Mumbai: February 22, 2022 – Tatiana, more popularly known by her stage name T8IANA (‘Tay-tiana’), an Australian transgender singer-songwriter of Mauritian-Indian-French descent, has dropped her first dance/pop single “What have you gotta say now?” from her debut album ‘Celebrat8ion’. The single has been produced by Clarence Jey, the LA based, Grammy winning record producer of Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ fame. The video, directed by Joyce Northey from Abele Productions, was co-incidentally filmed on November 20, 2021, observed as Transgender Day of Remembrance, in memory of transgenders murdered as a result of transphobia. The video has been choreographed by acclaimed Australian Dancer, Martijn Sedgfield, who has also worked with major stars like Paula Abdul, Jason Derulo & Meghan Trainor.
T8iana’s music reflects the struggles she went through in her childhood, adolescence and adult life, growing up in a conservative middle-class environment in her hometown and grappling with being different. Born a boy, T8iana knew she was different from the other kids as far as her gender was concerned. Her life turned around when a life-changing incident almost killed her. She was viciously attacked by a group of homophobic adolescent boys while walking alone back to her house from school. “That evening something died and something was reborn inside me. I decided to be brave and true to myself. It was almost like I shifted into a new state of mind,” T8iana says of that unfortunate incident. She transitioned to female in 2014.
This debut single and the follow-up tracks will signal T8iana’s arrival as she slowly journeys towards being a one-woman act filling the pop music ecosystem with an array of club-friendly dance anthems. Riding the new wave of LGBTI icons in music (Troye Sivan, LilNasX) that use their talent to drive change, T8iana is undeniably unafraid to break down stereotypes. “My first single – a dance anthem, is an implicit retaliation towards all the people who caused me pain in my growing years. I am sure a lot of straight and/or gay people will be able to relate to the lyrics,” T8iana says about the track.
T8iana received vocal training in Melbourne’s Vox school of Music, but she had always dreamed of being a painter. Given the family’s financial constraints, she was unable to pursue her art career at her dream school L’ecole de Beaux Arts, Paris. Instead, she turned her passion to music.
Early influences came through the 80’s pop music played around the house by her mother – a style strongly reflected in her songs. T8iana always liked the idea of using dance music to express serious themes in a fun way – a ploy that has been used by artists throughout the ages.
“T8iana’s songs are a mix of such power and emotional transparency, I have to be even more careful not to dilute this while producing,” says producer Clarence Jey on the
launch of the song. Watch/listen to ‘What have you Gotta Say now?” on her YouTube channel: T8iana, Spotify: T8iana, Instagram: the_real_t8iana, and Facebook: T8iana.
