“Taio Cruz could be Britain’s answer to P Diddy” – The Sunday Times
“Taio Cruz can play with the big boys… the finesse of Timberlake or Timberland. This man knows his way around a hit…Cruz has got it all locked down” Time Out
“Pop’s best kept secret takes centre stage…a hit-maker with the midas touch, his fingerprints are all over some of the biggest and best British records of the last 12 months.” Daily Mail
Taio Cruz whose current US single DYNAMITE (released in the UK on August 23rd) has sold over a staggering 1.5 MILLION units in the US where it sits at #1 on the iTunes chart and # 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, releases his new album ”The Rokstarr Collection” on September 13th. “Dynamite” is flying so high that it looks certain to give the UK star an even bigger hit than his debut US single “Break Your Heart” which reached no.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has gone to sell over 5 million worldwide.
Following Taio’s staggering US success and due to the fact that his debut album “Departure” was never released Stateside, Universal have combined the biggest hits from “Departure”, and recent album “Rokstarr”, to bring together in one hit-packed album the biggest smashes of Taio’s career. The sheer weight of hits on “The Rokstarr Collection” offers further proof that pound for pound Taio Cruz is right up there as one of the handful of guaranteed hit maker/ writer/artist/producers currently working in pop music. “Dynamite” is currently sitting at no.2 on the US iTunes chart and has shot to number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 while the album “Rokstarr” is number 8 on the Billboard album chart. People like to watch Taio too, the “Break Your Heart” video has been watched over 30 million times on Youtube while Dynamite” has already been viewed over 9 million times.
‘The Rokstarr Collection’ tracklisting is as follows :
1. Dynamite
2. Break Your Heart (UK Version)
3. Dirty Picture (f/Kesha)
Take Me Back (new version w/o Tinchy)
Come On Girl (f/Luciana)
Forever Love
Like a Star
I Just Wanna Know
I’ll Never Love Again
Falling in Love
I Can Be
Higher
Moving On
Feel Again
Break Your Heart (f/Ludacris) (Bonus Track)
The album includes early Cruz favourites “I Can Be”, I Just Wanna Know” and ”Come On Girl”, alongside the Tinchy Stryder single “Take Me Back” (written by and featuring Taio) and brings the story bang up to date by featuring UK and US number 1 “Break Your Heart”, “Dirty Picture” featuring Ke$ha and the soon to be, appropriately named, global smash, “Dynamite”.
The continuing US success is being mirrored across the globe with sales of “Break Your Heart” exceeding 5 million and Cruz scoring major success in France, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Finland, Belgium and Australia. This phenomenal achievement offers further proof, if proof were needed, that in Taio Cruz, the UK has its very own top–drawer artist/songwriter/producer who can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best that American pop has to offer.
In the last two years, since the release of “Departure”, Cruz has established himself as a major UK artist in his own right, as well as the go-to writer /producer/performer when a hit record is the order of the day. In that time the he has written, produced and performed with a long list of A-list performers. In the wake of success of his debut album Departure (2008), which spun off a quintet of UK chart hits (“I Just Wanna Know,” “Moving On,” “Come On Girl,” “I Can Be,” “She’s Like a Star”), Taio was tapped to work in the studio with X Factor champs Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke. Sessions followed in Philadelphia with writing for Britney Spears, Brandy, and Justin Timberlake.
With the completion of Rokstarr in 2009, overlapping the success of “Break Your Heart,” Taio kept himself busy writing and producing for Cheryl Cole’s double-platinum UK debut album 3 Words. Taio also scored his second #1 UK single as writer of the Tinchy Stryder/Amelle smash “Never Leave You”; Taio previously wrote and performed on Tinchy’s Top 3 hit “Take Me Back.”
The son of a Nigerian father and Brazilian mother, Taio is the founder and CEO of his own Recording Label Rokstarr Entertainment Division (R.E.D.), formerly known as Rokstarr Music London, established in 2006.
