Tenille Townes Artistfacts

Tenille Townes song list

Tenille Townes Artistfacts

January 20, 1994
For Townes, songwriting is a spiritual experience. "You're transported through the music," she told Songfacts. "It's a form of surrender, where you're trusting where the song is taking you... It's the closest thing to a real-life magical experience."
Her birth name is Tenille Nadkrynechny, so you can understand why she changed it. "Townes" comes from Township Road 722, the road she grew up on in the Grande Prairie area of Alberta, Canada.
Not surprisingly considering she's a country singer from Canada, Townes is a huge fan of Shania Twain. When Tenille was 9 years old she got to not only see Shania in concert but join her on stage, thanks to her sign that read, "Shania, Can I Please Sing With You"? (she sang part of "What A Way To Wanna Be!") In 2023, Townes was an opening act on Twain's Queen Of Me Tour.
She writes her own songs, often with co-writers on the Nashville scene. She started writing songs soon after her grandparents gave Tenille her first guitar when she was 14.
Her breakthrough song was "Somebody's Daughter" in 2018, which went to #1 on the Canadian Country chart. She wrote the song after spotting a homeless woman off a highway exit.
She moved to Nashville in 2013 when she was 19. She made the 45-hour trek from Alberta in her Toyota Tacoma.
In 2023 she released a duet with Bryan Adams called "The Thing That Wrecks You." She ran into him while recording music for a Hallmark movie at Adams' studio in Vancouver, where she proffered the idea of doing a duet. To her surprise, Adams agreed.
She's won a trove of awards in her native Canada, including five Canadian Country Music Association awards on one night in 2022, including Entertainer Of The Year and Album Of The Year (Masquerades).
She's a questioning Christian, sometimes wondering about God's motives in her songs. An example is "Jersey On The Wall (I'm Just Asking)," which tells the story of a high school athlete who is killed in a car crash.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

More Songfacts:

Right Here, Right NowJesus Jones

The Jesus Jones song "Right Here, Right Now" was conceived as an optimistic version of Prince's "Sign O' The Times."

Ms. JacksonOutKast

The "Ms. Jackson" in the OutKast song is Erykah Badu's mother. Andre 3000 had a child with Badu, and felt she was portraying him as a lousy dad.

Friends In Low PlacesGarth Brooks

"Friends In Low Places" by Garth Brooks was written by two Nashville songwriters after a meal in a local restaurant. One of them forgot his money, but said not to worry, "I have friends in low places. I know the cook."

JumpVan Halen

Van Halen's first #1 hit was "Jump," an unusual song for the band because the lead instrument was synthesizer, not guitar.

Work From HomeFifth Harmony

Fifth Harmony was going to call their song "Work," but they changed it to "Work from Home" when Rihanna released a song with that title.

Disco LadyJohnnie Taylor

The first #1 hit with the word "disco" in the title wasn't a disco song. It was an R&B song called "Disco Lady" by Johnnie Taylor in 1976. The lady he's singing about is disco, but the song isn't.