Tenillle Arts
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Tenille Arts
When exceptional talent and hard work meet perfect timing, huge things can happen. Great things are happening for Tenille Arts right before our eyes. As 2017 reaches mid-point, the momentum building for Tenille's career is exploding. She released her debut self-titled EP late last year, and the accolades began pouring in.
Streaming giant Pandora named her one of their "2017 Country Artists to Watch." The Saskatchewan Country Music Association bestowed "Album of the Year" honors for her debut EP. Canada's Sask Music ranked her EP #4 in their year end Top 10 Album Countdown. WhiskeyRiff.com called Tenille a "New Country Artist You Need to Know Immediately;" and Music Row Magazine critic Robert K. Oermann raved about her "Wildfire and Whiskey" track, saying, "She is a Canadian writer-artist with a winsome, piercing delivery. The song is a lightly rocking, ridiculously catchy, brightly shining gem about falling head over heels. Promising in the extreme."
The 23-year-old behind all of this recent attention is a quietly confident country music lover raised in the small Canadian prairie town of Weyburn, Saskatchewan. "I used to watch America Idol,and I wanted to be a singer from an early age. I would set up a stage and just perform for my brother and sisters."At the age of eight, a neighbor overheard her singing in the backyard and encouraged her mom to help her pursue music. This encounter led Tenille to vocal lessons, piano lessons, and dance training. She wrote her first song at 13, and has performed shows all over Canada since then. Some of her most notable stages include playing at the Craven Country Jamboree, the Boots and Hearts Emerging Artists Showcase, and the recent Canadian Country Music Association Discovery Artist Showcase.
A YouTube clip of her performing Taylor Swift's "Fifteen" led her to be contacted by a manager in Nashville. She made the trip to Music City to pursue an opportunity that was offered to her, but the timing just wasn't right. Also, Tenille hadn't truly found herself as an artist just yet. While gaining some valuable experience, she ultimately decided to return to Canada to continue writing, performing, and finishing high school.
A writing trip back to Nashville in 2015 led to a publishing deal at Noble Vision Music Group, allowing her to make the move there and pursue her career full time."Moving to Nashville was one of the best career moves I could have made. I have fully immersed myself into the country music scene, and I'm collaborating with new people every day. I used to write whenever I felt the inspiration, but now I'm writing almost every day and the progress has been rewarding." Her confidence and growth as an artist have coincided with her growth as a songwriter. "I knew I really needed to figure out who I wanted to be as an artist. The second that I stopped trying to sound like anyone else, that's when I feel like I found my sound."
In 2015, Tenille supported one of her favorite causes with a benefit single. "Breathe" was a special song because it was written by Matt Scales, who suffered from Cystic Fibrosis. She became interested in being an ambassador for CF when she was a dance teacher and one of her six-year-old students had the disease. Tenille recorded the song as a fundraiser for CF Canada, who received 100% of the proceeds. The song peaked at #6 on the iTunes Canada Country chart.
October 2016 found Tenille at the edge of a dream: releasing music that was definitively her. "I could have put music out there on many occasions just to have something out. I always told myself to be patient until the complete package was ready. I wanted the songs, the production, and the timing to be right."Tenille Arts, a six-song EP from the self-professed fan of the Dixie Chicks, Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift, and Carrie Underwood, highlights all of the influences that help define her artistry. "I grew up listening to real music played by real musicians, and I wanted to stay true to that when I started to record. I wanted it to have a timeless sound and feel organic, but fresh and new."
Tenille co-wrote all six songs on the critically acclaimed project, which was produced by Matt Rovey and Adam Wheeler. Tenille's instinct to wait until the music and the timing were just right paid off in a big way with the statement sound of her first EP. It debuted at #1 on the Top Country Albums chart on iTunes Canada, and cracked the top 100 on the U.S. Country Albums chart. The first track, "Wildfire and Whiskey," was placed on Spotify's coveted Wild Country playlist and has garnered over one million total streams across streaming platforms.
Tenille's accomplishments are already being rewarded,as she was a nominee for the Discovery Artist Award at the 2016 CCMAs. She won the 2016 SCMA Emerging Artist Award and the 2017 SCMA Album of the Year. Her fan base is expanding rapidly across borders as she releases new music. Her newest recording, "Cold Feet," has already reached #9 on the iTunes Canada Country Top Songs chart and is beginning to receive airplay in the United States. The beautifully haunting video racked up over 140,000 views in its first week. Her YouTube channel currently has 7,000 subscribers and well over 800,000 views. Arts releases her first full-length album "Rebel Child" in October 2017, having co-written 10 of the 11 songs on the collection.
As her growing number of fans enjoy watching her artistry blossom, Tenille has her sights set on a world tour as a global recording star… and why not? The determined brunette with a beautiful voice from Weyburn, Saskatchewan has already made it this far.
