Ondara – Live At The Tree House

We are delighted to announce that Grammy nominated United States-based Kenyan singer J.S Ondara mononymously known as Ondara will headline a special intimate date at The Tree House This November.

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Ondara grew up listening to rock songs on his sister’s battery-operated radio. Inspired by Nirvana, Jeff Buckley, and most notably Bob Dylan, Ondara fell in love with music despite the fact that his family couldn’t afford to buy him a musical instrument. After winning the green card lottery, he moved to Minneapolis, MN to pursue a career in music. He taught himself to play guitar and started performing at open mic nights and small venues. His big break came when a local radio station played one of his songs, pulling the audio from his YouTube channel. In 2019, his debut album, Tales of America (Verve Label Group), was released, depicting an immigrant’s life in America. The album charted on Billboard and was nominated for Best Americana album at the 62nd Grammy Awards. His second album, Folk n Roll, Vol 1: Tales of Isolation was released in 2020, followed by The Spanish Villager No. 3 in 2022.

In May of 2023 Ondara was announced as the winner of the grand prize of the prestigious International Songwriting Competition (ISC) selected by a panel of judges including Coldplay, The Lumineers, Linkin Park, Tom Waits, Rosanne Cash, Needtobreathe, Sara Evans, Danilo Perez, ACraze, and more. Previous winners have have gone on to achieve great success, including Vance Joy, Bastille, Tones and I, Gotye, Fantastic Negrito, Lindsey Stirling, The Teskey Brothers, Passenger, Faouzia, The Band Perry, and many more.

Please note this is an 18+ event, and the venue is accessed by stairs with no lift. If you have any enquiries please email thetreehouse@cheeseandgrain.com