Tara Jane McDonald (born 9 September 1976) is an English singer-songwriter and vocalist. She is signed to Play Two/Warner Music.
McDonald achieved success working and co-writing with Armand van Helden and Axwell on the chart hits "My My My" and "Feel the Vibe". Both these projects debuted at number 1 in the club charts before peaking in the UK sales charts at No. 12 and No. 16, respectively. She has also collaborated with Todd Terry, co-writing the song "Get Down", and with David Guetta, co-writing "Delirious" and "You Are Not Alone" on his platinum selling album Pop Life.
McDonald hosted her own one-hour dance music radio show called I Like This Beat (formerly called Shut Up & Dance). The program was syndicated on over 50 stations in 40 countries and released as a free podcast through iTunes.
At the start of 2012, McDonald worked as an assistant vocal coach on the first series of the TV show The Voice in Belgium alongside the French pop star Quentin Mosimann. The winner of this series, and member of Mosimann's team, Roberto Bellarosa, went on to sign a recording contract with Sony Music.
McDonald signed a three-album deal with Mercury/Universal in 2012. In 2014, she released a single featuring Snoop Dogg called "Vay-K".
Her "I Need a Miracle" single was chosen as the Europride anthem for 2016. The single charted in a number of European countries. She has been chosen to sing the world pride anthem in Amsterdam for 2026.
Biography
Early life and career beginnings
McDonald was born in Dartford, to parents of Irish descent. At nine years old, she won her first prosessinal role playing young Eponine in Les Misérables at The Palace Theatre London, after attending an "open audition" which was advertised on the television.
At 11, she made her first television debut on BBC1's Saturday night talent show Opportunity Knocks, performing as a solo singer; she won her week and performed in the final.
At 12, she won the Danny Kaye Award for the song "Make Your Own Rainbow". Hosted by Audrey Hepburn and attended by the Queen of Holland, the show was a children's European song contest and Tara represented England. As part of the prize, McDonald became a child ambassador for UNICEF for a year when she was 12, promoting and campaigning for the "rights of the child" throughout Europe and Africa. She also performed in the National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Jude Law for the Edinburgh festival, and later won the juvenile lead part in a musical called St. Bernadette at the Dominion Theatre in London. McDonald was schooled at the Italia Conti stage school then later moved to the BRIT School.
McDonald worked as a backing dancer for Karen Ramirez for promotion of her single "Looking for Love" in Europe and appeared as a backing dancer for the Jungle Brothers single, "I'll House You" including a performance on BBC1 Top Of The Pops. She also worked for the charity Combined Services Entertainment as a "forces sweetheart", providing entertainment for the UK armed forces around the world.
She continued to write songs for other artists and work as a session singer for a range of different artists, including Spike Edney SAS band, Thunder (band), Björn Again for various gigs, tours and TV shows. She co-wrote D-Side's debut UK Top-5 single "Stronger Together" with Cliff Randall and Simon Britton. In 2003 McDonald performed on the Jagz Kooner remix of "Butterfly Caught" for Massive Attack.
Axwell, Armand van Helden, David Guetta & Strictly Come Dancing (2005–2012) From 2004 to 2007, McDonald sang lead and backing vocals on BBC1's programme Strictly Come Dancing.
In May 2005, Desmond Lynam presented the BBC1 programme We'll Meet Again, marking the 60th anniversary of VE Day. During the show McDonald performed the song "We'll Meet Again" live.
In 2005, when McDonald was 24, she co-wrote and sang "Feel the Vibe ('Til the Morning Comes)" with Axwell, which became one of the biggest dance tracks of the year. It peaked at 1 on the UK Dance Singles Chart and No. 16 on the UK Singles Chart, and also charted in Finland, the Netherlands and France. McDonald's next release was "My My My" with Armand Van Helden in 2006, My My My" which reached number 4 on the world internet charts, number 5 in the Belgian and Dutch charts, number 6 in Australia, number 12 in the UK, and top 30 in the world dance charts and entered the UK commercial charts at No. 11. Both tracks became dance anthems and McDonald performed them on Pete Tong BBC1 dance show in Ibiza. In 2007 McDonald co-wrote two tracks on David Guetta's third studio album, Pop Life, the hit single "Delirious" Peaked at #24 on Billboard's Dance/mix show airplay chart for 20 weeks in 2008. and an album track entitled "You're Not Alone". Guetta later described her as a "tigress on stage" and "the chic sexbomb of electro music."
McDonald also co wrote two singles with Todd Terry on his All Stars project "Play On" and "Get Down". "Get Down" Peaked at #11 on 12 January 2007 spending 20 weeks on Billboard Dance/mix show airplay.
McDonald worked with Bryan Ferry on his Dylanesque album as a backing singer, arranging some of the vocal harmonies, and toured with him for a year. In 2009 McDonald featured on and co-wrote the song "Revolution" by Vibers, (written as the anthem for the electronic music festival Liberty Parade) which won best electronic track of the year in Romania. In 2010 McDonald collaborated on songs with several artists including: "I'm Your Goddess" with David Vendetta; "Elevated" with the Australian dance duo TV Rock; "Everything", "Funkerman", and "Beats for You" with Mischa Daniels; and "Set Me on Fire" with Sidney Samson.
McDonald performed with the "Leo Green experience" as a guest vocalist at jazz venues in the UK like Ronnie Scott's. She performed at a 2008 show for the charity Childline Rocks at O2 Indigo, London. In 2011 McDonald performed at the festival 24hrs of Burning House at Smederevo Fortress, Serbia.
McDonald won "Best Female Voice of 2010" in electronic music from OnlyForDj's magazine in a worldwide competition voted on by the public. In 2012, McDonald presented three awards at the NRJ DJ awards in Monaco.
In 2011, McDonald released "Dynamite" with Sidney Samson on Spinnin Records and the remix by Nicky Romero became one of the most-successful club tracks of that year with over 2 million views on YouTube. With David Guetta and Afrojack, McDonald released "Pandemonium" from the 2011 FMIF Ibiza mix album which reached No. 2 Switzerland, No. 3 France, and charted in Austria and Spain. She also co-wrote, sang and produced the vocals for "Tomorrow (Give in to the Night)", the anthem to Tomorrowland 2010 with Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike and Dada Life, which was an international club hit and broke the Top 20 in Belgium. She released the record Generation 24/7 though Hed Kandi Records on 12 December 2011.
Radio show and The Voice (2012–2013) In 2012 McDonald started a weekly late-night radio show called Shut Up & Dance. She was the only non-GJ to have a show on FG Radio (France and Belgium). In 2013 the show was renamed to I Like This Beat and was syndicated in 45 countries, Emirates, and as a free podcast on iTunes.
In 2012, McDonald was the assistant vocal coach on The Voice in Belgium, working alongside the Swiss pop star Quentin Mosimann. In 2012, McDonald signed a two-album deal with Mercury/Universal, soon after releasing the single "Give Me More".
McDonald performed "Give Me More" alongside Justin Bieber, Jennifer, 1789 and Merwan Wim at the NRJ Music Tour de Paris. She performed a show at the Grand Palais in celebration of 20 years of FG radio in Paris. McDonald performed "Give Me More" live at the 18th Salon du Chocolat at the Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles on 30 October 2012, wearing a dress made entirely of chocolate and arrived on stage in a chocolate space ship.
"Shooting Star", Zaho and Paris Olympia (2013) McDonald released her second solo single, the duet "Shooting Star" featuring Zaho. It also appears on the 2013 re-release of Zaho's album Contagieuse selling gold. She performed the song with Zaho and a full live band at an electronic party called So Happy in Paris held at the Paris Olympia.
McDonald was the only non-Dutch artist to be asked to perform at Strijders Voor De Liefde Warriors For Love, a special televised concert to raise awareness for equal rights for LGBT citizens.
Ambassador of Paris Pride and "Vay-K" (2014)
McDonald was chosen to be the ambassador, a.k.a. La Marraine (the sponsor), of LGBT Paris Pride. Her duties included a presentation for a press conference, delivering a speech to open the march in front of 500,000 people, performing on the main stage and delivering a speech to close the year's event. She performed an electric set at Ultra Music Festival in South Korea alongside M.I.A. and Far East Movement. McDonald's performance at the Exit Festival sister festival Sea Dance received positive reviews, performing on the main stage.
Her third single "Vay-K" was released in October 2014, and featured Snoop Dogg.
"A Place to Go" with Investo (2014) "A Place to Go", the dance track of the DJ / producer, Investo, with vocalist McDonald, played on Greece's radio stations and climbed to the Top 50 of the Official Greek Airplay Chart. The track released by the dance company, Down2Earth Records, was on the Greek iTunes Chart and the Shazam Chart.
"Happy Hour" (2015) McDonald released "Happy Hour" on the compilation album TPMZ together with hit French TV show TPMP. The song was co-written by McDonald, producer Tefa, Trackstorm and Ben Adams from UK boy-band A1. The track was picked to be the album's lead single and released ahead of McDonald's solo single "Girls Just Wanna Funk".
"I Need a Miracle", Europride anthem / Europride ambassador and "Love Me" (2016) On 15 January 2016, McDonald released the single "I Need a Miracle" (a cover of the 1996 Coco Star song) through Mercury Universal Records in France and Bip Records in Belgium. "I Need a Miracle" charted #18 Portugal, #47 France and #15 iTunes Global charts France, #5 iTunes Pop charts France,#6 Spotify Viral charts France,#1 iTunes Global charts Belgium, #1 iTunes Dance charts Belgium, #3 iTunes Global charts Portugal, #1 iTunes Dance charts Portugal & #20 iTunes Dance charts Italy. This track is better known worldwide from the mashup "Toca's Miracle" by Fragma, which was a No. 1 hit in 14 countries in 2000. McDonald believed the lyrics were significant at a time of war and religious friction and could help bring people together. It was used as the official anthem of EuroPride 2016. McDonald opened Europride at Dam Square in Amsterdam and performed the song at the Human Rights concert with a full orchestra.
"I Need a Miracle" was also featured in the British film White Island starring Billy Zane and UK singer/rapper Example.
McDonald collaborated with Spanish singer-songwriter Juan Magan on the single "Love Me", which she co-wrote with Mexican boy-band Urband 5.
"Taxxxi" and new recording contract In 2017, McDonald signed a new recording contract with Play Two/Warner Music France for an album deal. She released the first solo single, "Taxxxi" on 10 November 2017. McDonald first performed Taxxxi live headlining Winter pride in Gran Canaria 2017 Taxxxi charted in the UK & French club charts #7 UK upfront club charts #8 commercial pop charts #18 Cool cut charts UK and #5 buzz chart #13 club charts in France.
"Money Maker" featuring Zion & Lennox