This woman is NOT Black.

Huh?

Love that song

Who is she?

....

I thought she was black but I was 8 years old, couldn't see through the lines like that. I still kind of think she's black even though I'm told she's not.

Real name is Leslie Wunderman from Lawn Guyland.

As someone of the Dayne MTV/Radio era, I can tell you that Taylor Dayne never pretended to be African-American nor presented herself that way. NO ONE mistook her for being black. The photo & video show a woman with curly BLONDE hair and a tan. While some African-American women dye their hair, most blonde women are Caucasian. I'm not sure what your point is. You are manufacturing a controversy that never happened.

Insert DL fave Tig Notaro's comedy routine about TD here.

Taylor Dane? She never presented herself as black. WTF are you talking about?

In that linked picture, she looks like that crazy "black" woman from last year, but other than that I think the crazy one here is the OP.

Thank you R7, R9.

Our OP suffers from racial preoccupation. It's an older person thing.

I think the OP was just poking fun at this thread:

OP is the Jewish troll. Now he will blame Israel for this deception.

But she did have those child-bearing lips!

Bullshit that no one thought she was black- I just said I did. I was a child but still... I didn't learn she was white until my teens. Many people thought she was black.

[quote]You are manufacturing a controversy that never happened.

A lot of people thought she was black even before seeing her.

At the time, a lot of the music on the radio in that style was performed by black women and that track in particular got a lot of play on black radio stations.

Because, and I know some people at DLers hate to hear this, black people can come out all different shades from Gabrielle Reese to Wesley Snipes.

[quote]Bullshit that no one thought she was black- I just said I did.

One special-needs child doesn't count, dear.

Everyone thought she was black.

I never gave it one seconds thought.

Same here, R20.

OP/R19, the fact that the race of a tacky C-list singer from the 80's occupies your mind says a lot about you and nothing about the singer. As it turns out, you're full of shit.

I Googled "Taylor Dayne Images" and saw scores of photos of her taken over many years, including the years you referenced. They all look like a trailer trash White woman who is making no effort to appear Black.

You were obviously a cunt before I looked her up. Now you're a cunt, a liar and a moron. Go away.

Looks like robin or Giselle from real housewives of the Potomac. I thought she was black.

Fun cover by Australian girl group "Young Divas":

Who the hell ever thought Taylor Dayne was BLACK ??

She looks tired of being blonde.

Yet [bold]another[/bold] race-baiting thread. Punch and delete.

I remember when I was little seeing that video. I knew I was gay because I was so intransed by those dancers.

I've always liked her. Especially "Prove Your Love"

People thought she was black because she had suck a powerful voice. Of course in radio you couldn't tell.

Not everything that talks about black people, or the possibility of someone's being black, or the possibility of someone's of NOT being black, is cause for "Racist!" shrieking, R26. Are blacks literally untalkable-about? I think that's racist.

Makes you wonder if this classic song was released today, would the tumblr crowd boycott Taylor concerts?

Taylor Dayne has absolutely no neck.

Like Ed Sullivan and Gwyneth's trainer.

Some Jewish people looked mixed. I'm mixed and some people have thought I was Jewish. But I'm not. Im black and Italian/Irish.

I always thought that Redbone of "Come and Get Your Love" fame was a black band in the Funkadelic/Parliament vein, but no.

Phoebe Snow.

Clive Davis claimed Taylor destroyed her own career by insisting on writing her own songs.

She had huge hits on her first two albums but probably made no money despite talent and years of concerts. Did she make the right decision by trying to write the songs on her "Soul Dancing" album?

Clive Davis? The one that wanted to micromanage Kelly Clarkson also?

I don't know what you're talking about, OP. I don't see color. Everyone is the same to me.

From Clive's book:

“Unlike Exposé, Taylor was able to transcend genre. She wasn’t identified with a specific type of material, and as long as the songs were good, she could really deliver on their potential. I considered her a long-term artist.

So what happened? The short answer is that Taylor fell victim to her ambition to be a songwriter, but that would be an oversimplification. You could argue that after two double-platinum albums, she’d earned some creative leeway, and there was no reason she shouldn’t try to co-write some songs. Singers who start selling albums get bombarded from all directions by writers trying to get on their albums, and by producers they’re working with: “Hey, let’s get together and co-write!” As if that’s something that anybody can do, no matter what their experience or track record. How hard can it be? Well, even for professional, established songwriters, it’s hard. It’s not something to be treated casually, and it’s truly condescending to the people who do it for a living to assume that you can put anyone in a room and have them come up with a worthwhile song. It’s really nonsense, and it’s exasperating to have that conversation time and time again, to come up against the claim that a true artist also needs to be a songwriter. That not only disrespects the songwriting craft, it disrespects artists who have never written.

From her first hit, “Piece of My Heart,” to her last, “Me and Bobby McGee,” Janis Joplin relied almost entirely on material written by others. So did Streisand and Aretha and countless other pantheon artists in every single musical genre. What indication did Taylor Dayne ever show that she had songwriting ability? Hit song after hit song was given to her and her very capable producer, Ric Wake.

“Nervously, I decided to let her try to explore her songwriting ability. If she was going to have blinders on regarding her career, it was my place to give her the benefit of my expertise and advise her, but I couldn’t stand in her way. She at least could start the process, and we’d see where it took her. The process took years—years during which she wasn’t on the radio, wasn’t visible to the public. For a singles-based artist, that’s a lifetime to be away, and you’d better come back with a blockbuster hit. You can’t expect your fans to wait around, or radio programmers to jump on a new single just because it has your name on the label.

It became an impossibly tough effort, culling the decent songs from the ones Taylor was co-writing, shoehorning in some outside songs, putting together a presentable album. When it finally came out in 1993, Soul Dancing was a nonevent. ”

[quote]Op/r19 the fact the race of a tacky C-list singer from the 80's...

R21--I have to respectfully disagree with you there--Taylor Dayne actually had singing chops. A lot of those passing for "pop singers" today should have her talent.

Maybe you're thinking of Stacey Q.--now THAT was a "tacky C-list singer from the 80s"!

I actually hung out with her (she wasn't exactly A list enough to have any entourage or yes men around her) at the Mercedes Benz Oscar viewing party at the Soho House in WeHo in 2012. She was very cool - and actually to be fair I've encountered people on the same has- been level (hello, Eve Plumb) who still cop an attitude, so it's always nice.

Back in the 80s and 90s Louis Licari used to do her blonde (I told her that's where I first ever spotted her) but im not sure who does it any more - I mean she told me but it wasn't a name I was familiar with. I don't think anyone goes to Louis anymore.

R39 Stacey Q!!! That anorexic bitch!!

OP dear, I don't know [italic]what[/italic] she is, but whatever it is she's certainly not white. At least the way our kind means white!

Who would lie and try to trick people to think that they're black?

She's not black and she's not blond.

She's not black and she's not blond.

She's not black and she's not blond.

She is not Morg. She is Eymorg.

To telll the truth, it wasn't Taylor's ethnic background that I was always wondering about.

She gave off strong les vibes to me back then.

As a vocalist, she's one of the best. Such a shame she didn't make it big though...

Taylor blows away the Arsenio audience:

R43 you'd be surprised

I watched Real Housewives of NJ once and I swore Melissa Gorga was black.

I thought she was biracial.

No one I know, black or white, ever thought Taylor Dayne was black.

Like many other white artists (Teena Marie springs to mind), she was played extensively on black radio and had a substantial black audience, but no one thought she was black.

R38 continued:

“The best bet for a lead single was a Barry White cover, “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love.” It’s a bad sign when you have to kick off an album with a remake. And instead of Ric Wake’s consistently strong production, this one was a cluttered assemblage. In addition to Ric, the producers included Shep Pettibone, Humberto Gatica, Clivilles and Cole, Narada Michael Walden, and Taylor herself. The album lacked focus. More critically, it lacked hits. It marked the end of Taylor’s time at Arista.

Many years later, I was shopping at Armani in Beverly Hills, and a salesman came up to me and said, “I have to confess to you, my girlfriend was one of your artists.” It turned out to be Taylor, who had moved to Los Angeles, but never was able to meaningfully revive her recording career. He said she would absolutely love to be working with me again.

Subsequently, she wrote me a long letter, saying how deeply she regretted not listening to me years ago, how young and inexperienced she was at the time, how she let herself get steered off her path. When I read that I mainly felt sad that Taylor had allowed her big chance to fall by the wayside.

Too much time, too many years had elapsed for Top 40 to be a realistic goal. I always thought she was a terrific power singer. She had one of those rich, projecting voices, as well as a facility with all types of material. I look at the track listing of Taylor’s Greatest Hits album and every single song stands up. I wish that circumstances would have been different, and that she and I could have worked together long enough for at least a Greatest Hits: Volume Two.”

Taylor's been performing at Gay Pride concerts for years and still sounds great.

Did you think I was black too?

I remember when "Tell it to My Heart" came out. I never thought she was black, but I did think she looked like a lion.

Mainly, I wanted to have a threesome with her back-up dancers. I was almost 18 and horny, what can I say? I just watched the video linked above and some of the dancing is fairly terrible, but is certainly within the style of the time

The first time I ever saw Taylor Dayne was the Tell It To My Heart video and honest to god, I thought she was a drag queen or a tranny.

The hair and makeup for the Tell It to My Heart Video were terrible, astoundingly terrible, even for the 80s. She looked a lot better with a more streamlined look.

She sounds great on this Diane Warren song. So late 80's, so good.

[quote]No one I know, black or white, ever thought Taylor Dayne was black. Like many other white artists (Teena Marie springs to mind), she was played extensively on black radio and had a substantial black audience, but no one thought she was black.

Yes, quite a few people did think she was black.

Maybe no one YOU knew did but I remember as a kid a few people mentioning that she was black JUST because she was played on a lot of black radio stations and because of her appearance in the "Tell It To My Heart" video which was also played on BET. It just made her look, not at all like she normally looks. Add into the fact that the clarity on TV looked completely different back then and there you have it.

Everyone figured out she wasn't after that.

There was no "internet" to look things up and find out this stuff. You had to read it in a magazine or catch it on a tv show.

And now years later there have been quite a few articles pointing out how many people were unsure at the time because some people were.

There were also people who thought Mariah Carey was white after the Vision of Love video. Again: shitty tvs and no outside information other than what you read in a magazine or saw on television.

Never thought Taylor Dane was black and I grew up in DC. It wasn't until YEARS later that a black friend said she was black. I was shocked. Now Mariah Carey... Knew instantly she was mulatto.

Let's be honest here, R60. Nobody had that streamlined look back in 1988.

Sorry r7, I'm not the OP BUT I WAS ALIVE IN THE LATE 1980s and we all thought Taylor Dayne was indeed black.

Actually, if anything, I thought she was Puerto Rican, Cuban, or something like that. Not black.

I never thought she was black

I agree with the above poster, even for the 80s her look for Tell It To My Heart was hideous.

This is not new. Many, especially pretty Jewish girls are mistaken for fair-skin black girls. I'm a black male and I was fooled once...Also had a Jewish friend who used to laugh because she would get on the DC Metro and black girls would say, "Gurl you are looking fine...do IT!"

In the video, she has non-matching gray curls at the bottom which I can only guess were homemade extensions culled from 70s old-lady wigs.

She always looked like she could cut a bitch.

I was a teenager in the 80s and thought she was black. I also thought Lady Miss Kier was black, for a hot minute.

She's super hot and fierce Taylor Dayne 4Ever!

R13 Thank you so much for linking to that old thread. I don't know when I have ever laughed so hard.

It is pure Data Lounge comedy gold///nearly every comment is either clever insightful, instructive, racially insensitive or cruelly hilarious.

And yes, OP is definitely lampooning that thread.

What? Lady Miss Kier isn't black??

Kier Kirby done groove like a sistah! Groove is in HER heart!