Terence Trent D’arby died in the Olympus of music, giving way to an independent artist, Sananda Maitreya [1962-2022]

During his high school years, he was in the band “Modernaires“, but music wasn’t the only thing Terence Trent Darby was into, he love boxing and got to win the Florida lightweight Championship in 1980.

Later, he would join up the U.S. Army for 3 year. Can you imagine which regiment he served in? The same as Elvis Presley 🕺🏾

He was kicked out of the army and went to live in Germany, where he became the lead singer of the Soul-funk band The Touch.

In 1986 he moves to London to join a band called The Bojangels, where he draws the attention of Columbia Records for his impressive Soul voice.

• TTD’s first singles, ‘If you let me stay’, was a hit.

It was 1987 when Terence Trent D’Arby released what critics call one of the best albums ever.

• ‘Introducing the hardline according to‘ sold more than 1 million copies in the first 3 days (the third best debut of all time), reaching in the end more than 12 million sales 💲
• If You Let Me Stay, Wishing Well, Dance Little Sister and Sign Your Name, became mega-hits and are still played on the radio today.

In 1989, after achieving unprecedented success with only 1 album, he released ‘Neither Fish Nor Flesh: A Soundtrack of Love, Faith, Hope & Destruction‘

• The album was clearly more experimental and eclectic, which did not please all the audience and even less his label, which promoted it little.

At this time, under the pseudonym The Incredible E.G. O’Reilly, he published the beautiful song ‘The Birth of Maudie’ 

For some reason, part of the U.S. audience began to reject him, he even remembers that when he was a guest at a Bruce Springsteen concert, they booed him. Springsteen, truly angry, rebuked the audience saying: “ungrateful motherfuckers, he’s my guest“. D’Arby continued singing with The Boss, being cheered at the end 😃.

Terence took a break of almost 4 years, he moved to Los Angeles and built his own studio, where he recorded his 3rd album, ‘Symphony or Damn: Exploring the Tension Inside the Sweetness‘, released in 1993.

• The album was also experimental and extremely ambitious, but it came at a time when Alternative Rock and Grunge were on the rise, so it was better received, especially this eternal duet with Des’ree, ‘Delicate’.

On October 4, 2001, he officially registers under the name Sananda Maitreya and moves to Germany where he creates his own record label, Treehouse Publishing.

• Through this label and his website he releases ‘Wildcard‘, his 1st record as Sananda Maitreya.

In 2002 he moves to Italy for love. His wife, the journalist and TV host Francesca Francone is from Milan. They got married in 2003.

In 2013 he released on his Web the album ‘Return to Zooathalon’, a long play somewhat baffling, but in which he preserves all his art, as you can see in the live video of “Free to be“.

• The following album, ‘The Rise of the Zugebrian Time Lords‘, from 2015, stands out for the 3 covers of The Beatles, whom he has always admired. ‘If I Fell‘ is just awesome.

What does Sananda Maitreya mean?

The artist explained that Sananda means “rebirth” in Sanskrit, however, is not correct, the right meaning is “possessed of happiness“, while Maitreya means “friendly, kind, loving, benevolent”.

In 2017 he released his 8th album ‘Prometheus & Pandora’ with no less than 53 songs 😲. Sananda reflects on existential issues through the prism of Greek mythology.

• Already in 2021 ‘Pandora’s Playhouse‘ was published, a record that moves between rock, soul, psychedelia and rhythm and blues. It includes marvelous songs such as “If this van is rocking (Si esta furgoneta se balancea)“.