Tay Zonday

Adam Nyerere Bahner (born July 6, 1982), better known by the pseudonym Tay Zonday,[2] is an American singer, musician, announcer, voice artist, actor, comedian and YouTube personality.[3]

He is known for his bass singing voice. He garnered mainstream exposure when his song "Chocolate Rain" became a viral video[4] in July 2007. As of July 2016 "Chocolate Rain" has over 109 million views.[5]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Early life
Zonday was born Adam Nyerere Bahner in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 6, 1982 and graduated from The Evergreen State College in 2004. He attended the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, however, dropped out before graduating. Early in his career, Zonday regularly performed at Balls Cabaret at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis.

Career
In July 2007, Zonday was a graduate student in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[6] He was soon making appearances on national television. He appeared on the Opie & Anthony Show,[7] G4TV's Attack of the Show!, VH1's Best Week Ever,[8] Lily Allen and Friends, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Tosh.0 and Maury[9][10] where he performed "Chocolate Rain" on national television a little over three months after he posted his composition on YouTube. He 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[11] and People[10] and has appeared on CNN[12] for a televised interview. On February 12, 2008, he appeared on the television show Lily Allen and Friends on BBC Three, and performed a cover of Lily Allen's debut "Smile". In March 2008, the video won a YouTube-award in the category "Music".

The Australian Daily Telegraph newspaper wrote: "Tay Zonday has written perhaps the most listened to song in the world right now".[13] People said: "He's scored a YouTube hit with his repetitive, keyboard-driven 'Chocolate Rain', and after a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Tay Zonday's star is shining even brighter".[10] The article also noted that celebrity musicians paid tribute to the song as its popularity rapidly peaked in August 2007. John Mayer reportedly copied Zonday's keyboard riff with his guitar in concert,[14][15] along with appearing on Best Week Ever improvising a parody to the tune of Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right".[16] Green Day drummer Tré Cool recorded a cover of "Chocolate Rain" which he posted on YouTube.[17] Zonday also became the subject of thousands of other parodies and remixes on YouTube. A clip of his video was also shown on The CW's short lived series, Online Nation.[18][19][20] Tay Zonday has also been interviewed twice on Good Morning America, in March and November 2008.[episode needed]

Zonday starred in a commercial for Comedy Central's "Last Laugh 07", hosted by Lewis Black.[21] He released a video called "Cherry Chocolate Rain",[22] in a promotion with Dr Pepper. He 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". Zonday has said that his voice is often compared to Ru Paul, Paul Robeson, Barry White, James Earl Jones, and Brad Roberts of the Crash Test Dummies.[23] He appeared in-person at Intel's Consumer Electronics Show booth, rendering the source files of the "Chocolate Rain" YouTube video in Sony Vegas.[24]

The Grammy Award-winning music video for rock band Weezer's single "Pork and Beans" featured Zonday, along with other YouTube celebrities. As well, in May 2008, Zonday performed an acoustic version of the song with Brian Bell of Weezer, spoofing his own performance in "Chocolate Rain".[25]

As a voice actor, he voiced part of a multimedia presentation built to celebrate 50 years of NASA history.[26] He also voiced a role in Adult Swim's Robot Chicken, spoofing his own song "Chocolate Rain".[episode needed]

Zonday was featured on the Jace Hall Show, where he was comically interviewed at a famous Hollywood restaurant in a play on the dissonance between Internet-fame and the traditional entertainment industry.[27]

In February 2010, he cameoed in a Vizio Super Bowl commercial opened by Beyoncé.[3] In October 2010, he appeared on Comedy Central's Night of Too Many Stars autism charity event during a musical number with Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert.[28]

In August 2011, Zonday appeared on America's Got Talent and performed 15 seconds of his song "Chocolate Rain". Zonday was also featured in Dave Days' YouTube video spoof of Justin Bieber's song "Baby", which has over 16 million views. He had a cameo in The Guild Season 5 episode 3 "Megagame-o-ramacon!", which aired on August 9, 2011.

On June 22, 2012, Zonday uploaded a cover of Carly Rae Jepsen's number one single "Call Me Maybe", which as of 2015 has reached nearly 10 million views.[29] It was featured on the The 10 Best 'Call Me Maybe' Covers on Billboard.com. He is seen performing the single in front of a microphone in what he claimed to be "as low as I could [sing]".[30]

In 2015, Tay Zonday has made appearances on The Jack and Triumph Show.

Personal life
Tay Zonday was born Adam Nyerere Bahner in 1982, the youngest of three children to two teachers.[31] He suffered from anxiety and agoraphobia during his teenage years, and was selectively mute during this time.