Iyaz

Iyaz
Background information
Birth name	Keidran Jones
Born	15 April 1987
Origin	Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Genres	Contemporary R&B, reggae, hip hop
Occupation(s)	Singer, rapper, actor
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Beluga Heights, Time Is Money, Atlantic, Rekless Music (current) Warner Bros., Reprise, Asylum (former)[1]
Associated acts	J.R. Rotem, Sean Kingston, Big Time Rush, Charice, Demi Lovato, Mann
Website	iyazliveofficial.com

Keidran Jones (born 15 April 1987), better known by his stage name Iyaz, is a Virgin Islander singer-songwriter and dancer from Tortola, signed with the record label Beluga Heights Records. He is known for his singles "Replay", "Solo" and "Pretty Girls". He released his debut album Replay in 2010.

Life and career

1987–2010: Early life and career beginnings

Iyaz was born in 1987 to a musical family. He grew up in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.^[2] Iyaz studied digital recording at New England Institute of Technology.^[3] He was featured on the track "Island Girls" by Out Da Box Family, which achieved radio success in the Caribbean.^[2] Sean Kingston found Iyaz through his Myspace page in 2008^[4] and later signed him to a recording contract with Time Is Money/Beluga Heights. Michael Nguyen introduced him to producer and Beluga Heights head J.R. Rotem. He released "Replay" in 2010, which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 1 in several territories, including the United Kingdom.^[2] His second single "Solo" was released in February 2010, and peaked at number 32 on the Hot 100. He also took part in recording the Haiti charity single, "We Are the World 25 for Haiti". His debut album, Replay was released in 2010, and he was also featured on Charice's single "Pyramid". In an interview with HitQuarters, Rotem described Iyaz's creative perfectionism:

"Where as others might work on several songs in one day, he might sit there and work on one song for days. The end result that he gets is usually an absolute gem, so heartfelt and genuine."^[5]

Iyaz also appeared on the fourth season of Hannah Montana, Hannah Montana Forever and made a song with Miley Cyrus called "Gonna Get This", which is featured on the Hannah Montana Forever soundtrack album. Iyaz also had a part in Big Time Rush's song "If I Ruled the World". Iyaz is now working on his second album which is titled "Aurora" but there is no release date to be confirmed.

2011–present: Replay and Aurora

In 2011, Iyaz released "Last Forever" with David Guetta as the producer,^[6] and its follow-up, "At Last". Iyaz was featured on New Boyz's single "Break My Bank" and Akon's "My Girl".

In 2012, Iyaz did a duet called "You're My Only Shorty" with Demi Lovato, which is from her third studio album, Unbroken. He released a song with Travie McCoy titled "Pretty Girls" and later in the year a song titled "My Heart Broke" surfaced.

In 2013, a slew of tracks credited to Iyaz surfaced online, namely "Da Da Da", among with "Congrats", "What Is This Feeling" and "Too Sexy".

In 2014, after leaving his previous labels the year prior, Iyaz signed with new Los Angeles-based independent record label Rekless Music, who is distributed by the Alternative Distribution Alliance and Warner Music Group. Iyaz made a cover of Chris Brown's "Loyal" named "Comin' for Ya", followed by another cover months after of Magic!'s song "Rude" which he shared on SoundCloud. Iyaz tweeted in December 2014 he would release a single titled "One Million", and released a snippet of the song on SoundCloud. Iyaz released "One Million" on iTunes in Japan on 12 December 2014, the first single from his second album Aurora, released exclusively in Japan on 8 April 2015.^[7]

On 24 July 2015 Iyaz released the second single from Aurora, "Alive", featuring Nash Overstreet of Hot Chelle Rae. It was produced by J.D. "Boy Rekless" Salbego, the President/CEO of Rekless Music, Iyaz's new label, and Stuart Hart. On 23 September 2015, MTV exclusively premiered the official video of "Alive".

Discography

List of albums, with selected chart positions

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions					Certifications
		UK [8]	BEL [9]	GRE [10]	NE [11]	SWI [12]
Replay	Released: 4 June 2010 Label: Beluga Heights, Reprise, Asylum Formats: CD, digital download	26	68	18	61	35
Aurora	Released: 8 April 2015 Label: Rekless Music Formats: CD, digital download	—	—	—	—	—

Singles

As lead artist

List of singles, with selected chart positions

Title	Year	Peak chart positions										Certifications	Album
		UK [13][14]	AUS [15]	CAN [16]	GER [17]	IRE [18]	NLD [19]	NZ [20]	NOR [21]	SWI [22]	US [23]
"Replay"	2009	1	1	5	7	2	2	2	12	1	2	BPI: Platinum[24] ARIA: 3× Platinum[25] BVMI: Platinum[26] RIAA: 4× Platinum[27] RMNZ: Platinum[28]	Replay
"Solo"	2010	3	48	54	25	26	20	35	—	—	32	RIAA: Gold[27]
"So Big"		40	—	—	—	46	—	—	—	—	—
"Pretty Girls" (featuring Travie McCoy)	2011	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	43		Non-album single
"One Million"	2014	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		Aurora
"Alive" (featuring Nash Overstreet of Hot Chelle Rae)	2015	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

As featured artist

Title	Year	Peak chart positions				Album
		UK	AUS	CAN	US
"Island Girls" (Out Da Box Family featuring Iyaz, Diction and Shotta)[29]	2008	—	—	—	—	non-album single
"Pyramid" (Charice featuring Iyaz)	2010	17	45	41	56	Charice
"Break My Bank" (New Boyz featuring Iyaz)		—	—	—	68	Too Cool to Care
"The Mack" (Mann featuring Iyaz and Snoop Dogg)	2011	28	68	—	—	Mann's World
"Fight for You" (Stevie Hoang featuring Iyaz)		—	—	—	—	Unsigned
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Other songs

As featured artist

Year	Song	Album	Artist
2010	Gonna Get This	Hannah Montana Forever	Miley Cyrus
2010	Like This	Get 'Em Girls	Jessica Mauboy
2011	You're My Only Shorty	Unbroken	Demi Lovato

Awards and nominations

Year	Award show	Nomination	Result
2011	MTV Video Music Awards Japan	Best Reggae Video — "Replay"	Won
	BMI Pop Music Awards	50 Most Performed Songs of the Year — "Replay"	Won

References

1. "Artists | BMG Music Rights Management". Bmg.com. 2013-09-15.
2. Lipshutz, Jason (6 November 2009). "Young island-pop singer Iyaz hits "Replay"". Billboard. Reuters. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
3. David Caplan, "5 Things to Know About Singer Iyaz", People, 02/04/2010
4. "Artists | Replay – Big Top 40 Music moms". Bigtop40.com. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
5. "Interview With JR Rotem". HitQuarters. 4 April 2010. Retrieved 8 April 2010.
6. http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/iyaz-last-forever-prod-by-david-guetta-song.313693.html
7. https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/aurora-bonus-track-version/id975814324
8. "Chart Stats – Iyaz". chartstats.com. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
9. "Iyaz - Replay". ultratop.be.
10. "greekcharts.com – Greek charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
11. "dutchcharts.nl – Dutch charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
12. "Die Offizielle Schweizer Hitparade und Music Community". Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
13. "Janet Jackson - Artist - Official Charts". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved June 17, 2014.
14. "Official UK Singles Top 100 – 10th December 2011 – Official Charts". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 4 December 2011.
15. "Rushing to the big time". The West Australian. April 7, 2010. p. 5. |section= ignored (help)
16. "Adele > Album & Song Chart History > Canadian Hot 100". Billboard Nielsen Business Media. Archived from the original on 29 March 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
17. "Chartverfolgung / Big Time Rush / Longplay" (in German). musicline.de PhonoNet. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
19. "Dutch Top 40 > Adele" (in Dutch). Stichting Nederlandse Top 40. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
23. "Adele > Album & Song Chart History > Billboard Hot 100". Billboard Nielsen Business Media. Archived from the original on 31 August 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
29. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/island-girls-feat.-iyaz-diction/id278414280

External links

• Official website
• Iyaz at AllMusic