I call shananagins!
Posted by: AJ | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 09:25 AM
When you're playing a show, especially overseas, you might not show up until the night before and only be at the hotel and venue. Where would you see posters and flyers? And unless she spoke Dutch, she couldn't have read the poster text anyways.
Posted by: c8h10n4o2 | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 09:40 AM
Did she not walk in and look the place over before performing? I would think that she would have seen something when she arrived at the establishment!
Posted by: AJ | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 09:45 AM
AJ, what should she have seen when she arrived to perform? I'm curious what would have told her, while in a foreign country with a language she doesn't know, that the audience was there for the real Toni Braxton and not an impersonator.
Posted by: Ein | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 10:02 AM
If she was brought in the back door, what would she have seen? They don't have posters & flyers of shows going on that night backstage or onstage.
If she's a professional musician, and not some newby having an American Idol moment, she wouldn't care about the posters and seeing her name in lights. You show up, sound-check and get the equipment and acoustics right, rest up, go on, and go home.
Posted by: c8h10n4o2 | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 10:12 AM
Let's trade Toni Braxton for her.
Better for the US.
Posted by: The Golfer | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 01:42 PM