Years before the LGBTQ community fell in love with Taylor Swift, there was Taylor Dayne.
A belting diva with a knockout voice and dozens of songs to match. It didn’t matter if she was leading you back to the dance floor or helping you heal a broken heart, Grammy-nominated Dayne knew how to get and hold your attention. Devoted to her LGBTQ fans from the start, Dayne became a regular performer at Pride festivals and continues to perform in concert. Her current tour brings her to the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 2. Dayne made time for a fun and lively phone interview during Pride Month 2025.
You’ve likely answered this question 1000s of times, but for those not in the know, please say a few words about how you chose Taylor Dayne to be your stage name.
Very simply, I was in the studio with [producer] Rick Wake, and we were doing a demo for Dee Snyder, who was working closely with Rick. He had us up at Glen Cove [at] this really beautiful studio. We were putting demos together. We had just done a single; we produced “Tell It To My Heart.” Dee was so impressed with my vocals. I was helping a group he was producing at the time, and his engineer, who was also a lead guitar player, was in the studio with us. He goes, “You need a name.” I said, “I’m Leslie Wunderman.” He said, “You need a name for this single when you sign to Arista. You're such a pretty girl! I like Tommy, I like Frankie.” This is 1987, and the engineer at Richie Cannata’s (Billy Joel’s sax player for years and years) studio goes, “I have a girlfriend named Tommy. That's a hot name! My real girlfriend is Taylor, I just tell her I'm going out with Tommy because then she thinks I'm going out with a guy.” Then we were like, “Taylor! Taylor sounds so cool!”
Cannata was about to become a father, and that night we went to the bar next door to the studio, and we looked through his baby name book because his wife was pregnant. Then Rick says, “I like Dane, D-A-N-E.” I said, “Taylor Dane,” and quite frankly, that stuck. We went back to the label with a signed single -- we only were signed for a single, which was “Tell It To My Heart, and said use Taylor Dayne, please. We threw the “Y” in there because there was a porn star named Taylor Dane!
In just three years, your 1988 debut album “Tell It To My Heart” will be 40 years old. Are there plans for a special 40th anniversary edition reissue of the album or another way to mark the anniversary?
I don't know. We'll see. At the time of my 30th, I wrote my memoir, “Tell It To My Heart.” For my 35th, I worked with Cash Cash and we released the remix for “Tell It To My Heart,” which is a banger, and went number one. I'm sure for my 40th, we will do something really special.
Would you say that, in the early years, there was a conscious decision for you to become a dance diva?
No, I can't even see how I'm a dance diva. It's so not how I started. I was more rock'n'roll, and I was into new wave. I was in high school in the ‘80s, and then I graduated, and I was in New York. The clubs and the places where I worked; it was all kind of new wave and punk. Then there was all the rock'n'roll that I listened to in the ‘70s. You had Chrissy Hynde, Debbie Harry, Patty Benatar, and Heart. These are the powerful women whom I admired and loved for their writing. Dance music? I grew up in New York. There was 92KTU, and WBLS, which was the big, black, urban station. That was my go-to. I started hearing a station called KISS FM, and they were playing more pop artists and there was Aretha Franklin coming out with the pop hit, there was Natalie Cole, both of whom were easily 15-20 years older than me. I was like, “Oh, my God, what is this?” I realized that I'm not getting discovered anytime soon here, so I have to make my own record. I have to find my own partner. That's kind of what Rick [Wake] and I did. I was in two different bands, from 18 to 20, and then at 21, Rick and I started producing singles together. At that time, that's the stuff that you knew could cross over to radio if it was the right song. Radio stations would play it on the mix shows, and then the clubs were the ones that pushed songs to the radio.
Because of that kind of dance music status, you amassed a large LGBTQ following. When did you first become aware of that fan base, and what does it mean to you?
The only fan base I had at first was LGBT! They broke me in Europe first. I had no idea. It was tremendous! I was in Germany. I was in the U.K. I was so famous there with one single before anything happened here in the States. Easily by six, eight months. Until they released the single here, because they had nothing to back it up. We had done “Prove Your Love,” with the same writers of “Tell It To My Heart.” And I had done vocals on “Don't Rush Me,” because I was a demo singer, which was written by Alex Forbes. When I went to the drag clubs in London, it was the most fabulous and glam form of expression. By that time, I was such a sensation, coming and watching them perform “Tell It To My Heart,” it was just…I felt loved, and I felt seen. My first hair [stylist] and my first makeup [artist] were always gay men. Maybe applying it to a little too much and maybe crimping a little too much [laughs], but I learned really quickly what devotion and loyalty and pride they take in their work. It was really something else.
Your second album opened with “With Every Beat of My Heart,” which was co-written by Lotti Golden, and then you co-wrote a pair of songs – “Someone Like You” and “Memories” -- with Lotti on your “Soul Dancing” album. Lotti is currently undergoing a kind of renaissance with the reissue of her 1969 “Motor-Cycle” album.
Wow! I had no idea!
Were you aware of her musical history when you worked with her?
I met her with Tommy (Farragher), her husband. We used to go to their apartment and write. Arthur Baker was the one who brought me (to them). We were writing for my third record. No, I had no idea about Lotti.
Tig is a whole different animal. You don't know when you don't know. I guess she was running into me. She noticed more than I did. She was doing her thing and gathering her notes. What an homage [laughs]! Of course we've met, and of course I've done her podcast. Doing that one live taping we did together in Chicago…
A dozen years ago or so, queer comic Tig Notaro did a bit in which she talked about running into you repeatedly in Los Angeles. Since that time, you have subsequently become friends. Do you remember how you felt about it when you first heard it, and how you feel about your friendship now?
Tig is a whole different animal. You don't know when you don't know. I guess she was running into me. She noticed more than I did. She was doing her thing and gathering her notes. What an homage [laughs]! Of course, we've met, and of course, I've done her podcast. Doing that one live taping we did together in Chicago…
…for “This American Life.”
Oh, yeah, it was tremendous. That's when everything came together and we really turned it on. Tig is a lovely human being.
In terms of music, could there be a country album or a Broadway musical in your future?
There's always something. Some of my best songwriting is done in Nashville. Because you really focus there. You’re just writing, writing, writing. I write with great writers there. “Unstoppable” was written there, and a lot of the tracks on [the album] “Naked Without You.” I also work with John Rich and his whole crew of people there. I wrote “Born To Sing” with Tammy Hyler and Rachel Thibideau, Song of the Year winners. That's a beautiful song for me, and I love it. I cherish that song. We all three called our moms after that.
Could there be a Broadway musical in the works?
I’ve done “Cats,” and I did “Aida” for years. But here's the deal: it's the part’s right, if the shoe fits, of course, I would. It's all relative. My interest lies in a Best Original Song Academy Award. That's where my head goes. I told Diane (Warren) this year, “I'll get you that Academy Award.”
You’re performing at the Broward Center, here in Fort Lauderdale, in August. Life in Florida hasn’t been easy for your LGBTQ fans in this current cultural climate. Is there anything you’d like to say to them?
The world, in general, is what you make of it. Surround yourself with great, like-minded people. Also, people that you're willing to learn from because it's not just black and white, it really isn't. I’ve made such good friends with some of the guys I worked with on “RuPaul’s Drag U” and on “Celebrity Drag Race.” They live in Wilton [Manors], and we hang out when I go to Florida. I spend a lot of time there.
Finally, is there any chance we may someday be treated to a Taylor Dayne/Taylor Swift collaboration?
From your lips to God’s ears. She's such a talent, and she's turned into such a formidable woman. She's perfect: 35, living her life. She's so at peace and safe with being seen by millions of people. That's something I aspire to, because I never felt that safe. That's a state of mind, and it's a place to be. Knowing you’re loved, feeling that love, and then also not taking the shit in. Letting it go.
