Taylor Dayne sings the Gay Games song

Soul Diva Taylor Dayne will sing the official song for Gay Games VIII Cologne 2010. The American singer will perform the song “Facing a Miracle” at the opening ceremony on July 31 in the RheinEnergieStadium. Taylor Dayne became well known in the 80s, when she had an international hit with “Tell it to my heart”.

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Annette Wachter, manager of the Gay Games Cologne gGmbH, is looking forward to meeting the US star: “We are enthusiastic that an international artist like Taylor Dayne is supporting the sport- and cultural event.” The song was well received from the start.  Contracts have been signed with the management of the singer. Taylor Dayne is well known in the USA for her charity engagements, recorded the song, a short time ago in California.

With “Tell it to my Heart”, Taylor Dayne reached number one in the chart shows in Germany in 1987. Also her hits “Prove your love” and “I´ll will always love you” were placed in the charts. In 2008, ten years after her last publishing, she released her new album “Satisfied”. Taylor Dayne is also successful as composer. She wrote the hit “Whatever you want” for Tina Turner.

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The hymn of the Gay Games originates from a composer team from Sweden and the Netherlands. The song writer Peter Hägeras, Bruce R.F. Smith, Dan Sundquist and Ralph van Manen won the composer competition of the Gay Games Cologne with the song “Facing a miracle”. The Dance song which has the makings of a hit encourages all to fulfill our own dreams. That the song will be performed by an international known artist, makes Peter Hägeras happy: “Being openly gay myself, it means a lot to me to get the possibility to write and produce the song for the Gay Games, by far the biggest event this year. Even more interesting is the possibility to work with Taylor Dayne. I am still fairly young so for me it´s a fantastic feeling to work with an idol of my youth, especially as she still is delivering top performances and scored top rankings at the billboards. For me, the word “Pride” gets a complete new and important meaning.”


Multinational Quartett writes “Facing a miracle”

No big sport event makes it without a theme song. So from the beginning of the planning for the Gay Games there was the desire for a song. Thus an international composer competition began.  A team of classified jurors had to select which of the submitted songs would be the official song of the Gay Games VIII Cologne 2010. They chose “Facing a miracle” and therefore the composer quartett from Sweden and the Netherlands.

Dan Sundquist, Ralph van Manen, Peter Hägeras and Bruce R.F. Smith were the lucky winners. But these names are also a win for the Gay Games VIII Cologne 2010. Each one of them has a high profile music background. Each of these names assures the quality of the song. Dan Sundquist for example is one of the biggest Swedish song writers and music producers. He produced more than 60 albums over the past 3 decades. He won 7 Grammys and 12 Platinum Prices in Sweden. For the Eurovision Song Contest he contributed 2 national winner titles – for Sweden and Norway.

The Dutch - Ralph van Manen and the Dutch-by-choice Bruce R.F. Smith, born in England are spoilt by success. Both are authors of great songs. With the hit “Testify to love” by Ralph van Manen the group “Avalon” reached Platinum status in the USA. From Bruce R.F. Smiths pen originates the Dutch contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005. His song “Engel van mijn hart” sung by Gerard Joling, won the first place of the Dutch charts and was honored as best song with the Buma Golden Harp Award.

The youngest of the quartet of song writers is Peter Hägeras. But the 28 year old has worked already with numerous artists. Among them Kayo, a Swedish singer, who represented her country in 2002 at the Eurovision Song Contest, with her group Afro-dite.  Different casting-show superstars also had a breakthrough due to his help, among them the winner of the Belgian X-Faktor Udo Mechels. The musical talent of Peter Hägeras was discovered very early. Already at the age of 19 he won a well respected Swedish music prize. His signature mark is catchy pop songs, which can be found on his personal album, published in 2007.



From the idea to the song

Clemens Brugger is Austrian and works in Innsbruck. Besides Universal Music Publishing and Popsongs Music Publishing his music publisher CBM is a 50 % co-publisher of the title “Facing a Miracle”. Clemens was given the task to search for the right artist for the title. “There was a list of favorites put together by the team of jurors of the Gay Games Song Contest” he says. “While talking to artists and managers, I got the idea to talk to Taylor Dayne.

Taylor Dayne received the demo of the title and information about the Gay Games. The decision was quickly made, as Clemens Brugger comments. The US singer offered to record the song “Facing a Miracle” at no charge. Even Brugger worked as leading producer without a fee. His company is financing the whole production. The sales returns of the CD are donated to the Gay Games Cologne.

Due to his contacts to US music producer Peter Wolf, Clemens Brugger managed to get his studio in Malibu/California to record the vocal part. Wolf’s studio is one of the leading studios in the music industry. The Austrian is responsible for world hits of Jefferson Starship (We Built this City) and the Commodores (Nightshift). Numerous artists like Patti Labelle, Oleta Adams, Santana, and The Scorpions rely on his know-how.  Emil Hellman and Peter Hägeras are producers of the song “Facing a Miracle”.  In addition to the radio version there is a Club remix and an orchestra version.