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GALLERY 01 A SONG OF REDEMPTION By Shana Thornton-Morris/Fringe Magazine and ilonka New directions require frightening leaps of faith, sometimes across continents and down unknown streets, seated on unfamiliar trains, asking for advice from strangers and believing that the journey will unfold according to an invisible plan that offers the fulfillment of a dream. For South Africa native Ilonka Deaton, the journey toward a musical career began in her birth city of Johannesburg. “The whole plan was always to come to Nashville,” she says. “I wanted to learn more about songwriting. The market in South Africa is so small for music, and my dreams were always way bigger than that. At that time I wanted the typical, your name in lights and all of the girly things that you can dream about. I was a young teenager when I first mentioned to my mom that I wanted to come to America and be in the music industry. Being in high school, that’s kind of a far-fetched dream when you’re in a different country, and when I finished school we left. We immigrated. Just me and her.” Ilonka's mom had directed the budding star in family productions from the time she could memorize songs. By the age of four, Ilonka had performed onstage and wooed an audience of her own in a competition. “My mom was one of the moms who was like, Hey, you can do it!’ She was very encouraging, and I always loved to steal the limelight from my brothers while I was growing up, so she put me on a stage and said, ‘Why don’t you sing?’ My mom actually studied to become a concert pianist, and my dad sang as well,” Ilonka says. Her South African career grew over the next 15 years, as she won a singing competition that moved her into the professional realm. From the age of 12,she toured on a casino circuit. This time on the road allowed her to craft her performance skills, move onstage with ease and comfort, test her vocal performance in various locations and interact with a shifting audience. By the time she was 15, she was writing songs, Ilonka's life drastically shifted when she was 19. She and her mom found themselves stranded in New York, en route to Nashville, where they were confident that Ilonka could begin a successful music career. “It’s because of my mom that I am here,” she states with kind recognition. Unfortunately for Booyens, however, her mom had received bad advice in South Africa and, for several different reasons, did not have more than $50 cash. Her bankcard would not work in an American ATM. After receiving more advice, mother and daughter made their way to Penn Station wearing spaghetti-strapped shirts in ilonka describes as “zero degree weather” with only $50. The two stood on a platform, waiting for a train to somewhere that would lead them to Nashville. ilonka was disheart- ened, questioning their decisions from the past that only led them to being lost in New York. Like any normal 19-year-old, she struggled with worry and anxiety. "“I’m sitting about three seats away from my mom because I’m mad with the situation at hand",” she recalls. Meanwhile, her mom had been ap- proached by a Hispanic woman, who, after hearing their unfortunate story, told them she had just returned from Penn Station. She became a guardian angel for the stranded mother and daughter, purchasing two tickets for Booyens and her mom. They never found the woman to repay her. Once they finally made it to Nashville, ilonka's mom took a job at Shoney’s. ilonka stepped onto Broadway and tried her tune singing country music for pedestrians, tourists and shop owners downtown. “"The question is where do you start",” she says. “"I got all these books on music business 101 and picked up every magazine and newspaper I could find to learn the system".” Both ilonka and her mom worked their way toward their goals slowly and effectively, at first earning only enough money to cover their rent and food. ilonka worked as a hot dog vendor on Music Row for two years, figuring out how to assemble a band in the meantime. "I started doing songwriter nights and writing with anyone. I made a lot of mistakes at first and just kind of learned. I’ve been here for ten years now, and through my process of doing writers’ nights, I do about 65 to 70 dates a year",”she says. In 2006, ilonka signed with an indie label, Gambit Music Group, after the president of the label visited a writers’ night to watch her perform. She recorded her second independent album with the label. Shortly after that, however, the label was unable to sustain funds, and she was let go. “It was one of the most amazing experiences I ever went through in my life,” she says. “I learned more in that period about the music industry than what I did the five years prior by just being in it more professionally.” The next three months were trying for ilonka. She battled depression, and attempted to take her own life. She entered a psychiatric hospital, stopped writing and singing for months and got a day job. "“I thought, I’m not giving up, but I don’t know what to do with it",” she remembers. “I was broken alone and haunted by my abusive childhood". "I came through it in only one way, Jesus Christ saved me! In Spring of 2008 ilonka gave her heart heart to the Lord "Isurrended everything in my life to CHrist, my career, my family, my life. God became the center point of my life, my being and my inspiration for the first time. It’s very disappointing when you put an album out and you go through a label change or a career change like that. You just don’t know how to emotionallyprocess it, and that's jst on a career front not even what going on personally. The brokeness in my story was so deep that I had to be rescued from myself. My heart just started changing because of Christ. I started getting peace in my life. I started noticing nature. Being gentle with people. Being loving. Waking up happy in the morning and not feeling alone". ilonka's advice for continuing to pursue a dream during heavy challenges is to take action. "Seek the Lord with all your heart and ask HIM what your calling is" She counsels young artists to pick up the phone, book a gig, get a band together, write songs and talk to people. Lately, ilonka has been writing songs with a variety of Nashville songwriters and has been featured on several Christian film soundtracks. In 2009 her first worship album was realesed "Holding On", and in 2010 she released her first CHristmas album "Jesus Joy Of Life". She is currently enjoying the satisfaction of having a new worship projects in the works to be released in Spring of 2012 for her "Ever & Ever" tour with Girls Night Out across the US. Sponsored by Thrivent FInancial and World Vision. She is also trying to use her gifts to give back to her community. She has a viral video blog on YouTube called "Reach" dedicated to encourage women through the love of Jesus. "I’ve had a great response to the Christian content that I’ve been writing,” ilonka says. “I used to be so concerned with, ‘whose label are you on?’ But there’s so much movement around me that it almost seems like that’s the least of the problem. Now I feel called to something not —not pushing for something in my life.". Since her focus has shifted, the 29-year-old singer-songwriter says she doesn’t have to search for work and opportunities with the same kind of anxiety she used to face. Like her mother taught her on their journey to Nashville, ilonka has learned how to make leaps of faith and take action. Writing her story is one process she says she feels called to complete. Like the verses that compose a song, the routes of a train, the shape of a ring and the thoughts of a young girl with a dream, Ilonka's story circles back around. In June of 2009 she married the love of her life Bill Deaton, the record label president who had listened to her performance at the songwriters’ night years ago. Since then they have reopened Gambit Music Group which now houses ilonka's as an artist/speaker."My story is one of redemption",” ilonka says. “I first had to be broken before God could bless me, and now I’m in a place where He can use me. I feel so grateful for that. I couldn’t have chosen a better path for myself.

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GALLERY 02

coming soon

Ilonka LIVE!!.mov

"Holding On" Holding On Album
"Fly" Fly Album
"Jesus Joy of Life" Christmas

GALLERY 03

"Ever & Ever" Spring 2012 Tour with "Girls Night Out"

Buy Tickets April 11-May 7 Featured Speaker/Artist IlonkaMarch 28 Memorial Missionary Baptist Church, Kansas City, MOMarch 30 Grace Community Church, Topeka, KSApril 12 OneChurch, Conway, ARApril 14 First Baptist Church, Kingston, TNApril 19 First United Methodist Church, Butler, PAApril 20 Covenant of Grace PCA, Reisterstown, MDApril 26 Crossroads Church, Madison, WIApril 27 Moraine Valley Church, Palos Heights, ILApril 28 Community Church of Rolling Meadows, Rolling Meadows, ILMay 5 Cross Keys Baptist Church, Florissant, MO

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Reaching Women Thru The Love Of Jesus Christ

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Testimony Ilonka South Africa

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