An American singer, musician, voice actor, comedian, and actor by the name of Adam Nyerere Bahner. He is one of the original YouTube stars from the early days of the internet and undoubtedly the first social media influencer whose celebrity spread into mainstream society. He is better known by the nickname Tay Zonday. Bahner, a native of Minnesota, was a dissatisfied Ph.D. candidate when his love of music became strong enough for him to go to open mic events at mom-and-pop stores. In January 2007, after developing the online alias Tay Zonday, he launched his YouTube account. At first, the response he got was not encouraging, but after he shared the song “Chocolate Rain,” sang in a bass singing voice, things started to look up. Zonday gained international recognition once it became popular online. He gained recognition as a voice actor throughout the next years by contributing to works like “Robot Chicken” and a multimedia show honoring 50 years of NASA history. He has acted alongside other actors in movies including “Internet Famous” and “Laid in America” as well as the sitcom “The Jack and Triumph Show.” Additionally, Zonday has published other songs since “Chocolate Rain” and continues to perform as a musician and singer.
The career of Tay Zonday
Tay Zonday was the name that Career Bahner chose for himself. He searched Google with the name in quotations to be sure it was original but got no results. He started creating profiles with the name almost immediately on every social media network. He reportedly felt the necessity for this “deliberate branding choice” because he believed that his future academic career would involve publishing papers and that it would be wise to establish a different online identity.
In February 2007, he uploaded his first video on YouTube after setting up his account. His early videos contained unique, music-related content, but they did not catch on. On April 22, 2007, he eventually posted “Chocolate Rain” online. The next ‘Canon In Z” Original Classical Arrangement by Tay Zonday’ upload, it was the third. and “Love,” a KOOBY original featuring Tay Zonday. ‘Chocolate Rain’ earned its first fame possibly on 4chan, where it was being circulated as a joke. It is known for Zonday’s somber tone and his odd singing habits, including moving away to breathe in. It quickly entered popular culture, and regular people began to listen to it.
The song is a metaphor for racism towards African-Americans, Zonday subsequently disclosed. It has received more than 118 million views as of 2018. It received the 2008 YouTube Award for “Music” and was selected by CTV as the hottest viral video of the summer of 2007. He has more than a million subscribers as of 2018.
‘Chocolate Rain’s’ popularity and success have opened up new possibilities. Jimmy Kimmel, Good Morning America, America’s Got Talent, CNN, The BBC, Comedy Central’s Tosh.0, Rachel Ray, and the BET Awards are just a few of the shows he has appeared on. He participated in a Comedy Central’s “Last Laugh 07” commercial. Zonday released a video called “Cherry Chocolate Rain” to promote Dr. Pepper. He and Leslie Hall sang “Users Against Boredom,” a spoof of “We Are the World,” in a Firefox web browser commercial. He appeared in the music video for the song “Pork and Beans” by the rock band Weezer, along with many other well-known YouTube stars. At the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, the video took home the Grammy Award for Best Music Video.
Since “Chocolate Rain,” Zonday has released a number of songs, including “Mama Economy” (2013), “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” (2013), and “Explode” in 2017. He joined the cast of a multimedia production created to honor 50 years of NASA history as a voice actor. He also made an appearance as a character in the “Robot Chicken” parody of “Chocolate Rain” on Adult Swim. He was chosen to play the Chorus of the Primes in “Transformers: Titans Return” in 2017.
Individual Life
On July 6, 1982, Bahner was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Both of his parents are educators, and he has two elder siblings. His ancestry is partly African American. He was a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in American studies at the University of Minnesota at the beginning of 2007 while residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was a poor student, disliked learning, and especially did not enjoy doing research, according to Bahner. He was concentrating on researching the evolution of performance at the time.
He began competing in open mic contests at neighborhood mom-and-pop stores sometime around 2006. He frequently performed for a group of five people, two of whom were engrossed in their newspapers. The others would kindly applaud and encourage one another. Zonday, though, claimed that they were simply acting in a very typical Minnesotan manner and avoiding conflict. In the end, he created his YouTube account after becoming weary of carrying his keyboard and amplifier about in the dead of winter.