As part of the USA’s Pride month celebrations Taylor Dayne wrote a love letter to the LGBT community thanking us for our support of her career. Published in Billboard magazine, the letter outlines how queer people got behind the singer from her very first release.

Later this year Taylor will mark the 30th anniversary of her first single Tell it to my Heart, and she tell OUTinPerth that none of it would have happened without gay clubs giving her support and queer people shaping her look.

“I’m in the distinction business, “ Taylor said, “My voice is incredibly distinctive, and that’s the business I’m in.” but the singer said it wasn’t until she started working with make-up artists and hair stylists that she got a distinctive look.

“They saw in me, things in me that I didn’t see in myself. ‘Put this hair’ and ‘do this’, and ‘do that’,  ‘this make-up’”. Taylor said it helped her take more risks and helped her feel beautiful, “and they love their creation, let me tell you.” she laughed.

To mark three decades in the business Taylor will releasing her autobiography and have a new album of music to share with fans.

The first step in her new journey began last year when she delivered a TED talk when she spoke about finding your voice. While the video of her talk has been a huge success, Taylor says agreeing to deliver one of the high profile speeches was a daunting experience.

“It’s a very daunting, time consuming, very long process and it came on the heels of me starting to write my memoir.” Taylor said she had to shift her mindset to transfer what she was talking about into a spoken word performance, and it took months of preparation.

In her TED talk Taylor jokes that despite almost every song she’s had a hit with containing the word’s ‘love’ or ‘heart’, she’s never been married. She rattles off the song titles ‘Tell it to My Heart’, ‘With Every Beat of my Heart’, ‘Love Will Lead You Back’, ‘Prove Your Love’, ‘Can’t Get Enough of Your Love’ and “I’ll Always Love You”.

Fans will get the chance to see Taylor Dayne perform live when she visits Perth in November as part of the ‘80s Mania tour alongside Cutting Crew, Wang Chung and Go West.

Listen in to our whole conversation with Taylor Dayne.

Graeme Watson