Tonja Rose

If you ask Tonja to recall her earliest vocal performance, she would take you back to a little blonde haired, blue eyed girl singing “Jesus on the Mainline.” From the first time that three year old little girl stepped on stage to sing with her Daddy and his gospel quartet, anyone who knew Tonja would tell you that music was her destiny. While growing up Tonja and her dad would travel to every homecoming, family reunion and revival they could get to and share their love of God and music to all who listened. Hailing from the not so big town of Pinetown, North Carolina, it didn’t take Tonja long to become a local favorite, and by the time she graduated from high school Tonja had traveled all over Eastern North Carolina singing with her dad as well as entering and winning several talent competitions. Tonja has a musical gift that has taken her from the stages of hometown churches to auditoriums, amphitheaters and everything in between. It was her love of performing and a hope of pursuing a career in music that gave Tonja the courage to move to Nashville and chase her dreams. Fueled by the love and support of her family she packed up and began the journey. Tonja quickly realized the ups and downs that go along with trying to break into the music business. No stranger to hard work she concentrated on developing her skill as a vocalist and songwriting. Tonja celebrated an important milestone in her music career in 2008 when she signed her first publishing and recording deal with Identical Entertainment. Garnering Billboard charting success in country music, Tonja started to gain attention for her writing skills and had her first Top 20 hit with "Who I Am Ain't Who I Was" Recorded by Ivan Parker and co-written with Mark Narmore and Rob Harris. On April 1, 2016, Tonja’s husband suffered a stroke which led her to stepping away from music. In the interim of her husbands recovery, Tonja struggled with her purpose and why God would let her experience so much in her musical career only to have her husband become sick, making her feel music maybe was not what God had in His plan for her. During this time, she continued to write songs which she called her therapy. The songs that Tonja wrote from 2016 thru 2018 from this experience are what led up to her current album “Me, Jesus and The Highway” which she recorded with John Mathis at Mansion Entertainment / BlueGrass Valley Records. Tonja will tell you that God must have had different plans, and He usually does, because her plan was to walk away from music and His plan involved her having her first Top Ten Single in Singing News Magazine with “When The Mountain Can’t Be Moved”.