Taio Cruz

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Taio Cruz
Background information
Born	23 April 1985 (1985-04-23) (age 24)[1][not in citation given]
Origin	London, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Hip-Hop, R&B, pop
Occupations	Producer, Singer-Songwriter, Musician, Multi-Instrumentalist
Years active	2005 – present
Labels	Island Records, Rokstarr Music London
Website	www.taiocruzmusic.co.uk

Taio Cruz (pronounced Tie-oh Cruise)^[2], was born 23 April, 1985. He is a Brit Award Winning & MOBO-nominated English singer-songwriter and music producer.

In 2008 he released his top 10 debut album Departure which he arranged and produced himself. In October 2009 he released his follow up album Rokstarr which includes hit single "Take Me Back" with Tinchy Stryder which peaked at number three and his number one single "Break Your Heart". In between the two albums and at present Cruz is working on productions/writing songs for Cheryl Cole, Sugababes, Brandy and DFS's upcoming studio albums.

[edit] Career

[edit] Early life and establishment in music

Taio Cruz was born on 23 April 1985 and raised in the UK to a Nigerian dad and a Yugoslavian mum. His love for music was evident from his school days and particularly college days, where he began taking recordings more seriously. Cruz is the founder and C.E.O. of Rokstarr Music London, which in 2006 released his debut single "I Just Wanna Know". Also in 2006, he signed a joint-venture partnership deal with UMusic Companies, Republic Records and Island Records.^[3] In the UK, Cruz has worked with Omar, Nitin Sawhney, Wookie, and Will Young. The song "Your Game", co-written by Cruz with Will Young and Blair MacKichan, went multi-platinum and won Best British Single at the Brit Awards.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Departure: (2008-2009)

Cruz Performing at Bush Hall in London on 19 March, 2008.

His album entitled Departure was released in the UK on 17 March 2008. The album was arranged and produced solely by Cruz with most of the writing credits also coming from Cruz. Following the success of his own singles and season finale for season 5 of The X Factor, record label chief Simon Cowell approached Cruz to write and produce tracks for Alexandra Burke, Leona Lewis and Shayne Ward.^[4] Towards the middle and end of 2008 Cruz was in Philadelphia working with US producer Jim Beanz on new music for Britney Spears, Brandy and Justin Timberlake. He was also asked to write for Anastacia the Sugababes' next anticipated albums.^[5] At the 2008 MOBO Awards he was nominated for best single for the song "She's Like a Star" and performed the single alongside the Sugababes.

[edit] Rokstarr: (2009-present)

Cruz was featured on Tinchy Stryder's breakout single "Take Me Back" which peaked at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart. According to Cruz's official MySpace blog, as of the 1st Jan 2009 Rokstarr Music London officially changed its name to Rokstarr Entertainment Division abbreviated to R.E.D Label.

Since then he has been working on his follow up album originally titled T.W.O. (This Way Out) but later changed to Rokstarr^[6] which was released on 12 October 2009 through R.E.D Inc. The album's lead single "Break Your Heart" was released on September 14, 2009 and reached number 1 in the UK where it stayed for 3 weeks. The single enjoyed 6 weeks in the top 10. As well as promoting and releasing his own material in 2009 he has worked on Tinchy Stryder and Cheryl Cole's projects due out in October 2009. He is also still working on Sugababes's new album Sweet 7 and JLS's self-titled studio albums both due in November 2009.^[7]

[edit] Rokstarr (brand)

A screen-shot of Cruz on a boat in the music video for "Break Your Heart" alluding to his new album and new brand "Rokstarr" as shown on the front of the boat and the sunglasses worn throughout.

On September 1, 2009, the brand Rokstarr, which is closely associated with Cruz, launched. The fashion and accessories brand has a focus on sunglasses. Musicians such as Fightstar, Shontelle, Keri Hilson and Kelly Rowland all own a pair. Speaking in October 2009 to noted R&B writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning 'Blues & Soul', Cruz stated: "There's a load of US celebrities that are all rocking the sunglasses already - Kid Cudi, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West... Then in the UK we have The Saturdays, JLS, Daniel Merriweather - who've all been twittering and writing on their blogs how much they love them. So yeah, it's definitely my new album 'Rokstarr' and the fashion brand that are my two main focuses at the moment."^[8]

[edit] Producing

Taio Cruz has produced songs for many big name artist's such as Sugababes, Cheryl Cole, Tinchy Stryder, Ke$ha and Kylie Minogue as well as this he has produced hits for himself such as 2008's smash hit Come On Girl ft Luciana.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Discography

• Departure (2008)
• Rokstarr (2009)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Official website
• Taio Cruz at MySpace
• Taio Cruz 'Blues & Soul' interview by Pete Lewis February 2008
• Taio Cruz 2008 interview on ilikemusic.com
• Taio Cruz video interview on Black Sheep Magazine August 2009
• [1]