"Dynamite" is the fourth single from English recording artist Taio Cruz's second album Rokstarr. It was written by Cruz, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, and Dr. Luke, and produced by Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco for the international version of Rockstar.

In the UK, the song was released as the first single from Cruz's compilation album The Rokstarr Collection. On 30 May 2010, it was released to US and Canadian radio stations as his second single and across Europe as his fourth single. The official remix features new label mate, Jennifer Lopez.

"Dynamite" became Cruz's second number one single on the UK Singles Chart and the Canadian Hot 100 as well topping charts in Belgium, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The song reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, and by January 2012 it had sold over 5.7 million copies in the U.S. and Canada, becoming the second best-selling song by a British artist in the digital era there.^[1]

It featured was in the 2011 live action/CGI film Hop. It is also featured on Just Dance 3 BBE. This was played at the end of Mcctc's Trash Bash 2011.

Background and release[link]

The song was released in the UK on 23 August 2010.^[2] According to Cruz, "The song 'Dynamite' itself is about when you go to the club and when you go to a party and when you're just going out... you got to feel like, 'I'm just gonna explode.'"^[3]

Chart performance[link]

"Dynamite" debuted at number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 13 on the Digital Songs chart, selling 83,000 copies in its opening week.^[4] The single rose to number 14 on the week ending 10 July 2010 and on the week ending 21 August 2010, the single climbed to a peak of #2,^[5] giving Cruz his second top three single in the US. The song kept this position for three consecutive weeks, blocked from the top position by Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie" featuring Rihanna. It also became Cruz's second consecutive number one single on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay chart in its 21 August 2010 issue.^{[citation needed]} "Dynamite" charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for 47 weeks, making it the longest run for a single since Train's "Hey Soul Sister" which stayed on that chart for 54 weeks.^[6][7] As of May 2012, it has sold over 6,000,000 digital copies in the US alone. This marks the first song by a British act to reach this plateau, the twelfth song to reach this pleateau and the second song to reach six milion downloads without reach the number one (the first is Jason Mraz's hit I'm Yours, that reach number six in September 2008)^[8] The single debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 at number eight on the week ending 17 June 2010, marking Cruz's second top ten hit in the country. The following week the single fell to number seven, where it remained for four consecutive weeks. On the week ending 18 September 2010, the song peaked at number one, becoming Cruz's second Canadian number one single, following "Break Your Heart"'s two week run at the top spot in May 2010.The song became the best selling single in Canada during 2010 with sales of 319,000 copies^[9]

On the chart dated 16 August 2010, "Dynamite" topped the New Zealand Singles Chart,^[10] and was certified gold, selling 7,500 copies.^[11] The song top the Irish Singles Chart in its first week, becoming Cruz's first number one, following previous number two hit "Break Your Heart".^[12] In Cruz's native United Kingdom, "Dynamite" charted at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart on 29 August 2010. This became Taio's second number 1 single in his homeland. It knocked "Green Light" by Roll Deep off the summit, and in turn was knocked off by "Please Don't Let Me Go" by Olly Murs a week later.

Music video[link]

The music video begins with a group of female mechanics working on cars at a garage. Cruz, wearing a red helmet, rides a silver motorbike towards the garage and stops by. As the music starts, he takes off his helmet and puts on his black sunglasses. He then kicks off a party, complete with a jacuzzi and fireworks. As the sun goes down and night falls, Cruz gives an impromptu concert of sorts with the mechanics as his audience. An enormous, fiery explosion then goes off behind Cruz, before subsiding into a shower of sparks.^[13]

Cruz has said that this is the perfect backdrop for the subtext of his song^[14] and that his inspiration came from "wanting to do things on a bike" since his previous videos included cars and boats.^[15] "So you're gonna see me spin the tyres on this, which is pretty cool!" One of the vehicles brought for the video shoot was a "massive truck" which was used to film big screen project Universal Soldier. Speaking of the shoot he said "I've never done a video that has this many props in it. We've got the most amazing, wrecked cars."^[3]

Live performances[link]

Taio performed "Dynamite" for the first time on Live with Regis & Kelly on 9 June 2010.^[16] Later, he also performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live, T4 on the Beach,^[17] America's Got Talent, GMTV,^[18] Dancing with the Stars, and on 31 December 2010, he performed the song on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest.

Tracklisting[link]

• UK CD single^[19] and Digital download^[20]

1. "Dynamite" (Original Mix)- 3:24
2. "Dynamite" (Ralphi Rosario Club Remix) – 8:03
3. "Dynamite" (Mixin Marc Club Remix) – 5:34
4. "Dynamite" (Stonebridge Club Remix) – 7:20

• German CD single^[21]

1. "Dynamite" - 3:24
2. "Dynamite" (Mixin Marc Radio Mix) – 3:34

Critical reception[link]

The song has met with mixed to positive reviews from contemporary music critics. While reviewing "Rokstarr", Jon Caramanica from The New York Times gave a mixed review, saying that the song has "vapid lyrics to navigate (“Hit the floor cause that’s my plans plans plans plans/I’m wearing all my favorite brands brands brands brands,”), but they don’t disrupt the mood, which is emphatic and rarely sensual".^[22] Nick Levine from Digital Spy rated the song 4 out of 5 stars, giving it a positive review and named it "a suitably Eurohousey club pumper it's essentially a cheap, tasty and entirely satisfying banger".^[23] The New Yorker critic Sasha Frere-Jones named the song as his second favorite of 2010.^[24]

Personnel[link]

• Songwriting – Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin, Benjamin Levin, Bonnie McKee, Taio Cruz
• Production, drums, keyboards and programming – Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco
• Vocals and programming – Taio Cruz
• Engineering – Emily Wright
• Recording assistant – Tatiana Gottwald
• Production coordination – Irene Ricther, Vanessa Silberman, Megan Dennis
• Mixing – Serban Ghenea
• Mix engineering – John Hanes
• Assistant mix engineering – Tim Roberts
• Mastering – Tom Coyne

Source:^[25]

Charts and certifications[link]

Radio and release history[link]

Radio adds[link]

Purchaseable release[link]

See also[link]

• List of number-one singles in Australia in 2010
• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 2010 (Canada)
• List of number-one singles of 2010 (Ireland)
• List of number-one singles in 2010 (New Zealand)
• List of number-one singles from the 2010s (UK)
• List of number-one R&B hits of 2010 (UK)
• List of number-one dance singles of 2010 (U.S.)
• List of Mainstream Top 40 number-one hits of 2010 (U.S.)

References[link]

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (August 2011)

Taio Cruz
Background information
Birth name	Jacob Taio Cruz
Born	(1983-04-23) 23 April 1983 (age 29) London, England, UK
Genres	Pop, dance
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, record producer, rapper, entrepreneur
Years active	2002–present
Labels	Rokstarr Entertainment Division, Island, Republic, Mercury (U.S.)
Associated acts	Kesha, Kylie Minogue, Ludacris, David Guetta, Cheryl Cole, McFly, Travie McCoy, Flo Rida
Website	TaioCruzMusic.co.uk

Jacob Taio Cruz (born 23 April 1983) known professionally as Taio Cruz^[1] (Portuguese: [ˈtaj.ju ˈkɾujʃ]) is an English singer-songwriter, record producer, occasional rapper, and entrepreneur.^[2] In 2008, he released his debut album Departure, which Cruz wrote, arranged and produced himself. It achieved initial success in the United Kingdom and earned him a MOBO Award nomination. In June 2010, Cruz released his follow-up album Rokstarr, which includes the number one singles "Break Your Heart" and "Dynamite". Cruz has collaborated with Kesha and Fabolous on the single "Dirty Picture", as well as Kylie Minogue and Travie McCoy on his single "Higher". Additionally, Cruz penned and recorded the song "Telling the World" as the lead single from the soundtrack to the 2011 animated film Rio.

Biography[link]

Early life and career beginnings[link]

Cruz was born in London, to a Nigerian father and a Brazilian mother called Beatriz Vitoria Olivera Bennati^[2], from Rio de Janeiro.^[3] He attended Bilton Grange, a private prep school in Rugby, Warwickshire.^[4]

Cruz began writing songs when he was 12. His songwriting career began at age 19 as part of Tricky Stewart's writing collective, RedZone Entertainment.^[5] Cruz achieved notability in 2005 when he was awarded a BRIT Award for co-writing Will Young's 2004 single, "Your Game".^[6] Cruz is the founder and chief executive of Rokstarr Music London, which in 2006 released his debut single "I Just Wanna Know". The single attracted significant attention from radio, and also from music industry insiders, who were already well aware of the artist's potential; manager Jamie Binns, who began representing Cruz at this time, later told HitQuarters: "He was a guy that everyone had earmarked to do damage in the future."^[7] Although the single received a reasonable amount of radio airplay, it did not perform as well as expected in either territory.^[7] However, rather than lose faith in Cruz, the labels were eager to negotiate an album deal, as by this time they had listened to his other songs and were ever more convinced by his capability.^[7]

Cruz's admirers included Island Records's Darcus Beese and \sex Monte Lipman, who, according to Binns, "both believed 'I Just Wanna Know' fitted the format on both sides of the Atlantic."^[7] In 2006, Cruz signed a split single deal with Universal Music Group companies, Republic Records and the UK branch of Island Records.

[edit] 2006–2008: Departure

Taio Cruz released his second single "Moving On" in September 2007 haö

which made the top 30 in the UK. In March 2008 his next single, "Come On Girl," featuring Luciana, peaked at No. 5 on the UK charts. The related album Departure appeared on 17 March and peaked at No. 17.[8][9] This was followed by the single "I Can Be," which reached No. 18 in May. On 18 August, "She's Like a Star" was released, which was a remix of the previous single and featured American rapper Busta Rhymes and girl-group Sugababes. The remix later appeared on the Sugababes studio album Catfights & Spotlights, which peaked at No. 20. It was later revealed that Cruz narrowly missed out on the chance to record the song "Umbrella" which was eventually recorded by Rihanna and ended up topping charts around the world.[5]

[edit] 2009–2011: Rokstarr, international breakthrough and The Rokstarr Collection

Cruz was featured on Tinchy Stryder's breakout single "Take Me Back" which peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. According to Cruz's official Myspace blog, as of 1 January 2009, Rokstarr Music London officially changed its name to Rokstarr Entertainment Division and abbreviated to R.E.D Inc.^{[citation needed]} During 2009, he worked on his follow-up album entitled Rokstarr.^[10] It was released on 12 October through R.E.D Inc/Island Records and is entirely written and produced by Cruz, with co-writes and co-productions predominantly with UK producer Fraser T. Smith. The album's lead single "Break Your Heart" was released on 14 September and reached number one in the UK, where it stayed for three weeks.^[8] The success of the song attracted the attention of David Massey and Daniel Werner from Mercury/Island Def Jam who were excited and aggressive about releasing "Break Your Heart" in the US on their label.^[7] According to Cruz's manager Jamie Binns, the relationship with Monte Lipman at Universal Republic had "gone a bit quiet" by this point and as Taio wanted to be with the label that was most enthusiastic about his music, a move from Universal Republic to Mercury/Island Def Jam was engineered.^[7]

The single reached the top spot in the U.S. for one week on the Billboard charts.^[11] In an interview with The Guardian, it was stated that "Cruz was clever to have hooked up with a US rapper Ludacris on his breakthrough hit".^[12] In order to introduce Cruz into the US market, David Massey had suggested that the single feature an American rapper with chart credibility.^[7] The album spawned two other UK singles, "No Other One", and the top-ten hit "Dirty Picture" featuring American electropop singer Kesha. The album's fourth single (second in the US) titled "Dynamite" debuted at 26 ^[11] and despite peaking at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, "Dynamite" peaked at number 1 on U.S. top 40 earning Cruz his second US number 1 record.

Rokstarr was followed by the compilation album The Rokstarr Collection which includes songs both from Departure and the international version of Rokstarr.^[13] Cruz later released four versions of his single "Higher" - one featuring Kylie Minogue, one featuring Travie McCoy, one featuring both, and one with just himself. Cruz has also been featured on the soundtrack of American reality TV series Jersey Shore.^[14]

[edit] 2011-present: TY.O

In March 2011, Cruz premiered an all-new song, entitled "Telling the World", which was written by Cruz and Alan Kasiyre for the Rio soundtrack. The track was not featured on any of Cruz's prior studio albums.^[15] On 23 May 2011, Cruz received his first billboard award in the United States, and announced live on stage that his third album would be released in the fourth quarter of 2011, and would be entitled Black and Leather.^[16] In June 2011, Cruz released a collaborative single, "Little Bad Girl", with French DJ David Guetta and American rapper Ludacris. The song was a worldwide smash, topping singles charts across the world.^[17] During July and August 2011, a series of unreleased songs, recorded during the album sessions, were leaked to YouTube. in an interview, Cruz promised a "fun" and "energetic" album, and claimed that due to the leak, none of the tracks posted on YouTube would be included on the album. Cruz claimed, "It's a shame really, because one person has spoilt it for all the fans. They could have had an album packed with 17, 18 tracks, and now, they're only getting eleven because of one stupid act of tomfooolery."^[18] During the interview, Cruz also claimed that the title of the album had been changed, and the album was now entitled Troublemaker, after one of the tracks included on the album. On 4 October 2011, the single "Hangover" was officially released in Germany and the United States, and it was rumoured that a solo version of the song, that features on the physical release, would be included as a bonus track on the album. However, these rumours were later quashed.^[19]. Around October 2011, the album was made available for pre-order, and as such, the album's final title, TY.O, was revealed. Cruz, via his Twitter account, made the decision to name the album TY.O after he expressed his annoyance at people constantly pronouncing his name wrong. The album was first released in Germany on December 2, 2011. It will be released in the United Kingdom on December 31, 2012. It was going to release in the US on May 17, 2012, but, now it has yet to be released.

Writing and production[link]

Cruz has written songs on albums by Cheryl Cole, JLS, The Saturdays, The Wanted and David Guetta. Cruz wrote and featured on Tinchy Stryder's hit single "Take Me Back". Pop rock band McFly recorded "Shine a Light" which not only features, but was also penned and produced by Cruz for their fifth studio album.^[20] 2011 will see him writing for Justin Bieber's next album.^[21] Jennifer Lopez's 2011 single "I'm Into You", featuring Lil Wayne, is also penned by Cruz. He also contributed significantly to David Guetta's fifth album Nothing but the Beat, penning two of his hit singles "Without You", featuring Usher and "Little Bad Girl", featuring Cruz himself and Ludacris.

Other ventures[link]

Rokstarr brand[link]

On 1 September 2009, Cruz launched the brand Rokstarr; the fashion and accessories brand has a focus on sunglasses. Musicians & Artists such as Kanye West, Shontelle, Keri Hilson, Steves Peeps and Kelly Rowland have been seen wearing them. Speaking in October to R&B writer Pete Lewis, Cruz stated: "There's a load of US celebrities that are all rocking the sunglasses already – Kid Cudi, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West... Then in the UK we have The Saturdays, JLS, Daniel Merriweather – who've all been twittering and writing on their blogs how much they love them. So yeah, it's definitely my new album 'Rokstarr' and the fashion brand that are my two main focuses at the moment."^[22]

Meanwhile, speaking again to Lewis in April 2010, Cruz revealed: "We're currently looking to expand the brand and possibly go into things like watches. I've also got a new subsidiary of Rokstarr called 'Rok By Rokstarr'. And we've just started doing things like jeans and T-shirts, and stuff that more of the fans of Taio Cruz can buy. Because with Rokstarr in itself being so expensive, a lot of the kids out there who want to buy Rokstarr things can't. So we're bringing in stuff that's a little bit more High Street and more affordable."^[23]

Discography[link]

• Departure (2008)
• Rokstarr (2009)
• TY.O (2011)

Awards and nominations[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Taio Cruz at the Internet Movie Database
• [1]
• Taio Cruz on justRHYMES.com
• Taio Cruz 'Blues & Soul' interview by Pete Lewis February 2008
• Taio Cruz at Billboard.com

Taio
—  Comune  —
Comune di Taio
Taio Location of Taio in Italy
Coordinates: 46°19′N 11°4′E / 46.317°N 11.067°E / 46.317; 11.067Coordinates: 46°19′N 11°4′E / 46.317°N 11.067°E / 46.317; 11.067
Country	Italy
Region	Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
Province	Trentino (TN)
Government
• Mayor	Bruno Campadelli
Area
• Total	11.3 km2 (4.4 sq mi)
Population (Dec. 2004)
• Total	2,694
• Density	240/km2 (620/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	38010
Dialing code	0463
Website	Official website

Taio (German: Thayl or Theyl, Ladin: Taj) is a comune (municipality) in Trentino in the northern Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 30 km north of Trento. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,694 and an area of 11.3 km².^[1]

Taio borders the following municipalities: Coredo, Denno, Nanno, Sanzeno, Tassullo, Ton, Tres and Vervò.

Demographic evolution[link]

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References[link]

1. ^ All demographics and other statistics: Italian statistical institute Istat.

External links[link]

• (Italian) Homepage of the city