ayokay

Alex O'Neill, aka Ayokay, is a Los Angeles-based DJ/producer known for his effusive pop, hip-hop, and R&B-influenced EDM. He scored two Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs hits, including 2016′s “Kings of Summer” with Quinn XCII and 2017′s “The Shine” with Chelsea Cutler before releasing his debut album, 2018′s In the Shape of a Dream. An EP, We Come Alive, arrived in 2019, followed by the 2021 single “I Still Need You.”
A native of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Ayokay first began making music in his senior year of high school, collaborating with longtime friend Mike Temrowski (aka Quinn XCII). The duo continued to develop their sound after high school, with O'Neill attending the University of Michigan and Temrowski Michigan State University. In 2016 they released the single “Kings of Summer,” which was quickly adopted as Texas Rangers outfielder Ian Desmond’s “walk-up” song. The track took off (reaching number 16 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Chart), and helped land the duo a deal with Columbia Records. Around this time, Ayokay relocated to Los Angeles to focus on his career. A year later he delivered the solo single “Shine,” featuring singer Chelsea Cutler. It cracked the Top 50 of Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Chart. In 2018, he issued his full-length debut, In the Shape of a Dream, which included the singles “Sleepless Nights” featuring Nightly, and “Stay with Me” featuring Jeremy Zucker. More tracks followed, including “Things Fall Apart,” “Move On,” and “Sleeping Next to You,” all of which arrived in 2019. Also that year, he released the EP, We Come Alive. The single “I Still Need You” arrived in September 2021. ~ Matt Collar