Byline: Interview MAUREEN PATON
Toronto-RaptorsTaio Cruz has just saved my life by stopping the lift doors from crushing me on the way out from Island Records' West London offices to our waiting taxi. And he goes on to save my bacon as well, by taping this interview on his iPhone when my voice recorder goes belly-up. What a hero... But then the techno-savvy Taio is the new Mark Ronson - working his hotshot producer/songwriter magic on everyone from Justin Timberlake and Kylie to Leona Lewis and Cheryl Cole (he wrote and produced the song 'Stand Up' on her solo album). And with a soaring countertenor voice reminiscent of the great Jimmy Somerville, it was inevitable that Taio would also turn performer himself. In March, his insanely catchy dance track 'Break Your Heart' became the fastest-selling single in US chart history, beating Madonna on its way to number one (it also reached the top spot here). 'It was great to crack America - I always try to think on a grand scale with big musical production values, and they do in the States, too,' says the very together Taio, who's just turned 27.
He's as emotionally open as his lyrics, telling me all about his girlfriend, model Roxane (Roxy) Horner ('she's awesome but she's a baby, only 20, so I have to look after her'), and talking about his fantasy of 'heartfelt' love on his second album, Rokstarr. Yet two of the tracks, 'Break Your Heart' and the controversial new single 'Dirty Picture', have earned him a bad-boy reputation that seems at odds with the gentle-mannered guy who asks our cabbie, John from Hanwell, to drive through the prettiest part of Hyde Park on our way to pick up some of Taio's trademark shades from his assistant's home in Hammersmith.
In fact, the truth seems to lie somewhere in between. 'I'm not a heartbreaker, I'm a one-woman guy and a homebody. But people are three-dimensional, so every now and then you are bad and every now and then you are good. And very infrequently, I'm that bad guy,' he admits. And when I ask if the ladies have been forming an orderly queue since he came out of the studio to take centre-stage, he giggles and ceramic hairstyling iron says, 'Sometimes a disorderly one.'
Certainly the sight of Taio surrounded by bikinied beauties on the 'Break Your Heart' video has added to the playboy image, along with the Aston Martin he used to drive (he's into Audis now). 'I was just living the James Bond dream,' he admits. 'But I was worried my female fans wouldn't like "Break Your Heart" - because generally I find with song lyrics that arrogance only works if you're female. But I wrote it as a positive, uplifting dance number and the lyrics can be adopted by both sexes - so the girls seem to love it.'
As for 'Dirty Picture' (a cheeky duet with Lady Gaga soundalike Ke$ha), he says teasingly: 'That's what camera phones were invented for.'
After being discovered at 18 by the hip-hop label Def Jam when a friend of a friend sent them his demo tape, he got his first publishing deal by writing the hit song 'Your Game' for Will Young. And instead of doing a Dizzee Rascal and trying to compete with the US rap scene, Taio took the strategic decision to write universal songs about love. 'I'm not a ghetto guy,' points out the privately educated Taio, who listens to everything from classical to bhangra. Born in North London's Kensal Rise and now based in Chelsea, Taio - real name Adetayo Ayowale Onile-Ere - has a Nigerian importer-exporter father and a Brazilian mother who used to run her own hairdressing business. And he's inherited all their entrepreneurial talent, designing his own album sleeves and now a cool ne
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