From the choir loft to the spotlight

Antonio grew up in a house where music and the pulpit were the same thing. His father and grandfather were Baptist ministers, his grandmother led the choir and his mother was the lead vocalist. He sang in church before he could read a hymnal — and learned early that a song is meant to move a room.

He first stepped into the lights as a backup dancer for Missouri’s show queens. Everyone knew him as a dancer; he knew he was a singer. When his pageant mother, Vicki Vincent, told him there were pageants for men, he found the stage that would finally let people hear him — and started collecting crowns.

Nearly eleven years in New York City meant auditions, callbacks and a steady chase toward Broadway. Somewhere along the way he realized it was someone else’s dream. His own had always been simpler and bigger at the same time: to be a recording artist.

Today he sings four nights a week across Wilton Manors and serves as music director at the Center for Spiritual Living — a church where he can be fully himself and still sing the music that raised him. His sets run from Whitney and Mariah to Luther and Elton, always with powerhouse vocals and a wink.