With PMAN Backing, Nurse Tonia Returns to Music

Iyke Bede

After years of working as a nurse in the United States, Ann Uwa-Anthony, popularly known as Nurse Tonia, is returning to music with the release of her new single, ‘Jesus Na Otorkinado’.

Nurse Tonia, a long-time registered member of the Performing Musicians Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN), announced her return at the PMAN House in Lekki, where she was endorsed by its current president, Pretty Okafor.

The return marks a fulfilment for Nurse Tonia, years after putting her musical career on hold to pursue nursing. But the dream began much earlier and under difficult circumstances.

Born into a musical family, the death of her father in Benin changed the course of her early life. At 15, she moved to Lagos with her sibling in search of greener pastures. Instead, they spent more than a year without a permanent home, navigating the city and finding ways to survive. They performed at local shows and bars whenever opportunities arose, earning what they could while building relationships within the music community.

Those early performances eventually led to Nurse Tonia’s registration with PMAN. But without the financial backing needed to record, promote and sustain a music career, the dream was eventually put on hold.

“I would have done this project years back because we were born into music, but we didn’t have the backbone. Those days you had to look for sponsors and stuff like that,” she said.

Nurse Tonia later left the music scene to study nursing and eventually built her career in the United States. Music, however, remained with her. She continued writing and recording whenever she could and now has about 30 songs, many of which were developed around melodies that came to her unexpectedly, including while she was at work.

Her nursing career has also shaped her understanding of music’s ability to affect people. Nurse Tonia said she sometimes sings to patients during treatment and has seen them become happier. That experience, she said, has strengthened her conviction that she still has something to offer through music.

 Nurse Tonia said she is more interested in the impact of her music than immediate financial rewards. She wants to make songs that speak to people going through difficult periods and believes there is a need for more music that teaches morals, inspires listeners and encourages them towards God. This single draws entirely from that experience. 

Shedescribes her sound as a blend of old-school and modern influences.