Latest news with #TheWarandTreaty
Axios
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Clearwater Jazz Holiday announces 2025 lineup
Trombone Shorty, Trampled By Turtles and The War and Treaty are among the performers playing this year's Clearwater Jazz Holiday. State of play: Organizers on Wednesday announced the lineup for the annual music festival, scheduled for Oct. 16-19 at Coachman Park. Cory Wong, Tower of Power, and St. Paul & The Broken Bones are also among the acts set to play one of three stages during the fest. View the full lineup and schedule here.
Forbes
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The War And Treaty's Michael Trotter, Jr.'s Type 2 Diabetes Change
Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter of The War and Treaty (second and third from the left), are ... More seen here on stage with Yolanda Adams (far left), Amy Grant (second from the right), and Steven Curtis Chapman during Opry 100: A Live Celebration at Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium on March 19, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo byfor the Grand Ole Opry) 'A Healing Tide' was the name of The War and Treaty's 2018 debut album. But that could also describe what happened in 2023 to Michael Trotter, Jr.. That year he and his wife Tanya Trotter were at the Country Music Association Awards where they as The War and Treaty were nominated as Duo/Group of the Year for the first time. Michael had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes back in 2011 but until then 'wasn't taking it seriously,' in his words. But during the CMA awards show, he was 'smitten by how beautiful my wife was. Her beauty and love had healed me.' That's because seeing her that night helped him decide, 'Let's fight diabetes now,' which meant finally making changes to better manage his condition. This star duo recently told me the details of his diabetes journey. He had a family history of diabetes and in March 2011 was watching the TV game show Family Feud and noticed that the show's host Steve Harvey was blurry. It wasn't as if Harvey was moving at superspeed like the Flash. So his wife, Tanya, took him to the local hospital, where he was diagnosed with diabetes. 'I had bad eating habits,' recalled Michael. 'I would eat things like a whole box of oatmeal cream pies from Little Debbie and butter pecan ice cream. Right before I went to the hospital, I was experiencing blurry vision and headaches and felt something was wrong, something was off.' After he received his type 2 diabetes diagnosis, he thought, 'That was how I am going to die. No survives, no one beats it. I won't be able to escape this.' This led to resignation. 'For a time, I wasn't taking it seriously,' he explained. 'I thought, 'What's the point? It's a terminal illness.'' Pictured here is the performance of The War and Treaty during the 57th Annual CMA Awards at ... More Bridgestone Arena on November 08, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Astrida Valigorsky/WireImage) That thinking persisted for over a decade until the 2023 CMAs. Before the awards show, Michael had been warned about the fireworks that would occur during sets by Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert because Michael suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. But while sitting in the arena, he didn't even notice the pyrotechnics because, as he described, he was smitten by the beauty of his wife. Tanya, though, didn't notice that she was getting that reaction from her husband. 'I didn't put two and two together,' she recalled. 'I didn't realize he was looking at me.' That night changed everything. 'When I set my mind to do something, I do it,' he said. 'I wanted to live. And not just live. I wanted to live a healthy proactive life.' That year, his doctor also wanted to introduce him to Ozempic, the glucagon-like peptide-1 agnosy that you may have heard about in recent years. Yep, GLP-1 agonists have been all the rage for their weight loss effects. But Ozempic has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration specifically for diabetes. But his doctor wasn't about to just drop off the prescription anywhere, to adapt some lyrics from The War and Treaty collab song with Josh Groban, 'Hey Driver.' 'He wanted me to get on the right track first,' Michael explained. 'I needed to take diabetes journey seriously. He wanted me to be in the safe zone for treatment. I got down 10 pounds and my blood sugar readings in the safe zone.' Once he demonstrated that he could make the necessary lifestyle changes, his doctor was ready to start him on Ozmepic. 'People think Ozempic is a magic drug,' said Michael. 'They think that when you take it you can eat [bleep].' He provided a more realistic and grounded perspective on Ozempic: 'I needed to try everything to change, changing my exercise regimen, changing to healthy eating. I just need a stronger partner and Ozempic has been that partner.' Ozempic has helped him lower his hemoglobin A1C, which as I've mentioned in Forbes before is the measure of what your blood sugar is over longer periods of time. Ozempic has helped decrease the food chatter in his head and the cravings. But it hasn't eliminated them. 'They do come back,' he warned. 'I did have a bad relationship with food previously. I am now more conscious of what I eating on the road.' Tanya has noticed significant differences. 'There is a definite decrease in food cravings,' she said. 'He has more energy on stage. He out-moves me out there.' That increased energy has been helpful as The War and Treaty has just embarked on a new 40 city tour that will continue through September for their new album Plus One. He is also taking part in a new national campaign launched by Novo Nordisk, the makers of Ozempic on March 3. It's called 'My Ozempic Era' and includes him, award-winning chef Franklin Becker and salon owner Maria as paid spokespeople to share their stories of 'how they manage their type 2 diabetes by adjusting their diet, exercise, and taking Ozempic as prescribed by their doctor,' as described in the campaign's press release. In some way, you could describe the approach of Michael Trotter, Jr. to type 2 diabetes as a war and treatment. which launched March 3. It is a persistent battle against the condition and issues that may worsen the condition with an assist from a medication. But since 2023, it looks like the tide has turned in this battle.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Grammy-nominated soul-country duo The War and Treaty returning to Detroit this weekend
The War and Treaty are coming home. The widely acclaimed, Grammy-nominated soul-country duo – the first Black pair to be nominated for the Country Music Association's Duo of the Year award – have won over fans of all races and ages with their bluesy, gospel-tinged take on Americana. Married couple Michael and Tanya Trotter view Michigan as their launching point and are bursting with excitement for their return. They'll play a 7 p.m. concert on Saturday, March 29, at Detroit's St. Andrew's Hall. 'Listen, Detroit is the spot, and we're just going to unleash for real,' Michael said. 'People say that all the time, but I'm serious. We have a very special show planned for Detroit because Detroit is special. Our very first sold-out show was in a little club in Ferndale called Otus Supply. We did live recordings there. The very first radio DJ to really invest in us is right there in Detroit at WDET Her name is Ann Delisi. Through her, we were discovered by Mr. Don Was, who's a Detroit guy, and the rest is history. Our career doesn't jump off without Michigan investing in us.' Both Michael and Tanya entered country music from R&B backgrounds, and their approach has won over many fans who've never cared for the genre. 'I think it's because we are reminiscent of (Black) history,' said Michael. 'I think it's because nothing in country music reflects the history of our people, in terms we know. But if I can give you a different perspective, Ray Charles had one of the best country albums of all time (1962's 'Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music'). How can you feel connected when all the songs talk about blonde hair, blue eyes, you know? We're singing about a wider experience.' Tanya, originally known as Tanya Blount, has been familiar to Black audiences for decades, due to her onscreen role in 'Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit' and her solo R&B album, 'Natural Thing,' released the following year. She said the leap from R&B to country isn't quite as big as one might think. 'I think it's the intention,' she said. 'Whenever you approach music of any kind, just be intentional. I grew up loving all kinds of music. If you listen to my first album, I had house music on that record, pop songs, R&B with saxophones, and things like that. I was into house music; I was into Whitney Houston at the time. With The War and Treaty, it was intentionally taking all the things that we love and infusing them. Michael went to work on infusing these sounds and not making it sound weird – because, sometimes, you can put a dish together when you're cooking, and you're like, 'This is disgusting.' And then, sometimes, you can put Caribbean flavors and add paprika and pineapple and all these different flavors, and it's actually good. 'I think that's what happened with the R&B and the country-gospel sound that we have now: Intentionally infusing these sounds together and making them work so that a person that might love gospel music doesn't necessarily have to go and listen to a gospel album. Or, a person that listens to country music may not have to go and listen to a full country album. They can listen to The War and Treaty and say, 'I feel the country tickles in here.' I think it's about being intentional.' Michael credited Tanya with crafting just the right sound for the duo. 'To Tanya's credit, I want to tell you this,' he said. 'The one thing she was emphatic about was us being who we are, vocally. She's like, 'The vocals need to be the forefront. We need to saaaannnngg.' Someone put up a post that said Tanya is indeed the greatest voice of this generation.' The pair met in Laurel, Maryland, at a festival benefiting a less fortunate community. Tanya heard Michael, then a homeless war veteran trying to break through in the music industry, and soon played his music on her midday radio show. He eventually became her pianist, and sparks flew. 'We fell in love – hard,' Michael said. 'We were married within six months of meeting one another, and there was no looking back. It was like, 'This is the rest of my life, right here. I'm good.'' Ironically, Michael did not start out as a pianist and didn't even know how to play piano until his adult years. He taught himself to play, during a tour of Iraq, on a piano formerly owned by Saddam Hussein. 'I am a 'once a soldier, always a soldier' kind of guy,' he explained. 'I served in the United States Army, and my experiences would shape me for this moment. The military is all about partnering up. We have a buddy system; it's all about your 'plus-one.' And I literally learned the importance of having a plus-one through my service in the military – serving my battle buddy, self-service, serving my country. Some of those experiences … would prepare me to partner up with my beautiful wife for the rest of my life. I needed a plus-one once the military was gone, and here it is. 'One of my captains identified me as a weak link and realized that I was going to get people killed. He read in my files that I love music. We had taken over one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. It had a piano in it, and he took me down there and said, 'Hey, man, when you are boggled with fear, find your way home right here.'' Michael, who was always skilled at hearing harmonies, would plunk away at the piano with one finger, one note at a time, teaching himself songs like Bill Withers' 'Lean on Me' and the theme song from '90s cartoon series 'Rugrats.' 'Anything that would get me closer to my childhood,' he said, 'and a feeling that was going to get me over the hump. I wasn't as confident in my piano playing until 2010, when I met my wife; she loved my playing and insisted that I would always be her plus-one on the piano.' Tanya called Michael 'her inspiration.' 'I really do,' she said. 'I've been doing this since I was eight years old. There are people that you meet in every sector of your life that you draw inspiration from, and there are people that solidify your inspiration – and he has solidified it. For the last 14, 15 years, (he's) the person that I look at as an example, whether it's vocality, writing, producing, how you see music, how you hear music. 'Michael can literally hear music in the sound of the air conditioner going, or the sound of a bus or the birds, or the wind; there's sound in everything. And I have to say that I have never encountered anyone who approaches music that way. Most people have to get into a room and feel a vibe and do all these different things, but when it comes to Michael, it's every piece of your surroundings, and now that I'm with him, I'm always feeling it, I'm always seeing it. It comes from a supernatural place.' More: Detroit concerts on sale this week: Black Keys, Babymetal, Jamey Johnson, more Though neither of the Trotters are from Michigan, Michael credited the city of Albion, Michigan for the birth of The War and Treaty. 'Back in the day, they used to call Albion 'Little Detroit,' he said. 'Albion has a rich history of hardworking, middle-class Americans who want to keep their town beautiful and want to thrive. We fit in there, we learned how to be family there, and we learned the true importance of community that doesn't really look like you, but feels like you. Jackson, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Marshall, Detroit – Michigan is our spot, so we always want to show out there.' Saturday's performance at St. Andrew's will be recorded for a live album, he said. 'We have a little community we started online called Hearts Town,' he said, 'and we're encouraging everybody in Hearts Town to bring their cameras, their recorders, their camera stands, and we'll have a little area just so people can record the show.' The duo said the evening will be all about positivity and good vibes. 'What we really want to do is restore people's faith back in people,' said Michael. 'It's really just letting people know that there are still good people out there. There are still people that believe in love and that believe in connection, and that's what The War and Treaty has always been about, reiterating that message to let them know they're not alone.' General admission, standing-room-only tickets for The War and Treaty's Saturday, March 29 performance are available at for $39.75. For more information on the Trotters, visit St. Andrew's is located at 431 E. Congress, Detroit. Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The War and Treaty, Grammy-nominated duo, returns to Detroit
South China Morning Post
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Who is Michael Trotter Jr of The War and Treaty? The army vet rediscovered music at Saddam Hussein's former palace in Iraq – now he and his bandmate wife have inspired a John Legend-produced film
With the arrival of singers such as Jelly Roll and Fancy Hagood , Nashville is slowly welcoming artists who don't fit the traditional country-music mould. Among the rulebreakers are The War and Treaty, a husband and wife duo. Within their music – which spans country, gospel, rock, R&B and Americana – Michael Trotter Jr and Tanya Trotter (née Blount) have a chemistry that some have likened to that of legendary country pair Johnny Cash and June Carter. Singer-songwriters Michael Trotter Jr and Tanya Trotter of The War and Treaty perform with musicians including Stewart Copeland (on drums) during the 2025 MusiCares Person of the Year benefit gala, Los Angeles, in January. Photo: AFP Last month, the Grammy-nominated artists released Plus One, an album that NPR called a 'love letter to American music'. The duo worked with country hitmaker Miranda Lambert on the album's lead single, 'Love Like Whiskey'. Advertisement Tanya also chose the moment to speak to People about her time with Diddy 's Bad Boy Records in the 90s, describing it as a 'learning experience'. In the interview, she said the current allegations against Diddy were 'unfortunate' and that she wouldn't 'speak on his personal matters'. However, she told the Dumb Blonde podcast last year she was 'really appalled' by the case. But who is her husband, Michael Trotter Jr, who said, 'One of our main intentions with [Plus One] is to inspire people to share themselves with others, and open themselves up to the possibility of being loved'? He's always been around music Michael Trotter Jr of The War and Treaty performing at the 2025 Invictus Games closing ceremony in Vancouver, in February. Photo: AP Michael Trotter Jr grew up in a family where everyone was a singer and performer. Though his musical journey officially began in church, reports People, his biggest influences were Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and Nat King Cole. Since childhood, music has helped Trotter beat tough times. While living in a homeless shelter he would escape reality by watching Sister Act 2 (1996) with his mother; they would take turns belting out the film's song, 'His Eye Is on the Sparrow', which would later be performed by his wife. He's an army veteran Trotter enlisted in the US Army in 2003. 'I had no other choice,' he told People. 'The war was a detour I needed to do because I had f***** my life up so bad … I was just like, 'I need a dollar fast and I need to get it legally.''
CBC
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Justin Trudeau, Prince Harry take in final day of Invictus Games in Vancouver
Social Sharing The 2025 Invictus Games have wrapped up in Vancouver with a closing ceremony headlined by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. Event producer Patrick Roberge said at a news conference earlier this week that the closing ceremony is meant to be "more intimate" than the opening ceremony held last week at BC Place Stadium in front of a crowd of about 40,000. Roberge said Sunday's closing ceremony at Rogers Arena is planned for a crowd of 12,000, with heavy focus on the competitors and their "journey at the Games." "The only one on the floor of the arena will be the competitors of the Games, along with our dignitaries for the show," Roberge said. WATCH | Invictus Games wrap in Vancouver: Prince Harry highlights importance of adaptive sports as Invictus Games wrap 3 hours ago Duration 1:16 As the 10th edition, and first winter edition, of the Invictus Games wrapped up in Vancouver, Prince Harry underscored the importance of the adaptive sport event for military personnel and veterans during a time of ongoing global conflict. "It's going to be a chance for them to come together one last time as a collective group of people, celebrating their success." Besides Trudeau and the Duke of Sussex, others making appearances at the closing ceremony included famed wheelchair athlete and philanthropist Rick Hansen, Olympic gold medallist Ashleigh McIvor, Paralympics bronze medallist Alexis Guimond and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim. The evening featured musical performances by Canadian band Barenaked Ladies and Montreal singer Marie-Mai, as well as American musicians Jelly Roll and The War and Treaty. The event also marked a handoff point for the Games, as Vancouver is handing over the Invictus flag to representatives from the United Kingdom ahead of the 2027 iteration, to be held in Birmingham. Earlier Sunday, Trudeau and Prince Harry dropped in to watch part of the indoor rowing finals on the last day of the Vancouver Games. The pair sat in the bleachers with Canadian fans, cheering as athletes competing on rowing machines lined up in the middle of the room. Prince Harry founded Games Trudeau and Prince Harry stopped periodically to shake hands and take pictures with spectators and volunteers at the event. Prince Harry founded the Invictus Games in 2014 and has been in B.C. to watch a number of the events over the last week that saw 550 wounded, injured or sick service personnel and veterans from 23 countries compete in 11 sports in Whistler and Vancouver. This year included six winter sports that were part of the Games for the first time.
