Darren Hayes

Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972) is an Australian singer, songwriter, music producer and composer.

He was the frontman and singer of the pop duo Savage Garden until their disbandment.

In late 1987, he got the chance to see his hero Michael Jackson performing live in Brisbane as part of the Bad Tour.

He credits this as encouraging him to pursue a career in entertainment.

His other acknowledged influences are Stevie Nicks, Madonna, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Prince and Marvin Gaye, and he has cited U2's "With or Without You" as the most touching song he has ever heard.

In 1993, Hayes answered an advertisement in a Brisbane music magazine, Time Off, placed by Daniel Jones, for a lead vocalist position in the band called Red Edge.

Hayes was successful, despite his voice breaking in the audition, as he mentioned in an interview with Rosie O'Donnell.

The cover band broke up in 1994 and Hayes formed a partnership with Jones, a duo band initially called Crush.

However, another band in the UK already owned the rights to the name.

Hayes and Jones submitted their first demo tape to record companies under the name Bliss, before they eventually changed their name to Savage Garden, a phrase used by Anne Rice to describe the world through the eyes of Lestat de Lioncourt in her novel The Vampire Lestat.

The Savage Garden is a vision of Earth in which the natural laws of the world govern over anything aesthetic or civil.

Savage Garden started recording their debut album in 1995 with producer Charles Fisher.

Their first single, "I Want You", was released in 1996 and was the best selling single by an Australian artist that year.

The second single, "To the Moon and Back", topped the Australian charts at the end of 1996.

Their 1997 album Savage Garden peaked at number 1 in Australia, number 2 in the United Kingdom and number 3 in the United States.

It spawned the singles "I Want You", "To the Moon and Back", and Australian and US number 1 "Truly Madly Deeply".

The third single, "Truly Madly Deeply", was their second number one and was the best-selling Australian single of 1997.

Their debut album, Savage Garden, was the best-selling album in Australia during 1997 and the duo won ten ARIA awards.

Hayes moved to New York City to promote Savage Garden internationally, while Daniel Jones stayed in Brisbane.

The move proved to be successful, with "Truly Madly Deeply" going to the top of the American charts in 1998.

The Savage Garden album sold seven million copies in the US on the back of this success.

In New York City, Hayes wrote Affirmation.

He had recently divorced his wife of several years.

Parts of the album reflected the pain from the end of the relationship.

The duo followed the success of their debut album with Affirmation (1999), which provided additional hits such as Australian and US number 1 "I Knew I Loved You", and Australian number 3 "The Animal Song".

Affirmation was released in 1999 and proved to be another hit, with lead single "I Knew I Loved You" going to number one in the United States, and the album selling six million copies worldwide by the end of 2000.

The pair played the title track of the album at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Hayes moved to Sausalito in 2000.

He became the public face of the duo, doing most of the media.

Savage Garden parted ways in 2001.

Hayes released his first solo album Spin in 2002.

The album sold two million copies worldwide, debuted at Number 2 in the UK and number 3 in Australia.

It delivered the hit single "Insatiable".

Hayes's second album, The Tension and the Spark, preceded by single "Pop!ular", was released in 2004.

Hayes parted ways with his record label Columbia Records in 2006 and started his own independent record label, Powdered Sugar, from which he would release his third and fourth solo albums, 2007's double-album This Delicate Thing We've Made and 2011's Secret Codes and Battleships.

After a decade-long hiatus, Hayes returned in 2022 with his fifth studio album; Homosexual, which was released in October 2022, spawned the singles "Let's Try Being in Love", "Do You Remember?", "Poison Blood", "All You Pretty Things" and "Feels Like It's Over".

Hayes' autobiography is due for publication by Penguin Books in 2024.

At school, Hayes was bullied and physically and verbally abused.

He described himself as "a big-hearted, emotional, and excitable" teenager, with an obsession for Star Wars and E.T.

Hayes ' father was an alcoholic, and regularly subjected Hayes and his mother to violence.