Toni Willé

Toni Willé (full name Antonia Johanna Cornelia Kowalczyk; born 26 June 1953) is a Dutch country pop artist who was lead vocalist of the band, Pussycat. She was a blonde with a distinctive gap in her upper front teeth. Toni is the daughter of Marie and Stefan Kowalczyk. Stefan was a Polish miner from Wloszczowa, Poland who came to the Netherlands in 1948 to work in the coal mines after serving in the US Army in Germany.

Childhood

Toni's biological father died from Hodgkin's disease three days shortly after her birth when her sisters Marianne was two years old and Betty was only one. Five years later her mother, Marie Verheijen, married Stefan Kowalczyk, the Polish miner who brought up Toni and her sisters. He promoted their music talents. When Toni, Betty and Marianne were six, seven and eight, the family moved to Treebeek, a cityquarter in Brunssum in the south-east Netherlands. At the annual children's festivities of Sinterklaas, he bought them each an acoustic guitar and engaged Keuzenkamp as guitar tutor. With guitars they performed during carnivals, talent scoutings and parties as The Singing Sisters. It was during this time that their characteristic close harmony style singing came into being. Their repertoire initially consisted mostly of German pop songs. However they say, this kind of music soon ended with the arrival of the Beatles. A few years later, Keuzenkamp introduced the sisters to 18-year-old Werner Theunissen, a guitarist from 'The Entertainers' whom he got in touch with through an ad in the papers. Werner taught them a lot of new guitar chords and acquainted them with contemporary pop music. It was then that they became a proper girl band with Betty on solo guitar, Marianne on bass, Toni on vocals and a friend Tonny Jeroense on drums.

Toni

Toni is a given name. In English, it is often female, the male version being Tony. In Finnish, it is a male name, a form of Anttoni. In Bulgarian, Toni [Тони] may refer to either a male or a female. Tony and Toni have no separate equivalents in Bulgarian and Macedonian since the Cyrillic alphabet has one letter for both "y" and "i" ("и" as in Тони). In Hungarian, Tóni is also a male name. Toni may refer to:

People

Women

Toni (1935 film)

Toni is a 1935 French drama film directed by Jean Renoir and starring Charles Blavette, Celia Montalván and Édouard Delmont. It is an early example of the casting of non-professional actors and on-location shooting - both of which would influence the Left Bank of the French New Wave movement. Examining the romantic interactions between a group of immigrants (both from abroad and other parts of France) working around a quarry and a farm in Provence, it is also generally considered a major precursor to the Italian neorealist movement. Luchino Visconti, one of the founding members of the later film movement, was assistant director on the film. It was based out of Marcel Pagnol's studios in Marseille and shot entirely on location in the South of France.

Although Toni is not among Renoir's most famous works, it continues to receive positive reviews from critics.

Plot

Looking for a job Toni goes from Italy to Southern France. A local woman named Marie takes him in as her tenant and becomes his lover. But when the Spanish guestworker Josepha comes to town, Toni falls for her. To his disappointment Josepha has a wedding with a wealthier man. So Toni marries Marie after all but he cannot hide that Josepha was his greatest love. After Marie has thrown him out of her house he is determined to see Josepha again. He finds her on a farm in the mountains where she lives with her increasingly abusive husband. Josepha is about to run away and for that purpose she steals money from her spouse who catches and hits her. While Toni is around she kills the man. Toni sacrifices himself in order to cover up for her.

Toni (album)

Toni is a 1956 studio album by Toni Harper, accompanied by the Oscar Peterson trio.

Track listing

Personnel

Performance

References