Daydream
The Inaya Day Interview

by Doug Brandt | Published August 2005 | Features Archives

YOU KNOW WHO SHE IS, although you may not realize it. She's had three #1s and two #2s on the Billboard dance charts over the last nine years, and at least five others in the Top 20.

Don't think you know? Maybe this will ring a bell:

Keep pushing on
Things are gonna get better
It won't take long
Keep on pushing to the top.

It's easily understood why you may not recognize her name - she appeared on the single as "Boris Dlugosch presents Booom!" back in 1996.

"It's funny that people are still just finding out that 'Keep Pushin'' and 'Horny' are me," explained Inaya Day, the powerhouse vocalist behind these massive club hits. "I did the early tunes under pseudonyms in case they sucked because I was doing R&B and hip-hop then."

Blessed with an amazing gift of song, Brooklyn-born Inaya began singing in church as a young child, where she got her first experience in performing. "I started in church," she said. "My mom took me to choir rehearsals and stuff from the time I was able to come outside, so music was, and is, second nature."

She attended the High School of Music and the Performing Arts in her native city, New York, and went on to major in musical theater at The University of Bridgeport. Inaya was then off to the stage to do musicals in New York. She understudied Stephanie Mills in The Wiz, receiving rave reviews when she stepped into the lead as "Dorothy" in New York, St. Louis and Washington DC.

Inaya is no stranger to recording, either. She has recorded vocals for Michael Jackson, Al Green, Sean "Puffy" Combs, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Moni Love, Big Daddy Kane, Jonathon Butler and Randy Crawford, among others. She even sang the Oprah theme, "I'm Every Woman," with Valerie Simpson of Ashford and Simpson.

And yet there's more: Inaya is also an incredibly versatile songwriter, having co-written two songs on Randy Crawford's album, "Every Kind of Mood." The songs were chosen to be the first two singles and hit the charts in the U.S. and the U.K. respectively. She also wrote two songs for and with Bootsie Collins for his album Fresh Outta 'P' University.

Fast-forward to one day while she was living in Dusseldorf, Germany. Inaya's Turkish friend Yilmaz passed along her number to his producer friend who had a recording studio in Hannover. The producer called Inaya and arranged for her to take a four-hour train ride from Dusseldorf to Hannover to do a demo.

"I got there and started singing off the top of my head," she explained, "just making up words."

"Inaya," they said, cutting her off, "you have a great voice."

"Thanks," she replied, and continued to ad lib.

"Next thing I knew," she continued, "I was in America listening to the noon day mix and I heard myself on the radio. That's how it all started with recording house music."

The producer? Boris Dlugosch. The rest? Chart-topping history: those lyrics eventually became her first hit, "Keep Pushin'."

Inaya immediately followed "Keep Pushin'" (which reached #2 on Billboard's Dance chart) with "Hold Your Head Up High" (which reached #6) in 1997, also listed under "Boris Dlugosch presents Booom."

Then came "Horny," released in 1998 by one of her long-time producers, Mousse T. "Horny" became an instantly recognizable club anthem and soared to Number One. However, her choral hook and friend Emma Lanford's verses were credited to the project name "Hot & Juicy" on the single, and Inaya didn't appear in the video.

Fortunately after three hits in a row, she decided to come out from behind the pseudonyms and become her own artist under her own name. And it was that name that brought us a string of club hits: "Moving Up," "Feel It," "Can't Stop Dancing," "Shout It Out," "Save Me," "Mine," "I Am the 1," and others under various producers and labels.

Every Tuesday night Inaya can be seen performing with a funk and R&B band at a showbar called "CafÈ Wha?" in the West Village of Manhattan. "I love singing with them," she said. "It's a sin to call it work. And I know you're gonna bug out over this one, but I also love singing jazz standards. Gospel will always be number one on the list though, as its fused with every type of music."

I had the fortune of meeting Inaya a couple years ago at Café Wha. Since then, we keep in touch online and try to see each other whenever I'm back in New York. It was my pleasure to be able to finally interview her officially.

INAYA DAY: I first started singing in church with the Sunday school. Then Mom made me join the kids' choir. My sister and cousins were in the young adult choir and they could really put it down. I hated being in the little kids' chorus when I could do all that the bigger kids were doing. But I had to be 16 to get in. I would go home and copy my cousins and sister. I would tape their solos from church and sing 'em back at home.

My cousin Sol is the head of the group SKYY. They made "Call Me," "Let's Celebrate," "High"ä I would play the drums to Earth, Wind and Fire records at my aunt's house before they rehearsed. He used to put me in the trashcan as a kid and lock the top and roll it around. One time his brother put me in a box and taped it. Then he kicked me down the staircase while my aunts and mom were hosting a Tupperware party. Oh what a tortured existence!

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