It received gold certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and earned critical praise, as well as a nomination at the 2009 Music of Black Origin Awards (MOBO).

His second album, Rokstarr (2009), was met with further commercial success, entering 13 international music charts and peaking within the top ten of the Billboard 200.

Two further singles, "Dirty Picture" (with Kesha) and "Higher" (featuring Kylie Minogue or Travie McCoy), peaked within the UK chart's top ten.

He has since released several non-album singles, and co-wrote several hit songs including Tinchy Stryder's "Never Leave You" (2009), Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Into You" (2011), David Guetta's "Without You", "Wish U Were Here" by Cody Simpson (both 2012), and "Kiss Me" by Olly Murs (2014).

Cruz was born as Adetayo Ayowale Onile-Ere on 23 April 1980 in London to a Nigerian Yoruba lawyer father[13] and a Brazilian mother who had a hairdressing business.

[22] Cruz is the founder and chief executive of Rockstar Music London, which in 2006 released his debut single "I Just Wanna Know".

It won him some admirers including Island Records's Darcus Beese and Monte Lipman, who, according to manager Binns, "both believed 'I Just Wanna Know' fitted the format on both sides of the Atlantic".

On 18 August, "She's Like a Star" was released, which was a remix of the previous single and featured American rapper Busta Rhymes and girl-group Sugababes.

The album's lead single "Break Your Heart" was released on 14 September and reached number one in the UK, where it stayed for three weeks.

[28] The success of the song attracted the attention of David Massey and Daniel Werner from Mercury/Island Def Jam who were excited and aggressive about releasing "Break Your Heart" in the United States on their label.

[31] In order to introduce Cruz into the U.S. market, David Massey had suggested that the single feature an American rapper with chart credibility.

[29] The album spawned two other UK singles, "No Other One", and the top-ten hit "Dirty Picture" featuring American electropop singer Kesha.

[38] In June 2011, Cruz released a collaborative single, "Little Bad Girl", with French DJ David Guetta and American rapper Ludacris.

Cruz announced, via his Twitter account, that he made the decision to phonetically name the album TY.O in hopes that it would help people pronounce his name correctly.

Cruz was scheduled to co-headline Pitbull's Australian leg of Planet Pit World Tour in August 2012.

In early 2013, Cruz recorded vocals over the song "Brazil" by electronic artist Deadmau5 and titled the remake "Touch the Sky".

It is called Kewe and is a social media app for Android and iOS, where people can interact and keep up with what Taio Cruz is doing.

On 21 June 2014, Cruz released a new track titled "Don't You Dare" produced by Dr. Luke for his upcoming #Black album.

The "Do What You Like" full release features remixes by Bel Air, Billy Da Kid, KREAM and Zoo Station.

Pop rock band McFly recorded "Shine a Light" which not only features, but was also penned and produced by Cruz for their fifth studio album.

Speaking in October to R&B writer Pete Lewis, Cruz promoted his brand: "There's a load of US celebrities that are all rocking the sunglasses already—Kid Cudi, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West.... Then in the UK we have The Saturdays, JLS, Daniel Merriweather—who've all been twittering and writing on their blogs how much they love them.