The War and Treaty singers Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter bring their love story to life each time they take the stage. The couple met in 2010 and soon tied the knot, but Michael initially thought he ruined his chance with his now-wife.
“We started working and hanging out a little bit professionally. ..
. I decided I was going to tell her how I felt,” he recalled in a 2013 interview. “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.’” He continued, “I tried to have a little Jerry McGuire moment, ‘You had me at hello,’ and Tanya hung the phone up. I didn’t hear back from her until the next day around 12:30 p.
m. 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.” Michael and Tanya lean on one another for support both on stage and off. Before The War and Treaty was formed, Michael served in Iraq and developed PTSD from his time in the U.
S. Army. He hit a particularly low point in 2017, but Tanya was there to pick him back up.
“Every single day I see the joy and fire in Michael, and that’s the joy and fire I need,” she told The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2022. Scroll down for a glimpse inside Michael and Tanya’s relationship: The couple met at a festival in Maryland. “He was performing there, and he blew me away,” Tanya recalle.