Radka Toneff, also known as Ellen Radka Toneff, was a Norwegian jazz singer. The daughter of Bulgarian folk singer Toni Toneff and Norwegian pianist Lilly-Ann Drivenes, she began piano lessons at age six and later sang rock and rhythm & blues in the 1960s. She studied at the Oslo Conservatory of Music from 1971 to 1975, where her interest in jazz developed through collaborations with Erik and Jon Balke in the band Unis. In 1974, Toneff formed the Radka Toneff Quintet with bassist Arild Andersen and guitarist Jon Eberson, releasing Winter Poem (1977) and It Don’t Come Easy (1979). Winter Poem earned her the Spellemannprisen for Best Female Singer in 1977. In 1979, she began a close collaboration with American pianist Steve Dobrogosz, resulting in the album Fairytales (1982). Toneff died in Oslo in 1982. Posthumously, she was awarded the Buddyprisen by the Norwegian Jazz Federation.
