Thanks for visiting my site! I'm Yona Marie, a musician, and marketer who has a passion for creating content. I love singing and writing music. I've been creating songs for over 15 years and have no intention of stopping any time soon. I sing anything that matches well with soul singing. That can include Hip Hop, Funk, R&B, House, Jazz, and much more.

I studied music professionally at Hyattsville Middle School, Suitland High School, and Jacksonville University. I originally majored in Vocal Performance at JU, but I switched my major to Music Business after my first two semesters in order to add space for my growing passion for marketing. 

When I'm not nerding out over music and marketing, I love spending time with my family, friends, and my fiance. I'm also big on movies, shows, and books, including comic book storylines and anime. I'm obsessed with sci-fi fantasy stories. Outside of entertainment, I'm on a never-ending journey to becoming the best version of myself each and every day. I want to take more risks. I want to push past my anxieties and my fears to make a positive impact on other's lives. 

Although I did sporadic work for producers and artists as far back as 2009, I officially started my session singing (studio singing) work-for-hire gigs in 2018. This exciting career journey brought me a ton of new relationships, connections, and creative projects that sometimes were out of my scope of knowledge. I found myself engaging in a ton of research in the world of singing, writing, promoting, music business, and artist development topics. 

To my surprise, a lot of sites I found through google were giving me thin, outdated, or sometimes plain wrong information. With extra effort and other resources like video and book content, I was able to find mostly all the answers to my questions, but I couldn't believe there was so much helpful content that the music niche was lacking. 

I had experience with content writing for several brands in the past, so I decided I wanted to take my skills and create a new brand for myself. With this site, I decided that I would create hundreds of blogs that give free informational content to musicians like me who need facts, advice, and ideas that would help further their efforts in their musical journey. 

I also wanted to take it a step further and allow my current and potential song clients to be able to reach me easily here. I do most of my studio work through freelance sites, but creating a space for my clients and me to build and collaborate specifically to our project needs has been very beneficial. 

Last but not least, I want people who enjoy my personal music releases to be able to connect with me and easily find all of the songs that I've written and published as Yona Marie and as Rachel Marie. In addition to song releases, I will be sharing a podcast, interviews, photos, music videos, and merchandise all here at Yona Marie Music. 

Rachel Marie, also known as Yona Marie, has been singing and writing almost all her life. She was born and raised in Maryland and parts of Washington DC. Rachel started out singing with her family often at a church by the name of First Rising Mount Zion Baptist Church, and in performing arts schools including Hyattsville Middle School, Suitland High School, and Jacksonville University.

In 2010, Rachel gained some mainstream popularity by releasing 'The Luv Exposure' featuring artists, producers, and singers from around the country (and beyond) that united to make great music. The lead single was featured on a Majormix release which included Chris Brown, Ace Hood, and Tyga.

In the summer of 2013, she released a smooth neo-soul track called "High" that went viral in the independent music world, garnering over 100,000 listeners and 20,000 downloads. The 90s-style instrumental is credited to the late J Dilla.

In the summer of 2016, Rachel teamed up with talented EDM producer Eli Way to create a gem of a track called "Just Wanna Love You" under the label Night Owl Collective which went viral on Spotify, Youtube, and Soundcloud gaining over a million streams. 

In 2018, Rachel decided it was a good time to change her name to Yona Marie due to many artists in several different genres releasing songs under "Rachel Marie". She picked the name Yona after being inspired by the popular manga Yona of The Dawn, which features an epic storyline of a young, clueless, naive girl who slowly matures into a powerful woman who changes thousands of lives. 

As a session singer, writer, and producer that has worked with over 200 clients to provide high-quality jingles, singles, features, nursery rhymes, and DJ drops, She currently spends her time engulfed in creating and marketing new music, as well as creating helpful content for artists and musicians who share a similar plight of making their way through an ever-changing digital music world.