Platinum-selling singer and actress Taylor Dayne will light up the stage in Cherry Hill when she performs Nov. 7 at Bank of America Festival of Arts, Books and Culture.
After bursting onto the charts in 1987 with the dance-pop hit “Tell It To My Heart,” Dayne went on to have a fruitful singing career internationally, as well as on Broadway and television with roles in productions like “Aida,” TV shows like “Rude Awakening” and independent films like “Jesus Was The Driver” and “Stag.”
Dayne has had a number of career highs, but few have compared to recording and performing the official song for the opening of Gay Games VIII, “Facing a Miracle,” in Cologne, Germany.
“It was a wonderful feeling standing in that stadium on that summer night July 31 doing the anthem,” she said. “You can look at it on YouTube. The ovation went on for four minutes. It brought me to tears. That’s definitely a highlight.”
With more than 20 years in the music business, these days Dayne balances her singing, acting and numerous club appearances with raising 8-year-old twins as a single mother. She pointed to a numbers of factors that allowed her to persevere in the entertainment industry for so long.
“First and foremost, [you have to] want to be in it because, without that kind of passion and devotion, it ain’t going to happen in an industry that is changing rapidly,” she said. “The body of work that I created in the very beginning led me to be able to be a favorite in people’s hearts, and therefore that material has stood the test of time. They’re classic.”
Dayne added that although she has recorded a number of albums since the late-’80s/early ’90s hit streak, she won’t ignore the classics when she performs at the festival.
“At this point, my career has spanned 22 years,” she said. “There’s a body of work there, but the core thing is most fans want to hear songs that are cornerstones for them, so I never ignore the hits that, in my mind, I feel really great about.”
Taylor Dayne performs as part of the Bank of America Festival of Arts, Books and Culture, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7 at Cherry Hill West High School Auditorium, 2101 Chapel Ave. For more information, visit www.katzjcc.org or www.taylordayne.com.
Larry Nichols can be reached at [email protected].