Taio Cruz

Jacob Taio Cruz (born Adetayo Ayowale Onile-Ere, 23 April 1980), better known professionally as Taio Cruz (stylized TΛIO Cruz), is an English singer, songwriter and record producer from London, currently based in Los Angeles.

Cruz's songwriting career began as part of Tricky Stewart's writing collective, RedZone Entertainment and achieved notability in 2005 when he was awarded a Brit Award for co-writing Will Young's 2004 single, "Your Game".

Cruz is the founder and chief executive of Rockstar Music London, which in 2006 released his debut single "I Just Wanna Know".

The single charted at #29 in the UK singles charts.

It won him some admirers including Island Records's Darcus Beese and Monte Lipman, who, according to manager Binns, "both believed 'I Just Wanna Know' fitted the format on both sides of the Atlantic".

In 2006, Cruz signed a split single deal with Universal Music Group companies, Republic Records and the UK branch of Island Records.

In September 2007, Cruz released his second single "Moving On", which made the top 30 in the UK.

In 2008, he released his debut album Departure, which he wrote, arranged and produced.

The album achieved certified gold status in the United Kingdom and earned him a Music of Black Origin Awards (MOBO) nomination.

In March 2008 his next single, "Come On Girl", featuring Luciana, peaked at No. 5 on the UK charts.

The related album Departure appeared on 17 March and peaked at No. 17.

This was followed by the single "I Can Be", which reached No. 18 in May.

On 18 August, "She's Like a Star" was released, which was a remix of the previous single and featured American rapper Busta Rhymes and girl-group Sugababes.

The remix later appeared on the Sugababes studio album Catfights & Spotlights, which peaked at No. 20.

It was later revealed that Cruz narrowly missed out on the chance to record the song "Umbrella" which was recorded by Rihanna and ended up topping charts around the world.

Cruz was featured on Tinchy Stryder's breakout single "Take Me Back" which peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart.

On 12 October 2009, Cruz released his follow-up album Rokstarr, which includes the number one singles "Break Your Heart" and "Dynamite".

Cruz collaborated with Kesha on the single "Dirty Picture", and with Kylie Minogue and Travie McCoy on his single "Higher".

According to Cruz's official Myspace blog, as of 1 January 2009, Rokstarr Music London changed its name to Rokstarr Entertainment Division, abbreviated to R.E.D Inc. During 2009, he worked on his follow-up album entitled Rokstarr.

It was released on 12 October through R.E.D Inc./Island Records and is written and produced by Cruz, with co-writes and co-productions predominantly with UK producer Fraser T. Smith.

The album's lead single "Break Your Heart" was released on 14 September and reached number one in the UK, where it stayed for three weeks.

In the US it went directly from number 53 to number one, breaking the record for the largest leap of a début single.

At the 2010 Brit Awards, "Break Your Heart" was nominated for Best British Single.

The success of the song attracted the attention of David Massey and Daniel Werner from Mercury/Island Def Jam who were excited and aggressive about releasing "Break Your Heart" in the United States on their label.

According to Cruz's manager Jamie Binns, the relationship with Monte Lipman at Universal Republic had "gone a bit quiet" by this point and as Taio wanted to be with the label that was most enthusiastic about his music, a move from Universal Republic to Mercury/Island Def Jam was engineered.

The single reached the top spot in the United States for one week on the Billboard Hot 100.

In an interview with The Guardian, it was stated that "Cruz was clever to have hooked up with a US rapper Ludacris on his breakthrough hit".

In order to introduce Cruz into the U.S. market, David Massey had suggested that the single feature an American rapper with chart credibility.

The album spawned two other UK singles, "No Other One", and the top-ten hit "Dirty Picture" featuring American electropop singer Kesha.

The album's fourth single (second in the United States) titled "Dynamite" debuted at 26 and peaked at number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Cruz wrote and recorded the song "Telling the World" as the lead single from the soundtrack to the 2011 animated film Rio.

Cruz's third studio album, TY.O, was first released in Germany on 12 December 2011.

At the 2011 Brit Awards, "Dynamite" was nominated for Best British Single, and at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards the song won three Billboard Awards, including Top Hot 100 Song.

Rokstarr was followed by the compilation album The Rokstarr Collection which includes songs both from Departure and the international version of Rokstarr.

In 2012, Cruz co-wrote David Guetta and Usher's song "Without You" and the same year released the music video to There She Goes featuring Uzbek model Nadya Nepomnyashaya.

In April 2015, Cruz released the first single, "Do What You Like" from his forthcoming Roses Collection.

In late 2015, he added vocals to Tujamo's Melbourne track, "Booty Bounce" which was released by Spinnin' Records.

Cruz was born in London to a Nigerian Yoruba lawyer father and a Brazilian mother who had a hairdressing business.

He was raised in "a five-bedroom house in Kensal Rise".

He was educated at fee-paying independent schools, attending Bilton Grange preparatory school in Warwickshire and Battle Abbey School in East Sussex, before relocating to London where he went to Stanmore College.