They began singing in D.C., met in Maryland and got married before becoming Grammy nominees for Best New Artist.
Now, the acclaimed husband-and-wife duo The War & Treaty come home to perform live at The Hamilton on Thursday night.
WTOP caught up with Michael and Tanya Trotter ahead of their big homecoming concert in downtown D.C.
“We’ve done the Grammys on the Hill there and we really love that event, so we’re really excited to come back with our show,” Tanya Trotter told WTOP.
“It’s always a homecoming. It’s always wonderful to come back home and see family but to see fans too. This is our first time coming home to such a big crowd. We’ve played a lot of places but haven’t even had an opportunity to play Maryland, so we’re very excited to be able to come home.”
Born Tanya Blount in D.C., she attended Morgan State University in Baltimore before starring in the movie “Sister Act 2″ (1993) and recording the solo album “Natural Thing” (1994) with R&B hits like “Through the Rain.” Meanwhile, Michael was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but moved to D.C. as a teenager in the mid-1990s.
“I don’t want to impose or impede on Tanya’s thunder, but I moved to D.C. in 1996. And I went to Shaw Junior High School — one of the greatest marching bands of all time at that moment under the direction of Dr. [Wesley] Hoover,” Michael said. “In fact, I was the 1996 D.C. Futurefest Singing Competition winner that the mayor put on.”
The two met in Prince George’s County, fell in love and got married in 2011, together raising a son named Legend Michael Trotter, named after their famous touring mate John Legend.
“I was doing a back-to-school event for kids in Laurel, Maryland, so we met right there on Laurel Lake,” Tanya said.
“The first song we ever wrote together was making a baby,” Michael said. “That’s our biggest No. 1 hit: Legend.”
After moving to Michigan, they released their first album “Love Affair” (2016) under the name of Trotter & Blount before eventually changing their name to The War & Treaty to brilliantly capture war and peace all in one name.
“We were arguing about changing the name,” Michael said. “The treaty was that we won’t do that again.”
Their first album under The War & Treaty banner was “Healing Tide” (2018), which catapulted them to win Emerging Artist of the Year at 2019 Americana Music Awards at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
“It’s crazy because not even a year before that, we went to the award show, we didn’t have anything, we didn’t have any money, we were broke just sitting in the audience, someone had given us tickets, and we looked at each other to hold each other’s hands and we were like, ‘Man, do you think one day we could actually be on this stage?’ And it happened for us, so when we ended up winning the award, I was crying like a baby.”
The following year, they won Artist of the Year by Folk Alliance International thanks to their second album “Hearts Town” (2020), including the powerful song “Five More Minutes” based on Michael’s PTSD as an Iraq War veteran.
“We ended up getting services at the V.A. in Maryland and when we went to Michigan he started therapy again,” Tanya said.
“One day at home he was having a hard time, I noticed he wasn’t himself, and I looked at him [and said], ‘Give me five more minutes to change your mind.’ I didn’t know he was contemplating suicide. … He gave himself five more minutes and that story has changed a lot of lives. As he’d say, he’s still living in that five more minutes.”
In 2021, they performed U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love)” with Dierks Bentley at Academy of Country Music Awards, paving the way for their third album “Lover’s Game” (2023) with the song “That’s How Love Is Made.”
The album earned the duo two Grammys nominations, including Best American Roots Song for “Blank Page” and Best New Artist, nominated alongside such rising stars as Ice Spice, Jelly Roll and Victoria Monét.
“That album afforded us into rooms and conversations that we only dreamed of,” Michael said.
“It also put us in a room where we could be discovered by Zach Bryan for this collaboration ‘Hey Driver.’ That’s been awesome. … We’ve been in writing rooms with Miranda Lambert, it’s just been a wonderful time for us and it’s been a wonderful time in country music to be able to be accepted and embraced as country music artists and stars.”
Indeed, The War & Treaty recently became the first Black act to ever be nominated for Duo of the Year by both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music Association as the genre continues to evolve.
“Everything is changing all around us,” Tanya said. “The internet is changing, country music is changing, Americana is changing. We’re just happy to be a part of the journey and the people setting trends and changing genres.”
Next, Hollywood is knocking on their door with an upcoming biopic in the works.
“I’ll tell you this much, within four weeks now we should be going into casting,” Michael said.
Listen to our full conversation on the podcast below:
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