Before entering the music industry in the early 2010s, Taya worked as a youth group leader at her local church while serving as a singer, songwriter, and worship leader for Hillsong United. Her breakthrough arrived after lending vocals to the Hillsong United song “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail),” which earned Song of the Year honors at the 2014 GMA Dove Awards. Subsequent appearances on further Hillsong releases preceded the June 2022 arrival of her self-titled debut solo album, while her second studio effort, led by the streaming hit “Gonna Be Good,” surfaced in 2024.
Born Taya Gaukrodger (née Smith) in the northern New South Wales town of Lismore, she moved to Sydney in 2010 to study the creative arts. There she connected with Hillsong Church and soon joined its flagship worship collective, Hillsong United. Her first contribution came on the band’s gold-certified third album, Zion, released in 2013 and featuring the number-one single “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail).” Two years later she appeared on another major track, “Touch the Sky,” from the group’s fourth album, Empires. She remained central to Hillsong United’s output on 2017’s Wonder as well as the live projects Of Dirt and Grace: Live from the Land (2017) and People (2019). In early 2022 she issued her solo debut single, the contemporary country-leaning “For All My Life,” co-written with producers Jon Guerra and Hank Bentley; that song and thirteen additional tracks formed her self-titled full-length that June. Early 2024 brought the upbeat pop single “Gonna Be Good,” the first preview from her upcoming sophomore album.
