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Adam Nyerere Bahner (born: May 21, 1982 (1982-05-21) [age 41]), better known by his stage name Tay Zonday, is an American musician, actor, comedian and YouTube personality. He is well known by listeners for his baritone singing voice.

He garnered mainstream exposure when his song "Chocolate Rain" became a viral video in July 2007. As of October 2018, "Chocolate Rain" has amassed over 100 million views.

Personal life[]

Zonday was born Adam Nyerere Bahner in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 21, 1982 and graduated from The Evergreen State College in 2004. Early in his career, Zonday regularly performed at Balls Cabaret at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis. Zonday has stated that he has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome as a teenager, resumed psychiatric care at age 37, and has been re-diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

YouTube and singing careers[]

After Chocolate Rain's popularity, Zonday starred in a commercial for Comedy Central's "Last Laugh 07", hosted by Lewis Black. He released a video called "Cherry Chocolate Rain," in a promotion with Dr Pepper. He starred alongside Leslie Hall in a commercial for Firefox singing a song called "Users Against Boredom" in a parody of "We Are the World."

Zonday has said that his voice is often compared to Ru Paul, Paul Robeson, Barry White, James Earl Jones, Brad Roberts of the Crash Test Dummies and even Morgan Freeman. He appeared in-person at Intel's Consumer Electronics Show booth, rendering the source files of the "Chocolate Rain" YouTube video in Sony Vegas. The Grammy Award-winning music video for rock band Weezer's single "Pork and Beans" featured Zonday, along with other YouTube celebrities. As well, in May 2008, Zonday performed an acoustic version of the song with Brian Bell of Weezer, spoofing his own performance in "Chocolate Rain."

As a voice actor, he voiced part of a multimedia presentation built to celebrate 50 years of NASA history. He also voiced a role in Adult Swim's Robot Chicken, spoofing his own song "Chocolate Rain."

Zonday was featured on the Jace Hall Show, where he was comically interviewed at a famous Hollywood restaurant in a play on the dissonance between Internet-fame and the traditional entertainment industry.

In February 2010, he cameoed in a Vizio Super Bowl commercial opened by Beyoncé. In October 2010, he appeared on Comedy Central's Night of Too Many Stars autism charity event during a musical number with Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert.In August 2011, Zonday appeared on America's Got Talent and performed 15 seconds of his song "Chocolate Rain."

Zonday was also featured in Dave Days' YouTube video spoof of Justin Bieber's song "Baby," which has over 16 million views. He had a cameo in The Guild Season 5 episode 3 Megagame-o-ramacon!, which aired on August 9, 2011.On June 22, 2012, Zonday uploaded a cover of Carly Rae Jepsen's number one single Call Me Maybe, as of 2013 reached over 5 million views. It was featured on the The 10 Best 'Call Me Maybe' Covers on Billboard.com. He is seen singing the single in front of a microphone in what he claimed to be "as low as I could sing". He recently uploaded a video of himself Singh to the viral video, The Fox, which got more than 600,000 views within a few weeks.

Ask Tay Zonday[]

In mid March 2014, he began a new series on his YouTube channel, called Ask Tay Zonday. He answers 20 questions from the public which are usually the first 20 questions on a Facebook post. He stated that he would upload Ask Tay Zonday videos every two weeks from now on. The reaction to his new series is widely applauded as it gives his channel a personal touch.

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