(Photo by Melissa De Los Santos)
By MELISSA DE LOS SANTOS
Special to the NEWS
Trevor “Tha Rift” Donnelly is an independent singer/songwriter living in the Rio Grande Valley. His daughter, Mariana “That’s So Mariana” Donnelly is a singer and dancer and attends Step By Step Dance Studio in San Benito. They will both be opening for Lil Wayne later this month.
Mariana has always been interested in singing and dancing, recalling that her mother continuously catches her dancing to any song that plays, so she joined ballet, but feels more confident dancing to hip hop music. When she was eight-years-old, Mariana recorded her first song, “Beach Besties” made for her by her father. Thereafter, she continued making more songs.
Mariana attends Harlingen schools and says she earns high marks then starts focusing on singing and dancing. Besides singing and dancing, Mariana enjoys gymnastics and volleyball, and encourages her friends to pursue their dreams, never give up, and stands up for people that get bullied.
Tha Rift originally started his music career with hip hop, but changed because it was too vulgar, and he didn’t want his children growing up hearing that type of language. He said, “I can’t rap like this forever; it’s not my lifestyle anymore. Now I make music that I want to be timeless.”
For a long time, Tha Rift felt that he couldn’t have both his music career and his family. It wasn’t until they made the move to the Rio Grande Valley that he realized that he didn’t have to sacrifice one for the other and got Mariana involved. His wife, Vanessa Donnelly, does public relations for their family.
The Donnelly family moved to the RGV after living in Los Angeles for six years after Tha Rift’s sister begged him to move down here after their mother passed away at Harlingen Medical Center while she was visiting.
When asked about the RGV, Tha Rift said, “Everyone has been very supportive here. Mom and pop businesses are very supportive, everyone is supportive of each other’s businesses, it’s thriving. People actually know what the meaning of community is here, and I love it. It feels like home, I’ve been everywhere around the country; I’ve been overseas and nowhere else feels like home but here.”
He went on to say, “If I can use my talents to scale this community, grow within this community, and then use my own talents to bring in other opportunities for this community so we can create our own mini LA down here, why not? People take what you do very seriously out here. No matter what you do, people support it. Out in LA, it’s extremely hard. Our whole family has had more support from this community than anywhere else. I don’t know why that is but I love it, I’m not complaining.”
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