Glenview teenager makes big career move with Nashville song publishing deal

While acting and modeling were Queeva’s earliest creative pursuits, it was music that seemed to speak to her soul.

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Singer-songwriter Queeva McDonough is photographed in her Glenview home.

Singer-songwriter Queeva McDonagh is photographed in her Glenview home.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

So many have traveled the road to Nashville.

Sitting in the back seat, just another teenage girl with another tantalizing dream watching the miles go by outside her window, praying that someone in Music City would give her the chance to help her make her music dreams come true.

The singer/songwriter in this case is Queeva McDonagh.

Donning a light blue crop top with ruffled sleeves, the Glenview resident — who goes professionally by the singular Queeva — found herself in Nashville in September seated at a conference table signing a a publishing deal contract with Songs of New Town.

“I just can’t read or understand contracts, so I’m hoping that’s what I signed,” the 17-year-old says with a hearty laugh during a recent phone chat just days after returning from yet another trip to Nashville, this time to film a music video at a local roller rink. “Those contracts just have too many words if you ask me.”

It’s in fact her words and her songs and her innate way of staying humble that as her star continues to rise that have allowed Queeva to begin her trek to become a country music star.

“Oh, she never came in here saying she wanted to be a star,” says Chicago area talent mentor Maggie Malone, who helped direct her career starting at the age of 6. “She came in here saying that she wanted to lead a normal life while developing her talents.”

It was that poise. Malone says, that floored her from the very beginning.

“She just had so much raw talent,” says Malone, who quickly helped Queeva land some acting gigs in shows such as “Chicago Fire.” “She had natural abilities that she was just born with. She always had this intensity to her and a focus on what she wanted to accomplish.”

While acting and modeling seemed to be Queeva’s earliest creative pursuits, it was music that seemed to speak to her soul. One of six children in a classic Irish clan, Queeva has music running through her veins, as her grandmother was an accomplished singer in Ireland. The high school student has long spent her summers there, with her name itself having roots meaning “gentle,” “beautiful” and “precious.”

“I think my dad was the one that first saw that I had a passion for music,” recalls Queeva, who spoke Gaelic as a child while being raised on a hearty dose of Randy Travis and Johnny Cash. “When I was 3 years old, I would sing full Dolly Parton songs. My parents thought it was pretty unique that I could remember all of the words and stay on key at the same time.”

At the age of 9, Queeva started listening to country songstress Taylor Swift and took her first trip to Nashville under the watchful eye of her mentor, country star Jamie O’Neal.

In middle school, Queeva began juggling time in school and time in Nashville.

“I don’t think a lot of my teachers knew what was going on,” chuckles Queeva, who admits she didn’t have even have the time to participate in her school choir. “But my friends really started to notice that I was taking this whole music thing seriously.”

Of course, grades always came first.

 “I take my schoolwork very seriously, always making sure I put my education first,” Queeva said.

“I think my dad was the one that first saw that I had a passion for music,” recalls Queeva, who spoke Gaelic as a child while being raised on a hearty dose of Randy Travis and Johnny Cash.

“I think my dad was the one that first saw that I had a passion for music,” recalls Queeva, who spoke Gaelic as a child while being raised on a hearty dose of Randy Travis and Johnny Cash.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Flash forward eight years — to a period in which so many artists found their careers screech to a rather unnerving halt due to the pandemic. Queeva says that 2020 will always be the year that changed her life.

“This year has given me time to focus on who I want to be as an artist,” says Queeva, who listens to and gets inspired by artists such as Thomas Rhett, Maren Morris and Kacey Musgraves. “It’s given me the time to create music and discover myself and really get excited about all that is to come.”

Queeva soon will release a new EP that will feature her current single “Waste My Time” along with the song “Above Water,” which already has surpassed over 112,000 streams and has been added to a slew of Spotify playlists.She has earned more than 1.3 million streams to date collectively for her eclectic music catalog.

But 2020 has also taught her to take it one day at a time.

“The idea of a ‘plan’ is just always so hard for me to figure out because you just don’t know what’s going to happen, especially in the music industry,” says Queeva, who still has tentative plans to go to college. “It’s just one of those things that could go either way. But I’m just going to keep working hard, because music is definitely something I will always want as part of my life.”

Tricia Despres is a local freelance writer.

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