Taryn Papa, local country artist and 2020 contestant on The Voice, shares the heartwarming (and heartracing) story behind her romance and how it inspired her forthcoming EP.
CL: You’re getting married this year! Tell us how you met your fiance, Brett.
TP: I’m a country artist, and when I’m in Nashville, I sing downtown on Broadway on the weekends. On a Monday or Tuesday night, about two years ago, a company bought out Redneck Riveria as part of an incentive trip for all their top producers. I was the entertainment on the second floor. I had three or four songs left, and this guy came downstairs. He’d been on the rooftop the whole time playing corn hole and doing guy stuff. I saw him, and I asked my guitar player to sing one for me. I ran off stage and walked right up to him and said “I'm supposed to know you.” I just felt a connection, like a magnet, to him. Later he said he’d been winking at me, but I was in a dark room, there’s no way that on stage I could see that, but he said every time I looked over he winked. Now here we are almost two years later! We get married in March 2023. I just felt it. It was crazy. We almost missed each other.
CL: You also have a forthcoming EP. Tell us more.
TP: Yes! The whole project was inspired by meeting Brett and what it’s like to fall in love for the first time. I was on The Voice during 2020 during Covid - Team Blake - and this is the first independent project I’ve released since being on the show. We created the EP, and I co-wrote every song. Over the period of this past year, every six weeks or so we released one song as a single from the five song project. February 3rd is the final single release, and I’m so excited. It’s a duet with an artist named Zack Dyer called “No One's Gonna Love You” and it's a love song, of course. That will finish out the whole EP project for me. It's about finding my fiancé and it’s a play on words - no one’s gonna love you - like I do.
CL: Besides the upcoming nuptials, what’s next for you?
TP: We just bought a house, I upgraded from my downtown Broadway apartment. I’ll also be doing a residency at the Westin Hotel on the 27th floor in their winter chalet-themed bar for the month of February. The whole thing will be decked out like a ski chalet. The schedule will be up on my website, and you can also find my touring schedule there.
CL: Best wishes to you both, Taryn and Brett!
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