Wynter Gordon

Since co-writing <a href="spotify:artist:1XkoF8ryArs86LZvFOkbyr">Mary J. Blige</a>'s "Gonna Breakthrough" (2005), <a href="spotify:artist:71Ug2zQHWlJFjNCK8swHfL">Diana Gordon</a> has had a winding career as a composer, producer, and vocalist, bounding as a recording artist between pop-oriented club tracks and bedroom slow jams, topping Billboard's Dance Club chart with "Dirty Talk" (2010), issuing the With the Music I Die EP (2011), and self-releasing the ballad-oriented Pure EP (2018). All the while, the artist alternately known as Wynter Gordon has been featured on tracks headlined by EDM producers such as <a href="spotify:artist:1Cs0zKBU1kc0i8ypK3B9ai">David Guetta</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:77AiFEVeAVj2ORpC85QVJs">Steve Aoki</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:53cQZtWDwDJwVCNZlfJ6Qk">Laidback Luke</a>, and has co-written songs for numerous artists, including <a href="spotify:artist:0jnsk9HBra6NMjO2oANoPY">Flo Rida</a> (the Top Five pop hit "Sugar") and <a href="spotify:artist:6vWDO969PvNqNYHIOW5v0m">Beyoncé</a> (three tracks off Lemonade).

<a href="spotify:artist:71Ug2zQHWlJFjNCK8swHfL">Diana Gordon</a> developed her talents for dancing, songwriting, and singing as a youngster in her native Queens. Shortly after attending LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan, she landed her first writing credit on <a href="spotify:artist:1XkoF8ryArs86LZvFOkbyr">Mary J. Blige</a>'s "Gonna Breakthrough," a central track on the singer's multi-platinum 2005 album The Breakthrough. This led to an assortment of writing credits highlighted by <a href="spotify:artist:0jnsk9HBra6NMjO2oANoPY">Flo Rida</a>'s "Sugar," a number five pop hit in 2009. Gordon also stepped out from the background in 2009 to be featured on <a href="spotify:artist:1Cs0zKBU1kc0i8ypK3B9ai">David Guetta</a>'s "Toyfriend." The following year, Gordon made her debut as a headlining artist for the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Atlantic%22">Atlantic</a>-distributed <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Big+Beat%22">Big Beat</a> label with "Dirty Talk," which topped Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart. By year's end, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Big+Beat%22">Big Beat</a> compiled The First Dance, an EP-sized set that gathered previously released tracks, remixes, and new material. An EP of strictly new songs, With the Music I Die, followed in 2011.

During the next few years, Gordon continued to mix background and foreground output, writing for <a href="spotify:artist:2NdeV5rLm47xAvogXrYhJX">Ciara</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2cyyGl4qnHZL0o16t0fpJl">Angel Haze</a>, and writing and appearing on tracks by <a href="spotify:artist:77AiFEVeAVj2ORpC85QVJs">Steve Aoki</a> ("Ladi Dadi"), <a href="spotify:artist:53cQZtWDwDJwVCNZlfJ6Qk">Laidback Luke</a> ("Speak Up"), and <a href="spotify:artist:738wLrAtLtCtFOLvQBXOXp">Major Lazer</a> ("Keep Cool"). In 2015, a brief recording association with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22EMI%22">EMI</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Harvest%22">Harvest</a> division yielded Five Needle, an EP of dramatic yet atmospheric pop. A pair of sonically denser, slightly left-of-center singles for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%224AD%22">4AD</a> were released in 2016, the same year Gordon's name appeared in the writing credits beneath three titles -- "Don't Hurt Yourself," "Sorry," and "Daddy Lessons" -- on <a href="spotify:artist:6vWDO969PvNqNYHIOW5v0m">Beyoncé</a>'s platinum Lemonade. Gordon returned as an independent artist in 2018 with Pure, a small batch of frank, contemporary ballads. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi