Iyaz

Keidran Jones (born 15 April 1987), better known by his stage name Iyaz, is a British Virgin Islander singer, songwriter, dancer and entrepreneur, 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.

Iyaz
Birth nameKeidran Jones
Born (1987-04-15) 15 April 1987[1]
Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • dancer
  • entrepreneur
InstrumentsVocals
Years active2009–present
Labels
Associated acts
Websiteiyazliveofficial.com

Life and career

1987–2010: Early life and career beginnings

Iyaz aka Keidran Jones was born in 1987, into a musical family. He grew up in Tortola in the Virgin Islands.[3] Iyaz studied digital recording at New England Institute of Technology.[4] He was featured on the track "Island Girls" by Out Da Box Family, which achieved radio success in the Caribbean.[3] Sean Kingston found Iyaz through his Myspace page in 2008[5] 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 2009, which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 1 in several territories, including the United Kingdom.[3] 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 [sic] 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."[6]

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.

2011–present: Replay and Aurora

In 2011, Iyaz played his part in Big Time Rush's song "If I Ruled the World". Iyaz released "Last Forever" with David Guetta as the producer,[7] and its follow-up, "At Last". Iyaz was featured on New Boyz's single "Break My Bank" and Akon's "My Girl".

Later, 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. Iyaz uploaded a duet song named, "Christmas Time" featuring Sha Sha Jones on to YouTube, A Christmas song which His Grandparents requested.

In 2013, a slew of tracks credited to Iyaz surfaced online, namely "Da Da Da", along 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, which 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.[8]

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

Studio albums
List of albums, with selected chart positions
Title Details Peak chart positions Certifications
UK
[9]		 BEL
[10]		 GRE
[11]		 NE
[12]		 SWI
[13]
Replay 2668186135
Aurora —————

Extended plays
Title Details Peak chart positions
US
Heat
[14]
So Big
  • Released: 21 June 2010
  • Label: Interscope
  • Formats: Digital download
 15

As lead artist
List of singles, with selected chart positions
Title Year Peak chart positions Certifications Album
UK
[15][16]		 AUS
[17]		 CAN
[18]		 GER
[19]		 IRE NLD
[20]		 NZ NOR SWI US
[21]
"Replay" 2009 11572221212
  • BPI: Platinum[22]
  • ARIA: 3× Platinum
  • BVMI: Platinum
  • RIAA: 4× Platinum
  • RMNZ: Platinum
 Replay
"Solo" 2010 3485425262035——32
  • BPI: Silver[22]
  • RIAA: Gold
"So Big" 40———46—————
"Look At Me Now" 3485425262035——32
"Pretty Girls"
(featuring Travie McCoy)		 2011 —————————43 Non-album single
"One Million" 2014 —————————— Aurora
"Alive"
(featuring Nash Overstreet)		 2015 ——————————
"One Puff"
(with B-Case and Jowell & Randy)		 2018 —————————— Non-album singles
"Destiny"
(featuring Kabaka Pyramid)		 ——————————
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.
Title Year Peak chart positions Album
UK AUS CAN US
"Island Girls"
(Out Da Box Family featuring Iyaz, Diction and Shotta)[23]		 2008 ———— non-album single
"Pyramid"
(Charice featuring Iyaz)		 2010 17454156 Charice
"La, La, La"
(Auburn featuring Iyaz)		 ———51 N/A
"Break My Bank"
(New Boyz featuring Iyaz)		 ———68 Too Cool to Care
"Gonna Get This"
(Hannah Montana featuring Iyaz)		 ———66 Hannah Montana Forever
"The Mack"
(Mann featuring Iyaz and Snoop Dogg)		 2011 2868—— Mann's World
"If I Ruled the World"
(Big Time Rush featuring Iyaz)		 ————[upper-alpha 1] Elevate
"Fight for You"
(Stevie Hoang featuring Iyaz)		 ———— Unsigned
"Slow Motion"
(Lee.M and J.Pearl featuring Iyaz and Snoop Dogg)		 2012 ———— Non-album singles
"Superhero"
(DJ Kiss featuring Iyaz)		 2016 ————
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Other appearances
List of non-single guest appearances, showing year released and album name
Title Year Other artist(s) Album
"Like This" 2010 Jessica Mauboy Get 'Em Girls
"Runnin' Back" 2011 Mýa K.I.S.S. (Keep It Sexy & Simple)
"You're My Only Shorty" Demi Lovato Unbroken
"Bad Dream" 2017 Bone Thugs-n-Harmony New Waves

Notes
  1. "If I Ruled the World" did not enter the US Billboard Hot 100 but did peak at number 6 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 extension chart.[24]

Awards and nominations
YearAward showNominationResult
2011MTV Video Music Awards JapanBest Reggae Video — "Replay"Won
BMI Awards50 Most Performed Songs of the Year — "Replay"Won

References
  1. Iyaz. allmusic.com
  2. "Artists | BMG Music Rights Management". Bmg.com. 15 September 2013. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013.
  3. Lipshutz, Jason (6 November 2009). "Young island-pop singer Iyaz hits "Replay"". Billboard. Reuters. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
  4. David Caplan, "5 Things to Know About Singer Iyaz", People, 2 April 2010
  5. "Artists | Replay – Big Top 40 Music moms". Bigtop40.com. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
  6. "Interview With JR Rotem". HitQuarters. 4 April 2010. Archived from the original on 9 May 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2010.
  7. "IYAZ - Last Forever (Prod. By David Guetta)". HotNewHipHop.
  8. "Iyazの「Aurora (Bonus Track Version)」" – via music.apple.com.
  9. "The Official Charts Company – Iyaz". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  10. "Iyaz – Replay". ultratop.be.
  11. "greekcharts.com – Greek charts portal". Hung Medien. Archived from the original on 30 May 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  12. "dutchcharts.nl – Dutch charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  13. "Die Offizielle Schweizer Hitparade und Music Community". Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  14. "Iyaz Chart History - Heatseekers Albums". Billboard. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  15. "Janet Jackson – Artist – Official Charts". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  16. "Official UK Singles Top 100 – 10th December 2011 – Official Charts". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 2 December 2011.
  17. "Rushing to the big time". The West Australian. Today. 7 April 2010. p. 5.
  18. "Iyaz > Album & Song Chart History > Canadian Hot 100". Billboard Nielsen Business Media. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  19. "Chartverfolgung / Big Time Rush / Longplay" (in German). musicline.de PhonoNet. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  20. "Dutch Top 40 > Adele" (in Dutch). Stichting Nederlandse Top 40. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  21. "Iyaz > Album & Song Chart History > Billboard Hot 100". Billboard Nielsen Business Media. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  22. "BRIT Certified - bpi" (To access, enter the search parameter "Iyaz" and select "Search by Keyword"). British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  23. "Island Girls (feat. Iyaz, Diction, & Shotta) - Single by Out Da Box Family" – via music.apple.com.
  24. "Iyaz Chart History - Bubbling Under Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
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