Tay Zonday

Adam Nyerere Bahner, better known by his pseudonym Tay Zonday is a singer and announcer American. He became known as the internet phenomenon in 2007 for his YouTube video "Chocolate Rain" and also for having an extremely deep voice.

His song Chocolate Rain, whose video was posted by Zonday on YouTube on April 22, 2007, quickly reached a great popularity, turning into viral video for which several parodies were filmed and put on line.

Thanks to a viral video posted on the website YouTube in April 2007 becoming a phenomenon of Internet because its music video has earned more than 100 million copies worldwide. The respective song of the video is called Chocolate Rain. He is also known for his vocal range of bass, for having a very low and husky voice.

Tay Zonday appeared on American television at Jimmy Kimmel Live, Best Week Ever on VH1 and The Opie & Antony Show, as well as in an interview with CNN. He made the cover of the Los Angeles Times of 12 August 2007, and articles have been devoted to it in the Toronto Star, the Chicago Tribune, People magazine and the Star Tribune.

He is a descendant of European and African ancestors, and graduated from the University of Minnesota.

He has appeared on various television shows, including CNN and Jimmy Kimmel Live where he performed his most famous song. It was cover in important newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and People magazine. Zonday was parodied in television series such as South Park, Hung in Philadelphia and 30 Rock.

Tay Zonday is especially known for his composition with accompanying clip Chocolate Rain, which grew into a true phenomenon on the internet due to Zonday's pronounced heavy, dark voice. The video of Chocolate Rain was viewed more than 120 million times on YouTube in July 2019.

In addition to Chocolate Rain, Zonday has posted around twenty other songs on YouTube. He received a YouTube Award for his achievements and was nominated for the People's Choice Award and a Webby Award.

Biography

Tay Zonday is still a Student of American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. He previously studied at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in 1997-98.

Zonday described himself in an interview as a "musical orphan", claiming that his parents did not let him listen to pop music in his childhood, and that he turned to Napster as a teenager to build a library. From Mp3 and do your own music education.

In 2007, Zonday posted on his Youtube channel his best known song, "Chocolate Rain". The song had a strong worldwide repercussion, and shortly after came to one of the most viewed videos on Youtube. Tay is considered a phenomenon of the internet, and his music has been played by musicians like John Mayer and drummer of Green Day, Tré Cool. In addition, he participated in the famous music video for the song "Porks and Beans" by the band Weezer, and recorded a commercial for the browser Firefox. Tay Zonday has been interviewed by CNN, and re-recorded the famous slogan "This is CNN", which was official for weeks.

Tay Zonday was not allowed by his parents to listen to pop music when he was young. When download sites such as Napster appeared on the internet, he began to secretly listen to pop music. Although he loves his parents and dedicated a few songs to them, he describes himself as a "musical orphan" and therefore does not have musical examples. Zonday told himself that his voice is compared to big names such as James Earl Jones, Paul Robeson and Barry White.

He studied American Studies at the University of Minnesota.

Songs

Tay Zonday does not have a record contract. He posts his songs on his YouTube page. At the end of 2007, an agreement with Dr Pepper enabled him to finance the filming of Cherry Chocolate Rain.

The following songs have been posted in this order:

• Demons On The Dance Floor
• Love - feat Kooby
• Chocolate Rain
• Never Gonna Give You Up (taken from Rick Astley)
• Internet dream
• The Only Way
• Do The Can't Dance
• Say No To Nightmares
• Someday
• Too Big For You
• Get it Back thug remix
• Cherry Chocolate Rain
• Explode
• Roll Your Dice
• This Is You
• I Play Game
• Mama Economy
• Misty Mountains Cold (main theme of the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey)
• Dragonborn (main theme of the Skyrim video game)
• My Little Pony (Main theme of the animated series My Little Pony)
• Gotta catch em all (Main theme of the Pokémon animated series)

He also performed covers of Rainbow Connection (from the Muppet Show and originally performed by the puppet Kermit) and Edelweiss (a song from the movie The Melody of Happiness), which, like his covers of Never Gonna Give You Up and Swing low sweet chariot, were removed from YouTube when it decided to focus on original material.

Videos most viewed

• Chocolate Rain
• Explode
• Internet Dream
• Too Big For You
• Baby I'm Not
• You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch
• Do The Can't Dance

Singles

Tay's singles in chronological order are:

• "Demons on the Dance Floor"
• "Love" (featuring Kooby)
• "Never Gonna Give You Up" (a Rick Astley cover)
• "Chocolate Rain"
• "Internet Dream"
• "The Only Way"
• "Do the Can't Dance"
• "Say No to Nightmares"
• "Someday"
• "Too Big for You"
• "Get It Back" (Thug Remix)
• "Cherry Chocolate Rain"
• "Chasing Eden"
• "Crash into Weird"
• "Start Me Up" (karaoke version of The Rolling Stones song)
• "Remembering You"
• "Explode"
• For the beverage brand Dr Pepper he made a remix of "Chocolate Rain", called "Cherry Chocolate Rain"
• "Traffic Machine"
• "Someone To Hold"
• "Running from the Concrete" (with Vassy)

Internet phenomenon

The popularity of Chocolate Rain, which at the end of 2007 had been viewed on YouTube more than 100 million times, triggered a series of parodies posted most of the time on video exchange websites on the Internet, with Internet users repeating the song and modifying the lyrics, also mocking Zonday's bass voice, which contrasts with his very young appearance, and his peculiar habit of moving away from the microphone to catch his breath in the original video. Among these parodies, we find in particular one made by Tre Cool of Green Day. Singer John Mayer also offered an improvised song inspired by Say It Right by Nelly Furtado and Chocolate Rain on VH1, a segment which aired on Best Week Ever Taylor Zonday also had the honor of appearing in an episode of South Park in which he was parodied for his song Chocolate Rain (season 12, episode 4: Canada on strike). He also appeared in a pastiche clip of Matt Groening where he monologue.

Cherry Chocolate Rain

On November 28, 2007, the Cherry Chocolate Rain video clip was posted online, the fruit of an agreement with the company Dr Pepper to announce their new cherry and chocolate beverage (in English: Diet Cherry Chocolate Dr Pepper). Professional video, however, was not broadcast on American television.

home studio

His home studio consists of an RME 800 and a PC with 16 gigabytes of RAM and several 64-bit compatible software/instruments. It uses a lot of VST plugins to access instruments (EASTWEST PLAY, FL Studio) and different effects (Izotope Ozone).

Trivia

Tay Zonday was parodied in the South Park episode Canada on Strike.