Taylor Gayle Rutherford

Taylor Gayle Rutherfurd, known professionally as Gayle, is an American singer and songwriter born on June 10, 2004. She achieved widespread recognition following the release of her 2021 major-label single ABCDEFU, which reached the top of charts globally and earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Song of the Year.

Raised in Plano, Texas, Rutherfurd began singing at seven years old. She later moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue music professionally. Rutherfurd has spoken publicly about having dyslexia as well as chromesthesia, a neurological condition involving sound-to-color synesthesia in which auditory sensations automatically trigger visual experiences of color.

Her career began in earnest in 2020 when she signed a contract with Arthouse Entertainment and issued several self-produced tracks. Former American Idol judge and music publisher Kara DioGuardi discovered her work, leading to a deal with Atlantic Records and Arthouse Records. In 2021, she released her debut major-label single ABCDEFU, which went viral on platforms such as TikTok and Spotify. The track peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100, topped the Billboard Global 200, and reached number one in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

In January 2022, Rutherfurd released the single Ur Just Horny alongside a clean variant titled Ur Just Lonely. She followed with her debut six-track extended play, A Study of the Human Experience Volume One, in March 2022. Around this time, she served as a guest host for Ryan Seacrest's American Top 40 radio show while her breakout single held the top spot. Later that year, she released two additional EPs: A Study of the Human Experience Volume Two in October and A Study of the Human Experience Volume Two and a Half in December, the latter featuring eight new versions of earlier tracks.

Throughout 2023, Rutherfurd released standalone singles including Everybody Hates Me, Don't Call Me Pretty, Leave Me for Dead, and I Don't Sleep as Good as I Used to. She contributed to Barbie the Album with the track Butterflies, a bedroom-pop reworking of Crazy Town's song Butterfly, which she co-wrote and performed. She also co-wrote Kelly Clarkson's single Me and collaborated with Lauren Spencer-Smith and Em Beihold on the song Fantasy. Her 2024 releases include the joint single Kinda Smacks with Royal & the Serpent and the track Internet Baby.

Rutherfurd has headlined multiple tours, including The FU Tour, the Scared but Trying Tour in late 2023, and the My First Time (in Asia) Tour in 2024. In addition to her headlining shows, she has served as a supporting act for artists such as Winnetka Bowling League, Tate McRae, AJR, My Chemical Romance, Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour, Pink on the Summer Carnival tour, and Cyndi Lauper on the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour.