1. Tay Zonday was born Adam Nyerere Bahner in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to an African-American mother and a Caucasian father.
20 Facts About Tay Zonday
1. 2.
Tay Zonday is the youngest of three children, and his parents were both teachers.
3.
Tay Zonday attended the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and dropped out before graduating.
4.
Tay Zonday later graduated from Evergreen State College in 2004.
5.
Tay Zonday is autistic, having been diagnosed as high-functioning at age 15.
6.
Tay Zonday enrolled in the University of Minnesota American Studies PhD program in 2004, studying the history of theater and social change, with the intention of becoming a professor.
7.
Tay Zonday used a stage name because he wanted a separation between his academic and entertainment career.
8.
Tay Zonday released "Chocolate Rain", a viral song on race and race politics, on April 22,2007.
9.
Tay Zonday made the front page of Sunday's Los Angeles Times on August 12,2007, with additional features in The Toronto Star, The Chicago Tribune's RedEye, The Star Tribune and People and has appeared on CNN for a televised interview.
10.
The Australian Daily Telegraph newspaper wrote: "Tay Zonday has written perhaps the most listened-to song in the world right now".
11.
Tay Zonday became the subject of thousands of other parodies and remixes on YouTube.
12.
Tay Zonday has been interviewed twice on Good Morning America, in March and November 2008.
13.
Tay Zonday starred in a commercial for Comedy Central's "Last Laugh 07", hosted by Lewis Black.
14.
Tay Zonday released a video called "Cherry Chocolate Rain", in a promotion with Dr Pepper.
15.
Tay Zonday starred alongside Leslie Hall in a commercial for Firefox web browser singing a song called "Users Against Boredom" in a parody of "We Are the World".
16.
Tay Zonday has said that his voice is often compared to Paul Robeson, Barry White, James Earl Jones, and Brad Roberts of the Crash Test Dummies.
17.
Tay Zonday appeared in-person at Intel's Consumer Electronics Show booth, rendering the source files of the "Chocolate Rain" YouTube video in Sony Vegas.
18.
On June 22,2012, Tay Zonday uploaded a cover of Carly Rae Jepsen's number one single "Call Me Maybe", which as of 2022 has reached over 6.7 million views.
19.
Tay Zonday is seen performing the single in front of a microphone in what he claimed to be "as low as I could [sing]".
20.
Tay Zonday voiced "The King" in the Happy Wheels animated web series based on the video game of the same name, which premiered on Go90 in November 2016.