Daya (Singer)

Daya was born on 24 Octobern1998, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Hans and Christine Tandon. She spent her growing up years in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Her paternal grandparents migrated to US from India when India was still under British rule. She first went to St. Bernard School and thereafter transferred to Mt. Lebanon High School, earning her graduation in June 2016.

Daya received a lot of support from her parents both of whom are engineers, and had formed a family band along with her sisters which didn’t last long enough. Her stage name ‘Daya’ is actually a Hindi translation of her actual name ‘Grace’ which means ‘sympathy’ or ‘compassion’.

Daya’s singing career received a boost when made the shift from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles along with her parents, Hans and Christine, so that she could train at Inside Access. Inside Access was a music workshop instituted by Christine Chirumbolo and Gino Barletta that offered opportunities to budding singers and musicians to fine-tune their intrinsic skills. She also attended Paramount Recording Studios, where she collaborated with the likes of Noisecastle III, Britten Newbill, and Brett McLaughlin.

After the lyrics of her first single “Hide Away” were composed and the song recorded, Daya was introduced to Z Entertainment’s Steve Zap who played a key role in promoting her. Daya who was just 17 when she met Zap was not very confident that she’d be able to make it as a vocalist and started attending high school. However, Zap took a liking for the song and founded his own recording label ‘Artbeatz’ in partnership with Barletta in order to endorse Daya.

“Hide Away” was launched on 22 April 2015 and got a good reception, especially online. Several bloggers heaped encomiums on the single and wrote positive reviews, most notable amongst them being Perez Hilton and Tyler Oakley. Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz branded the song ‘a gorgeous act’ and uploaded the same on the official site.

Daya debuted on television in August 2015 by crooning her first single on the program, ‘Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda’. She launched her self-titled debut EP, ‘Daya’ on 4 September 2015, which consisted of 6 tracks. The six which opened at the 161st position on ‘Billboard 200’ peaked at number 40 on the chart for pop songs.

After the digital version of ‘Daya’ was well-received, Target Records, a Denmark-based independent recording label arranged for releasing the vinyl records and CDs of the EP. Physical recordings of Daya’s first EP were up for sale from October 30, 2015 onwards. In February 2016, she partnered with ‘The Chainsmokers’ and sang “Don’t Let Me Down” that ultimately attained the number 3 spot on Billboard Hot 100.