Taio Cruz
Producer, programmer and multi-instrumentalist, Taio Cruz has earned two chart-topping singles on both sides of the Atlantic as well as a further seven UK top 10 hits. A friend and collaborator to an encyclopaedia of talent – David Guetta, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, Busta Rhymes, Flo Rida, Ludacris, Ke$ha, Pitbull, McFly and Cheryl Cole to name just a few – Taio is a bona fide hit-maker. He’s won a stack of awards and performed to an audience of billions at the closing ceremony of the Olympics. That success is reflected with over 100 million global track sales and a further 5 million albums. Huge singles, Break Your Heart and Dynamite were back to back number one singles in America.
Taio was born in England, and grew up in north-west London. His love of pop manifested itself across genres. Whether it be Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey or Aerosmith, Taio would be on-board as long as the song had massive melodies, great vocals and accomplished songwriting.
Within a year of leaving college, he had earned a Brit Award as co-writer of Will Young’s Your Game. “There was for a moment, a slight worry – this is my first ever release and it’s won a Brit Award! What if it never gets better than this?”
Taio’s debut single I Just Wanna Know was written, recorded, produced and released on his own record label. After burning over a thousand CDs from his MacBook Pro, he dished out white labels and employed an independent radio plugger. Suddenly he had a breakthrough hit and then… the hits kept coming. He edged his way up the charts, landing at #5 with Come On Girl and then #3 with the Tinchy Stryder collab Take Me Back.
His first #1 came as the co-writer of Tinchy Stryder’s Never Leave You (featuring Amelle). Things soon escalated when Break Your Heart spent three weeks at the top of the UK charts, before hitting number one in the States following the largest jump in Billboard chart history.
Don’t Miss Taio Cruz on July 4th at the Loto-Québec River stage starting at 8:30 PM.
