Antonia Christina Basilotta, better known by her stage name Toni Basil, is an American singer, choreographer, dancer, actress, and director. Her 1982 single, \"Mickey\", topped the charts in the US, Canada and Australia and entered the top 10 of several other international charts.

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Antonia Christina Basilotta (born September 22, 1943), better known by her stage name Toni Basil, is an American singer, choreographer, dancer, actress, and director. Her 1982 single, \"Mickey\" (a cover of \"Kitty\"), topped the charts in the US, Canada and Australia and entered the top 10 of several other international charts.\n

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Early life and education

Basil was born Antonia Christina Basilotta on September 22, 1943, in Philadelphia. Her father led an orchestra, and her mother performed in vaudeville. Basil has Italian ancestry.\n

She grew up in Las Vegas, where her father moved the family for his work when she was a child. In 1961, Basil graduated from Las Vegas High School, where she was head cheerleader. Already known by the nickname Toni, she later incorporated her cheerleading experience into her dance career, including her choreography/performance of \"Mickey\". The cheerleader uniform that she wore in the video was the one she wore in high school.\n

Career

Dance career

Also in 1964, she assisted choreographer David Winters for Steve Binder's concert film T.A.M.I. Show. T.A.M.I. Show would go on to be deemed \"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant\" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in 2006 in the National Film Registry.\n

In 1968, Princess Grace of Monaco's television special Monte Carlo: C'est La Rose premiered. In it, Basil accompanies lead dancer and choreographer Winters; he explained that he brought her and fellow dancer Anita Mann because they were his best students.\n

In addition, Basil is credited with bringing street dance to prominence, as a founding member and manager of The Lockers. A 2012 Dance Magazine article cited Basil as the pioneer in merging ballet with street dance for a piece she choreographed for Saturday Night Live, \"Swan Lake\" in 1978.\n

Basil created collaboratively with English singer/songwriter David Bowie as the primary choreographer for Bowie's Diamond Dogs Tour and Glass Spider Tour in 1974 and 1987 respectively. Basil also co-directed the music video for the Talking Heads music video \"Once in a Lifetime\" (1981) and choreographed lead singer David Byrne's spasmodic dance moves as seen in the video.\n

Basil choreographed the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the age of 75, and appeared in an uncredited cameo, wearing her trademark fedora and dancing with Margot Robbie on the Pan Am flight. Basil was surprised by Tarantino's detailed knowledge of both 1960s dances and her previous work, and said she personally knew two of the real-life people who are portrayed in the film: Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring, who were both killed in the Tate-LaBianca murders.\n

Music career

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Basil's recording career began in 1966 with a single for A&M Records, which was the title song of the short film Breakaway by artist Bruce Conner. The B-side was \"I'm 28\" written by Graham Gouldman, who later co-founded 10cc. Basil sang, solo, the swinging jazz number \"Wham Rebop Boom Bam\" in the first season of Saturday Night Live for the January 17, 1976, show with Buck Henry as host. Basil sold out solo shows at The Roxy in Los Angeles in June 1976, and sang the song on The Merv Griffin Show. She and The Lockers appeared on Saturday Night Live during the first season and also in later seasons of the show, as a singer and filmmaker, to perform in her urban style Swan Lake. She was signed to Warner Bros. Records at some point in 1976, but never released any material for the label.\n

In 1982, her single \"Mickey\" achieved international success. The song is a cover of \"Kitty\", a 1979 release by the UK band Racey, written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman and produced by the latter. The original song did not include the \"Oh Mickey, you're so fine\" chant, which Basil added. The video was conceived, directed, and choreographed by Basil for the UK-based label Radialchoice, before the inception of MTV in July 1981. Issued on Chrysalis Records in September 1982 in the US, the song knocked Lionel Richie's \"Truly\" from No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December. It topped the chart in Canada where it was issued by Virgin Records. The 45 was quickly certified Gold and in early 1983 reached Platinum status for sales of over 2 million copies in the United States alone. The music video for \"Mickey\" was one of the most popular early MTV videos. In the video, Basil wore her head cheerleader uniform from Las Vegas High School from which she graduated.\n

During an interview on VH1's \"100 Greatest Songs of The 80's\", Basil said that she still owns the same cheerleader sweater she wore in the video. In 2009, VH1 ranked \"Mickey\" Number 6 on its list of the 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the '80s. In 2017, she launched an unsuccessful lawsuit against the makers of South Park over their use of the song in parodying Barack Obama's 2008 election win.\n

For television, Basil has appeared as an actress and featured singer/dancer in many television shows and specials. She co-directed and choreographed two BBC specials with Alan Walsh and Ken Stephenson called \"Toni Basil Tape 1\" and \"Toni Basil Tape 2\". \n

Filmmaking and music videos

Basil's Word of Mouth video album was nominated for both a Grammy Award and an MTV Video Music Award. Her late 1960s 8 mm and 16 mm films toured the U.S. with the show \"Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle\" in 2007. \n

Awards and accolades

Basil received Emmy Award recognition for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1988, including a nomination and win listed by the Television Academy. Her other listed honors include Hip Hop International's Living Legend Award, two MTV Award nominations, four American Choreography Award nominations and two wins, including Lifetime Achievement Innovator, and the Los Angeles Theater Ovation Street Dance Award.\n

Basil's exhibitions include at the Museum of Modern Art (Videos), and at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (Short Films). She has received platinum and gold discs in the US, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Philippines, and France. Her single \"Mickey\" was installed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the groundbreaking singles of the 1980s.\n

She was given a tribute at The Carnival: Choreographer's Ball, Monsters of Hip-Hop Masters of Movement, and in Portraits of America's Great Choreographers. She was featured in the Museum of Modern Art Calendar of Artists, and on the cover of Dance Magazine.\n

On January 25, 2012, Basil presented The Electric Boogaloos with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th anniversary show of The Carnival: Choreographer's Ball for their role in popularizing dance styles such as popping and electric boogie.\n

In 2023, Basil was inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame.\n

Filmography

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Discography

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Studio albums

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Compilation albums

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Singles

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Awards and nominations

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Works cited

Binder, Steve (1964). T.A.M.I. Show (DVD). Shout Factory. Barcode: 8 26664 11742 4.
Winters, David (2018). Tough guys do dance. Pensacola, Florida: Indigo River Publishing. ISBN 978-1-948080-27-9.

References

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External links

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Official website
Toni Basil at IMDb
Toni Basil discography at Discogs

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Tony Basil

Broadcast History