Taylor Dayne Shares the Unexpected Question Taylor Swift Asked Her Backstage at Songwriters Hall of Fame
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The “Tell It to My Heart” hitmaker tells PEOPLE that she and the newly inducted songwriter joked about having the same first name when they met backstage in June.
Taylor Dayne and Taylor Swift found an amusing connection during a backstage conversation at this year’s Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony: they both go by the first name Taylor.
Dayne, 64, recently looked back on her career and the lasting influence of songs such as “Love Will Lead You Back” and “I’ll Always Love You.” While discussing how those tracks have become part of fans’ most meaningful life moments, she recalled a brief exchange she had with Swift, 36, backstage at the 55th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Gala on June 11.
Swift was among the seven songwriters inducted into the Hall of Fame during the ceremony, joining artists including Kenny Loggins, Alanis Morissette and Gene Simmons.
According to Dayne, the conversation eventually turned toward their shared first name. Swift apparently told the veteran singer about a question she once had for her mother regarding the decision to give her a traditionally masculine-sounding name.
“You just don’t understand the impact of that from weddings to people who got married to it, to people who made babies to it,” Dayne said while reflecting on her own music. She then recalled Swift telling her, “James Taylor was it.” Swift reportedly followed up by asking, “But I asked my mom, why’d you name me a boy’s name?”
Dayne said she immediately offered her own perspective on the unusual choice.
“I go, ‘Well, we carefully curated that, that choice, Taylor. You were born with it, but I think…there was just a lot of [that]. Taylor is always a very original name.’”
The conversation also gave Dayne an opportunity to explain why she ultimately adopted the name Taylor herself.
The singer was born Leslie Wunderman, but she recalled that musician Dee Snider once suggested several possible stage names, including Taylor, Tommy and Joey.
“When Dee Snider was like, ‘You should be a Taylor or a Tommy or a Joey.’ We were like, ‘Taylor? Ooh.’ That’s what stuck.”
The exchange ended on a lighthearted note, with the two singers laughing about their shared name.
“So I was like, ‘I think your mother might have stolen from [James Taylor],’” Dayne joked. “She’s what, 36? Sounds about right.”
Dayne said they laughed together before she congratulated Swift on her induction, describing the younger singer as “a phenom.”