Tara McDonald

Early life and career beginnings

McDonald was born in Dartford, United Kingdom, to Irish/English parents. She was named after the Queen of Ireland and the Hill of Tara. At the age of 9, Tara performed in Les Miserables as Eponine at The Palace Theatre in the West End of London. Representing Great Britain, she won the Danny Kaye Award, presented by Audrey Hepburn, at the UNICEF International Song Contest for the song "Make Your Own Rainbow". McDonald became a child ambassador for UNICEF for a year, promoting and campaigning for the "rights of the child" throughout Europe and also Africa. She also performed in the NYMT (National Youth Music Theatre) 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; a part also played by Martine McCutcheon. McDonald was schooled at the Italia Conti stage school then later moved to the BRIT School.

McDonald also worked as a backing dancer for Karen Ramirez for promotion of her single "Looking for Love" and also appeared as a backing dancer for the Jungle Brothers single, "I'll House You". She also worked for the charity Combined Services Entertainment as a "forces sweetheart", providing entertainment for the UK armed forces around the world.

In 2000, Planet Funk asked McDonald to perform with them their big dance anthem "Chase the Sun" at the MTV Ibiza dance festival alongside Basement Jaxx and Faithless, which proved to be a big success. McDonald continued to write songs for other artists and pay the rent by working as a session singer for a range of different artists/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 Tara performed on the Jagz Kooner remix of "Butterly Caught" for Massive Attack.

Strictly Come Dancing and David Guetta (2005–2012)

From 2004 to 2007, McDonald sang lead and backing vocals on BBC1's programme Strictly Come Dancing.

In 2005 when McDonald was 18 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 number 1 on the UK Dance Singles Chart and number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, No. 16 in Finland, No. 62 in the Netherlands and No. 4 on the French club chart in August 2005. Tara's next release was "My My My" with Armand Van Helden in 2006 which entered the UK commercial charts at number 11. Both tracks became big dance anthems and saw McDonald perform these live on Pete Tong BBC1 dance show in Ibiza.

In 2007 McDonald co-wrote two tracks on David Guetta's third studio album, Pop Life, which peaked at number two in France and was certified platinum by the SNEP Pop Life, resulting in the hit single "Delirious" released in 2008, was one of the most played records on European radio in 2008, and an album track entitled "You're Not Alone". McDonald also featured in the music video for this single.

2007 also saw McDonald working with Bryan Ferry on his Dylanesque album backing singing and arranging some of the vocal harmonies. They met previously when McDonald was backing singing for the Band Du lac on a special charity concert where McDonald was backing singing for Gary Brooker, Eric Clapton, Roger Waters. McDonald sang backup on Bryan's next studio album a work of Dylan covers and toured with him for a year.

McDonald also worked with the "Leo Green experience" as a guest vocalist at jazz venues in the UK like Ronnie Scott's and supported the Roy Ayers.

In 2008 McDonald supported the charity Childline Rocks performing alongside Roger Daltrey (The Who), Thunder, Lulu & Russ Ballard at O2 Indigo, London.

In 2009 McDonald featured on and co wrote the song "Revolution" by Vibers, (written as the anthem for the electronic music festival Liberty Parade) the song won best musical production (of the electronic genre) in Romania at the Nights Ro Gala Awards 2009.

McDonald won the "Best Female Voice of 2010" in electronic music with OnlyForDj's magazine which launched a worldwide competition and it was voted by the public.

McDonald has been described as a "tigress on stage" and "the chic sexbomb of electro music." by David Guetta

In 2010, McDonald collaborated on many new records, including "I'm Your Goddess" with David Vendetta, a dance track with a middle Eastern feel featuring Alim Qasinov from Azerbaijan on DJ Centre Records; "Elevated" with the Australian dance duo TV Rock; "Everything", "Funkerman", and "Beats for You" with Mischa Daniels on Amarda Music; and "Set Me on Fire" with Sidney Samson on Spinnin Records.

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. Tara's next record "Generation 24/7" was released though Hed Kandi records on 12 December 2011.

McDonald released a new track with David Guetta and Afrojack in 2011 called "Pandemonium" from the 2011 FMIF Ibiza mix album which reached No. 3 France, No. 17 Austria No. 39 Spain and No. 2 Switzerland; which was released on FMIF Ibiza mix compilation on EMI Records. She also co wrote and sang the anthem to Tomorrowland 2010 with Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike and Dada Life called "Tomorrow (Give in to the Night)", which was an international club hit as well as a commercial radio hit in Belgium which peaked at top No. 20. Tara wrote the vocal melody and lyric for the song and also recorded & produced the vocals for the track. In 2010 McDonald was voted the best voice of the dance scene by the readers of "Only For DJ's" magazine in France.

In 2011, McDonald performed at the festival 24hrs of Burning House (held in Smederevo Fortress, Serbia), alongside Junior Jack, Sandy Rivera, Chocolate Puma, Steve Edwards and many other artists. It was her second time visiting Serbia.

In 2012 McDonald presented three awards at the NRJ DJ awards in Monaco.

Radio show and The Voice (2012–2013)

In 2012, McDonald started her own weekly radio show every Monday 1 am - 2am called "Shut Up & Dance" (now recalled "I Like This Beat") on FG Radio (France & Belgium). She is the only non DJ to have her radio show on France's coolest dance music station alongside, David Guetta, Armin van Buurin & Laidback Luke. In 2013 the show was renamed to "I Like This Beat" and is on radio in 45 countries across the world each week, plus onboard Emirates airlines and as a free podcast on iTunes.

In 2012, McDonald was the assistant vocal coach on The Voice in Belgium, working alongside the French 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 new single "Give Me More" alongside Justin Bieber, Jennifer, 1789 and Merwan Wim at the NRJ Music Tour de Paris.

In April Tara celebrated 20 years of FG radio in Paris by a live performance at the Grand Palais.

McDonald was also invited to perform "Give Me More" live at the 18th Salon du Chocolat at the Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles on October 30, 2012 in Paris, France, wearing a dress made entirely of chocolate and arrived on stage in a chocolate space ship. Other celebrities at the event included Natasha St-Pier, Tal, Lucienne, Alexandra Rosenfeld, Audrey Pulvar, Adriana Karembeu et Claudia Tagbo.

"Shooting Star", Zaho and Paris Olympia (2013)

She released her second solo single "Shooting Star" featuring platinum selling Francophone artist Zaho. The song is a duet sang in English and French and also appears on the re-release of Zaho's album Contagieuse, released in late 2013.

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.

McDonald performed at the Paris Olympia twice in 2013 for a special electronic party called So Happy in Paris, also performing "Shooting Star" with Zaho at her concert with a full live band.

Ambassador of Paris Pride and "Vay-K" (2014)

McDonald was chosen to be the host, also referred to as "La Marienne" (the mother), 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 on October 2014, and featured Snoop Dogg.

"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, legendary French producer Tefa, Trackstorm and Ben Adams from UK boy band A1. The track was picked to be the lead single from the album and was decided to be released ahead of McDonald's solo single "Girls Just Wanna Funk".

McDonald's dance music radio show "I Like This Beat" was shortlisted as best Big Room/EDM radio show on the Mixcloud online radio awards alongside Avicii, Nicky Romero, Laidback Luke and Oliver Heldens. The award was won by Ultra Music live sets radio.

"I Need a Miracle" and "Love Me" (2016)

On 15 January 2016, McDonald released the single "I Need a Miracle" through Mercury Universal Records in France and Bip Records in Belgium. It is a cover of the song originally released by Coco Star by Greenlight Recordings in 1996, which was re-recorded for EMI/Positiva in 1997. This track is better known worldwide under the guise of the illegal mashup "Toca's Miracle" by Fragma, which was a number 1 hit in 14 countries worldwide in 2000.

The song is produced by French DJ producer Adam Trigger and Berlin's Nick Talos and Tara McDonald who also vocally arranged and structured the track, the song was vocally produced by Dee Adam in London. McDonald chose to release this cover as its one of the biggest dance anthems in the world and thought the lyrics talking about a deeper love were really culturally significant at a time where there is so much war and religious fraction. She saw this song as a way to bring people together. "I have always loved this song, it's so powerful and I think it's a record that everybody in the world knows".

The song was used as the official anthem of EuroPride 2016. McDonald opened Europride at Dam Square in Amsterdam, also collaborating with Gregor Salto, who provided the official Europride remix. McDonald also performed "I Need a Miracle" at the Human Rights concert also in Dam Square with a full orchestra. The programme was shown on AvroTros.

"I Need a Miracle" was also featured in the British film White Island starring Billy Zane and UK singer/rapper Example.

Tara also collaborated with Spanish singer-songwriter Juan Magan on the single "Love Me", which she co-wrote alongside Mexican boy band Urband 5. The video was shot by director Pedro Torres and was shot in different locations in Mexico.

Singles