Tones And I is the professional name of Toni Watson, an Australian singer, songwriter and record producer from the Shire of Mornington Peninsula, Australia. Her music is associated with dance-pop, electropop, indie pop and pop soul.

Background and early work

Watson grows up in Mount Martha on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne in Victoria. She begins singing at a young age and later learns keyboards and drum pads at secondary school. Before her breakthrough, she works in fashion retail at Universal Store, buses in Melbourne and posts a cappella cover versions on a YouTube page she creates in 2009.

She also performs local gigs and festivals, including Let Go festival. In 2014, she sings in a duo and performs in small pubs and bars in Mornington before moving towards solo work. After being made redundant from her retail job, she uses the money to buy an RC300 loop station and develops her solo set-up around synthesizers and a loop pedal.

Career development

In September 2017, she travels to Byron Bay in New South Wales to busk there. At an early performance, she meets Jackson Walkden-Brown, who becomes her manager about a month later. During 2018, she lives between Walkden-Brown’s home in the Gold Coast hinterland and her van in Byron Bay, writing music and busking full-time. Later that year she wins the Battle of the Buskers at Buskers by the Creek.

Breakthrough and releases

Her breakthrough single, “Dance Monkey”, is released in May 2019 and reaches number one in more than 30 countries. In Australia, it spends 16 weeks at number one on the ARIA Singles Chart in 2019, setting a national record at the time, and later reaches 24 weeks at the top overall, surpassing Bing Crosby’s long-standing Australian record for “White Christmas”. ARIA accredits the song 16× platinum for shipments of over 1,120,000 units.

Later in 2019, Tones And I releases her debut extended play, The Kids Are Coming, which peaks at number three in Australia and reaches the top 10 in several other countries. Her debut album, Welcome to the Madhouse, is released through Bad Batch and debuts at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart. Its lead single, “Fly Away”, peaks at number four in Australia and number 11 in the UK.

Awards and recognition

Tones is the most awarded artist at the ARIA Music Awards of 2019, winning four of eight nominations.