Toni Willé (full name Antonia Johanna Cornelia Veldpaus; born 26 June 1953) is a Dutch country pop artist who was lead vocalist of the band, Pussycat.

Stefan was a Polish miner from Włoszczowa, Poland who came to the Netherlands in 1948 to work in the coal mines after serving in the US Army in Germany.

Three years later her mother, Marie Verheijen, married Stefan Kowalczyk, the Polish miner who brought up Toni and her sisters.

[1] 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.

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.

[1] Toni's career as lead vocalist of Pussycat started with her two older siblings, Betty and Marianne Veldpaus as The Singing Sisters (Zingende Zusjes) in 1963.

Apart from Demis Roussos, another guest on that show was Soulful Dynamics which had a big hit with the song "Mademoiselle Ninette" at that time.

With their Belgian producers, Toni's band the 'Sweet Reaction' recorded the song "Come Back my Dream", the successor of "Tell Alain".

So when the single "Daddy" was released, underneath the band name on the cover it read in glaring letters "Now Pussycat".

In 1975, EMI Bovema took Pussycat under contract with Toni as lead singer along with her two sisters as backing vocalists accompanied by Lou Willé (guitarist), Theo Wetzels (bassist), John Theunissen (guitarist), Theo Coumans (drummer from 1975 to 1978) and later Hans Lutjens (drummer from 1978).

With EMI arranger Eddy Hilberts as producer, the new name Pussycat finally started taking its new shape.

In 1976 it remained for four weeks at No.1 in Britain[6] (UK Singles Chart) and Germany[7][8] and from there all over Europe, Latin America, Australia, Africa and Asia.

Betty focused on raising a family, Marianne became the owner of a bar in Brunssum, and Toni, who has a son and daughter, is the only one who pursued a professional career in music.

More recently Pussycat contributed to the country band Major Dundee's single "Somewhere Someone" in 2005 and singer Dennis Jones' Dutch reggae cover of their signature hit song "Mississippi" in 2007.

The band started to play the song live for a few months and later they sent a demo of it to EMI Bovema in Heemstede, who were immediately interested.

Though this song never became a hit in the United States, it was covered by a number of American artists such as Barbara Fairchild and Lucille Starr.

This was partly the reason they were unable to accept invitations to visit Japan, Australia and Singapore, although they managed to schedule a one-month trip to South Africa.

[12] Toni had a successful solo career covering songs by Chris Rea and Anne Murray on her albums.

She recorded two singles with singer and songwriter Dick Van Altena of Major Dundee Band: "It turned Out To Be You" in 1990 and "Raised on Love" in 1995.

Besides "Love in a Heatwave", the theme of the film De Flat starring Rene Soutendijk, it also contains "Heart Half Empty", the duet with Danny Vera.

In 2007, Toni sang "I Wanna Love You" from her new album "Fantastic Stores" as a duet with Jess Robin on the Slovenian breakfast TV show.

She also worked with singer Jo Smeets on a Dutch and English duet mix titled "Maedjes van 50" (Girls in their Fifties) which was included in the Dutch album released in 2009 that featured artists from her native Limburg titled Diverse Artiesten – Limburg Allein Deil 3.

The CD was released in July 2013 on iTunes[23] In 2012, Toni recorded two singles – "Happy" and "What Love can Do" – with songwriter and composer Paul Logister.

[citation needed] In October 2006, she performed for 15,000 people at the Köln Arena in Cologne together with Chris Andrews and Harpo.

[7] On 15 July 2010 she performed in Fiji at two shows organized by Fijian artist Daniel Rae Costello and his band, The Cruzez.

One at the Vodafone Arena, Suva and the other at the Denarau Golf and Racquet Club, Nadi, as a part of the Golden Memories Tour concert.

[18] On 12 May 2012, Toni shared stage with George Baker and Jan Keizer & Anny Schilder in "Goue Stemme in Koncert" (Golden Voices in Concert), presented by King Entertainment in the theatre of Moreleta Park in Pretoria, South Africa.

There she entertained the screaming crowds with "Mississippi", "Georgie" and "My Broken Souvenirs" with Steve Hofmeyr, Nadine and other South African singers.

[24] Toni's live stage performance on 12 July 2014 at the Americana International Festival, Prestwold Airfield, Loughborough, U.K., one of the longest running tribute to the American dream in entire Europe, met with an enormous cheer.

Some of the popular numbers she performed were "Mississippi", "Georgie", "Raised on Love" and "That will be the day" (originally sung by Buddy Holly).