Since 1994 Tanya has been an international known recording artist best known for her performance in the hit movie Sister Act 2 singing “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” and since expanded her title to author and speaker in 2009. She has presented lectures at various churches, her Butterfly Beautiful Conference for Girls and Young Women, The Urban League and many other venues. Three years ago, she married Michael Trotter, Jr., an American Gospel singer-songwriter/Recording Artist known for his soulful voice, yet humble approach to the stage. This power couple got married three years ago, and they are parents to four children (two girls and two boys).
BMWK: Can you share a little about the projects have you been working on?
Tanya: We have been really busy putting our heads together since we got married. We have a corporation called Heal Our World and we also have the I am Beautiful Corporation, where we mentor girls ages 8-17. We are parents of a 9 and 11 year old girl and we have a son we had together in our marriage who is nineteen months, and then we also have a teenage boy.
We have stage plays, and my husband is a songwriter so he wrote a new song that is the anthem for the I Am Beautiful Corporation and it’s called Butterfly Beautiful. It’s been really cool. We have Butterfly Beautiful conferences that we’ve been taking from state to state. We did that in March this year in Bowie, MD and it’s been quite successful. I’ve really been putting all of my energy into the social mission which is a God-esteem issue and not a self-esteem issue. Self-esteem can go up and down. If you teach children to have the foundation of God, then regardless of how you feel about yourself, you will always go back to a source that is greater than you. So it’s a God-esteem movement we started.
BMWK: How did the two of you meet?
Michael: I met Tanya at an event called Spirit of Love festival in Laurel, MD. When I met her I had gotten there late, but I’m on time now so it doesn’t matter [laughter]. Tanya was sitting under the tent doing her celebrity thing. I was just a little drummer boy, little piano player boy just trying to get my song heard. Everyone was saying I needed to meet Tanya and I wanted to meet Tanya up close and personal. And she just blew me off. So I just started ministering and doing the Lord’s work and she ended up running across the field in her heels and asked if I wrote those songs. So she gave me her number and told me what she was about, and what she and her brother were trying to do. I threw the number away because my self-esteem was so low and I thought to myself: ‘yeah right, that’s Tanya Blount. She doesn’t want anything to do with me. She can get anybody to work with her’. But what I didn’t know was that God had a divine plan.
We started working and hanging out a little bit professionally. Before I knew it, my eyesight started changing towards her. She’s such a beautiful person, a beautiful woman and I was like, wow God, could you really bless me with something like this?
Before I knew it, we were just talking a lot and our conversations began to get elongated. She invited me to her birthday party and that night I gave her my gift which was a song I had recorded about all that I had learned about her. I bought her an Aretha Franklin CD (Rescue Me, collector’s addition), and I gave her a card. Little things like that mean so much to her. So I decided I was going to tell her how I felt. We were texting back and forth and she told me I left my sweater at her house and she asked what I was going to leave next? So I told her, ‘my heart’. I tried to have a little Jerry McGuire moment, ‘you had me at hello’ [laughs], and Tanya hung the phone up. I didn’t hear back from her until the next day around 12:30pm. The whole night I was thinking that I’d just ruined the relationship. But she called me and we went out to dinner and the movies. And we’ve been together since.
BMWK: How is it working together on your music?
Michael: We work together in music but that’s the last thing we do. I fuss sometimes because I want to do more stuff together. But we don’t have the time because we’re both in ministry. We’re both Pastors and we pastor under Pastor James and Regina Cooper right now at Restoration International church. We also have our own ministry called Heal Our World. And right now, we’re working on the I Pray project. God has been using my wife and I. Through our prayers, marriages are being healed. Husbands are apologizing to their wives for cussing them out. Wives are apologizing to their husbands for belittling their dreams.
So a lot of people think of the music first. When they hear Tanya’s name, they immediately think Sister Act or ‘that girl can blow’. But what people don’t realize is that Tanya’s heart sings louder than anything. And I am just so honored that I learned the true core and the true essence of this black woman. I don’t care if we don’t ever record anything else ever again. The mere fact that I’m able to share space with her is an honor. I think a lot of husbands lose the honor aspect of things. God says, ‘he who findeth a wife findeth a good thing’. I didn’t just find a good thing, I found a great thing. I found a God thing. This woman is incredible. The way she loves people, this movement of Butterfly Beautiful that God has birthed in her, how she’s praying for her friends even Lauren Hill as we speak. She finds time to do all of this, and still maintain a tight ship at home. That’s priceless.
BMWK: How do you keep the family and marriage tight and strong with all that you have going on?
Tanya: I would say brutal honesty. A lot of times, we, as women don’t want to take direction from the head. When I get a little overwhelmed or I’m doing a little bit too much or not putting all the time I need to put in with my son, we’re honest with each other. My husband says, ‘the girls need you right now’, or ‘I need you right now’, so we’re just honest with each other. He tells me when I’m over working.
Sometimes as women, we kind of overdo everything because we’re just superwomen, we can’t help it [laughs]. He’s an incredible man of God and his heart is towards God and he just loves his family. I fell in love with him because of how he loves. When I met him with his daughters, I knew his heart was beating just like mine was. You can’t really love your children that way and not love other people the same way. So when I saw that, it was absolutely amazing. He’s an incredible father, he’s loving, patient, sensitive husband. And his sensitivity is still strong in his manhood. It’s been a wonderful journey.
BMWK: How do you take time out for your marriage to reconnect in spite of all of the responsibilities that you carry?
Michael: It’s amazing because when you walk in your purpose, the time out is built in already. We find moments that aren’t even planned. If her feet even touch me she already knows what time it is [laughs]. She can’t look at me too long and I can’t look at her too long. We find time to appreciate those quiet moments. It’s nothing planned, we try not to plan it.
Wednesdays are family day. We work together so we’re always together 24/7. We dedicated that day to stop by and go shopping for our parents. If we have to call a brother or sister, we’re going to do it all on Wednesday. After that, that’s all you get until the next week [laughs].
BMWK: What parenting tips can you share with us?
Tanya: Someone said to me the other day that we have to intentionally parent our children. You have to figure out what your child is. Even at nineteen months old we know our child is very strong, determined, headstrong, talkative and very much a dictator. We have to figure out what it is in our children that is strong in them and nurture that the way God would have them be, not the way we want them to be. Nurture their strengths and look at their weaknesses and partner with God. Don’t just get them involved in dance classes but spiritually figure out who they are. At the end of the day, when everything is gone, that’s the only foundation that is going to stand. We want to teach them not just to go to church but how to pray and have a relationship with God.
Michael: I think she’s absolutely correct. I know some things might reflect us but our children are nothing but an extension of who we are. Most importantly, we want them to know how to have a relationship with God in addition to how to have a relationship with people. Everything we do with people is 50% of life. The other 50% is how you deal with the Lord. So if our children don’t’ see anything that’s walking around and is negative, how can their life gravitate towards that? That’s controlled parenting in a positive way. When I come home from work, it’s not acting like the boss in front of the kids. It’s about getting my wife in the bedroom and telling her about my hard day.
BMWK: What final marriage advice would you like to share?
Tanya: My grandparents were married for 74 years before they both passed away. My grandmother gave me this advice: just be kind to one another. That’s how you stay married. It’s a simple one liner.
Michael: In addition to being kind, never get weary. It’s one thing to be tired, but don’t get weary. Remember the love you had for one another. Nowadays I am seeing people who have been married for forty and fifty years up and divorce, which doesn’t even make sense to me. As a husband, father and son of my mother and father, literally honor your wife at home and she will promote you publicly. When you embarrass her at home, that’s when she embarrasses you in public.
How can people get connected to the work you are doing with marriages and your projects?
Tanya: They can reach us on our website and social media www.michaeltrotterjr.com.
Thank you, Michael and Tanya for taking time out to chat with us.
BMWK: What inspired you about this Couple’s story? Be sure to share with them in the comments section.