Tionne Tenese Watkins was born on April 26, 1970 in Des Moines, Iowa. She is also known as “T-Boz” in the R&B/Hip-Hop group, TLC. Born to parents of both African American and Native American descent. As a child she was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia.

Since childhood, she has been in and out of the hospital, due to her sickle cell disease. At the age of nine, her family moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Tionne knew from early childhood that she wanted to one day become a performer too. As a teenager she was a hair model, and eventually became a manicurist and shampoo girl at a popular Atlanta hair salon. In her free time danced at the local legendary skating rink Jellybeans. It was through a stylist/friend at this salon that she met Perri “Pebbles” Reid and was discovered in 1991 along with Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes and Crystal Jones. The trio’s original name was 2nd Nature (Crystal’s group), but was renamed TLC by Reid since Crystal Jones was kicked out of the group and replaced with Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas.

She recently went on tour with her bandmate, Chilli and is working on a final, new TLC album. She is a Chideo ambassador, & advocate for Sickle Cell Anemia.

She recently featured on Eric Bellinger’s Creep for his new album Cuffing Season.

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