Taio Cruz breaks record with “Break Your Heart”

“Break Your Heart,” the first single in the U.S. by BRIT Award-nominated star Taio Cruz has gone all the way – taking over the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the iTunes Overall Song Chart with over 300,000 copies downloaded in one week. “Break Your Heart” (featuring Ludacris) has exploded at radio, amassing close to 30 million in audience nationwide in just a few weeks. “Break Your Heart” rockets to the top of the Hot 100 from its debut position of #53, making it the largest-ever jump to #1 by a newcomer to the chart.

Newly signed to Mercury Records in the U.S., Taio Cruz is established as a major UK artist with two Top 20 albums and a string of top-charted hits that culminated in the #1 “Break Your Heart.” It was the lead single from Taio’s second album, Rokstarr, released late-2009 in the UK. Mercury Records has announced a May 18 release date for the U.S. release of Rokstarr, which will differ from the U.K. album.

In less than two years, Taio Cruz has become the go-to producer and songwriter for an A-list of American and UK performers. In the wake of success of his debut album Departure (2008), which spun off a quintet of UK chart hits (“I Just Wanna Know,” “Moving On,” “Come On Girl,” “I Can Be,” “She’s Like a Star”), Taio was tapped to work in the studio with X Factor champs Alexandra Burke, Leona Lewis, and Shayne Ward. Sessions followed in Philadelphia with Britney Spears, Brandy, and Justin Timberlake. The year climaxed at the MOBO Awards with a Best Single nomination for “She’s Like a Star,” which Taio performed with Sugababes.

With the completion of Rokstarr in 2009, overlapping the success of “Break Your Heart,” Taio kept himself busy writing and producing for Cheryl Cole’s double-platinum UK debut album 3 Words. Taio also scored his second #1 UK single as writer of the Tinchy Stryder/Amelle smash “Never Leave You”; Taio previously wrote and performed on Tinchy’s Top 3 hit “Take Me Back.”

In addition to writing and producing, 25-year old Taio Cruz is an accomplished multi-instrumental musician. The son of a Nigerian father and Brazilian mother, Taio is the founder and CEO of his own Rokstarr Entertainment Division (R.E.D.), formerly known as Rokstarr Music London, established in 2006.