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Taylor Dayne
Dayne at Hotspot Coco de Ville
Background information
Birth name	Leslie Wunderman
Born	March 7, 1962 (1962-03-07) (age 48)
Origin	Baldwin, New York, U.S.
Genres	Dance-pop Latin freestyle Dance House Urban Soul Adult Contemporary
Occupations	Singer-songwriter Actress
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1985–present
Labels	Arista/BMG Records (1987–1995) Neptune/River North Records (1996–1999) Intention (2007 –Present)

Taylor Dayne (born Leslie Wunderman; March 7, 1962) is an American pop vocalist, song-writer, dance artist, and actress. Dayne's first seven singles hit the U.S. top ten and she has topped the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart three times. Overall, she has 17 individual Top Ten's on Billboard Charts, including the recent Billboard Dance #1 "Beautiful" in May 2008. She remains a pop favorite in the U.S. and abroad.

Career

Taylor Dayne began singing professionally after graduating from high school in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York, singing in little-known rock bands such as Felony and Next. She began singing solo after finishing college, and released the dance single "I'm The One You Want" under the name Les Lee in 1985.

Signed to Arista Records, her first song to crack the top ten was the dance-pop hit "Tell It to My Heart" in 1987. The song was an instant smash worldwide, peaking in the top five of most major markets worldwide, and achieving a peak of number one in many countries, including Germany. The song has many freestyle music influences, and it was marketed as "Hi-NRG" in Europe. Hits that followed included "Prove Your Love", "I'll Always Love You", "Don't Rush Me", "With Every Beat of My Heart", "Love Will Lead You Back", "I'll Be Your Shelter", "Heart of Stone", "Send Me a Lover", "Naked Without You", and "Whatever You Want".

In the United States, she achieved three gold singles, with "Tell It to My Heart", "I'll Always Love You", and "Love Will Lead You Back". "I'll Always Love You", a change-of-pace ballad compared to Dayne's earlier releases, was her breakout hit on the Adult Contemporary charts in 1988 and paved the way for future uptempo dance tracks such as "Don't Rush Me" and "With Every Beat Of My Heart" to gain acceptance at AC radio (whereas Dayne's first two hits had not) until about a decade later.

In 1990, "Love Will Lead You Back", a Diane Warren composition, peaked at #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. In 1993, she sang a cover of Barry White' 1974 hit Can't Get Enough of Your Love. The song reached #2 in the Aria Charts in Australia.

As an actress, Dayne performed on Broadway in Elton John's Aida in 2001. She has had roles in independent films such as Fool's Paradise (1997), Stag (also in 1997) and Jesus the Driver (2004), as well as the Warren Beatty-produced 1994 remake of Love Affair. Dayne also had a recurring role on the Showtime series Rude Awakening.

Taylor Dayne was featured in the VH1 series Remaking, which featured her close friend, Leah Remini. The series documents Dayne's return to music after taking time off to have a family, (she has twins, Levi and Astaria via a surrogate mother¹), and premiered her newest song, "Right Now", a result of her collaboration with Rodney Jerkins.

In April 2006, she was Elton John's choice to perform at the Nile Rodgers We Are Family Foundation tribute to Elton John.

Dayne was a contestant on the third season of the reality television series Gone Country, which premiered January 2009.

On December 11, 2007, Dayne released the first single, "Beautiful", from her studio album Satisfied. The song is written by Taylor Dayne and Hitesh Ceon of production-team 3Elementz. Dayne has been promoting the single on many radio stations, including top markets including New York's WKTU. "Beautiful" went to #1 on the Billboard Dance Charts. She also appeared on The Today Show, Chelsea Lately, Wake Up With Whoopi and VH1. The music video for the single and Satisfied album cover were shot by Tony Duran, who has also shot album covers for Justin Timberlake and Jennifer Lopez.

She released her fifth album in February 2008 to positive reviews - her first recording studio album for over eight years. Producers on this record include Rick Nowels and Greg Alexander. The album includes both new material and recreations of some of her favorite contemporary songs.

Dayne appeared in the CMT series Gone Country during its 3rd season. Gone Country season 3, aired on the CMT network January 24, 2009 and is finale aired on March 7, 2009. The chosen winner was Sheila E.²

Dayne is currently working on remastering her Greatest Hits album.

Discography

Studio albums

Compilations

Soundtrack & compilation appearances

• One Moment in Time: 1988 Summer Olympics Album (1988) - song: "Willpower"
• Fried Green Tomatoes soundtrack (1991) - song: "Danger, Heartbreak Dead Ahead"
• The Shadow soundtrack (1994) - song: "Original Sin"
• Searching For Jimi Hendrix (1999) - song: "The Wind Cries Mary"
• Flawless soundtrack (2000) - song: "Planet Love"
• Circuit soundtrack (2002) - song: "How Many"
• The Lizzie McGuire Movie soundtrack (2003) - song: "Supermodel"

Singles

Music videos

See also

• List of number-one hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Taylor Dayne

• Taylor Dayne official site
• Official Taylor Dayne Myspace Page
• Taylor Dayne's IMDb acting credits page

Audio sample

	Taylor Dayne - Tell It To My Heart excerpt An excerpt from Tell It To My Heart
Problems listening to this file? See media help.