Pittsburgh-area pop singer/songwriter Daya first climbed the charts as a 16-year-old high school junior, when her sound resembled a combination of
Lorde and
Alessia Cara. That youthful energy made its way onto her breakthrough debut, 2016's Sit Still, Look Pretty, which spawned the multi-platinum track "Hide Away." Along the way, she won a Grammy with
the Chainsmokers (2016's "Don't Let Me Down") and adopted a more electronic-leaning style that resulted in 2021's course-shifting EP The Difference, home to the hit "Bad Girl."
Born Grace Martine Tandon -- "daya" is the Hindi word for "grace" in a nod to her Indian grandfather -- and raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mount Lebanon, she began taking piano lessons at the age of three, and moved on to voice lessons at the age of ten. Songwriting came later, and in 2014 she signed with the
Z-Entertainment label based on her demos. A year later, her single "Hide Away" took off thanks to early adopters like
Tyler Oakley,
Perez Hilton, and other bloggers. In 2015, Daya issued her debut self-titled EP on
Artbeatz. Both "Hide Away" and the follow-up single "Sit Still, Look Pretty" rose to the Top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100, with a number 14 debut on the Heatseekers chart. She later contributed vocals to
the Chainsmokers' 2016 summer smash "Don't Let Me Down" (which went on to win the Grammy for Best Dance Recording).
Daya's debut, Sit Still, Look Pretty, was released later that year. The album peaked at number 36 on the Billboard 200. In 2017, she appeared on the
Gryffin and
Illenium track "Feel Good," later releasing her own singles "New" and "Safe." Early 2019 saw the release of "Insomnia," yet another addition to her increasingly electronic-leaning sound. She followed with the electro-pop banger "First Time" and the hit "Bad Girl," both of which appeared on 2021's The Difference EP. ~ David Jeffries & Neil Z. Yeung, Rovi