Toby Gad

Tobias Gad (born 28 March 1968) is a German music producer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. He is known for co-writing songs including John Legend's biggest hit, "All of Me", the fifth-highest certified single in RIAA history, and for co-writing and producing "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie and "If I Were a Boy" by Beyoncé. Other notable works include "Skyscraper" for Demi Lovato, "Who You Are" for Jessie J, "Untouched" for The Veronicas, "A Year Without Rain" for Selena Gomez & the Scene, "Don't Hold Your Breath" for Nicole Scherzinger, "Love You More" for JLS, and "I Do" for Colbie Caillat.

In the third quarter of 2014, Gad was ranked the #3 songwriter in America by Billboard, behind Ryan Tedder and Pharrell Williams.

Biography

Childhood and early musical experience Born into a musical family in Munich in 1968, Gad was influenced by both parents who were established figures in the Munich music scene with their group, The Jazz Kids.

Gad was expected to study banjo and join the Jazz Kids, but he took to playing the piano instead. At age 7, he and his brother Jens had formed their own band, the Gad Rollers, and played original rock'n'roll compositions during intermissions of their parents' gigs.

Early career successes Although too young to enter most clubs at age 13, Toby and Jens were no strangers to the live music scene in Munich. Weekly gigs in bars, concerts in open-air summer festivals and shows in legendary live clubs such as the Domicile spread the word, and Munich hit producer Tony Monn showed interest in the brothers. Monn handed over his state-of-the-art recording studio to Toby and Jens whenever he was out of town. Monn's generosity provided a learning environment for Toby and Jens to delve into songwriting and producing. The next day, the boys flew to Frankfurt and thus started a seven-year collaboration with Farian. One week later, they found three of their songs on Milli Vanilli's European debut album, All or Nothing which later went multi-platinum in 1988.

Meanwhile, Gad had several successes back overseas. "Damn I Think I Love You" stayed at #1 for seven weeks and became the most sold single of 2001 in the Netherlands. The #1 StarMaker album with two of Gad's songs went triple platinum. Sita's debut single "Happy" was at #1 for two weeks and remained in the top five for two months. The song was also released in the US on the Wild Thornberries soundtrack, followed by the #1 album of Sita.

Gad, with David and William Derella from DAS, worked out a co-publishing deal with Cherrylane Music Publishing and record deals for several of Gad's artists. In August 2005, Interscope Records released Texan teen Kaci Brown's album Instigator, entirely developed, produced and co-written by Gad. He produced and co-wrote songs on the album of the Australian twins The Veronicas, who scored the biggest US newcomer record deal of the year on Warner Bros. Records/Sire Records and went double platinum in Australia.

Meleni and Gad co-wrote the song "Drop It On Me" on Ricky Martin's 2005 album Life. Another artist that Toby developed for years, Lola, released her single "No Strings" on Warner Bros. Records/Sobe, which spent 4 months on the Billboard Dance charts, peaking at #2.

In 2006, Gad opened a second studio with five interns, expanding his production company Strawberrybee Music and his publishing company, Gad Songs.

As an innovative producer and songwriter, Gad has been interviewed multiple times about how he writes and how he records and mixes using Logic Pro. He has been featured in Mix Magazine, the Recording Mag, Pro Sound News and more.

In 2008, Gad and Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" was Grammy nominated for Best Female Vocal Performance and won ASCAP 'Song of the Year'. The song twice broke the record for most airplay on US radio and spent a total of 21 weeks in various Billboard US charts at #1, including one week #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Over 87 worldwide compilation albums feature the song. Gad scored his second worldwide #1 hit with Beyoncé's "If I Were a Boy", which Gad produced and co-wrote. Gad's third platinum number one hit was the indie-electro pop anthem "Untouched" by Aussie duo The Veronicas. The song sold platinum in the US and reached #1 in Ireland and Mexico.

Move to Los Angeles In summer 2009, Gad relocated his recording studio to Los Angeles. In 2011, Gad co-wrote "All of Me" for John Legend, which, after three years of dormancy made its way to #1 on the Top 100 for three weeks and was certified 14 times platinum, making it the highest certified track in RIAA history (tied with "Despacito").

In 2014, Gad co-wrote eleven songs with Madonna for her album Rebel Heart, producing four of the songs.

In 2015, Gad executive produced and co-wrote much of Leona Lewis' fifth studio album, I Am. He co-wrote and produced Prince Royce's "Lucky One" on Double Vision, co-wrote John Newman's "I'm Not Your Man" from Revolve, and co-wrote and produced "First Heartbreak" for Grammy-nominated artist Tori Kelly's Unbreakable Smile. Gad also produced and co-wrote the international charity single "Love Song to the Earth" which featured a long list of popular artists, including Paul McCartney, Fergie, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Sean Paul, Nicole Scherzinger, and more. He also produced the 2015 album of Chloe Temtchine, Be Brave, which was described by the New York Post as "a moving collection of pop songs that document her struggle for survival, but also her recovery."

Towards the end of this period of songwriting activity, Gad reduced his workload in the mid-2010s and shifted his focus toward his personal life and other projects.

Transition to public-facing work

In summer 2021, the recording for the nineteenth season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar (German Idol) started, were Gad served as a judge on alongside Florian Silbereisen and Ilse DeLange. It was his first major television role in Germany and introduced him to a wider German audience.

Gad later stated that that experience of "being celebrated for being a songwriter" caused him to do again more songwriting, "pushing hard again". So he now wanted to establish his name to be able to approach major labels to independently release songs he had written with their artist. To gain their trust in the process, he decided "to start with my ‘greatest hits’, re-recording them with new artists, but also passing the torch to new singers with these older songs I wrote 20 years ago", which led to his Piano Diaries album project.

The first result of this project, the 2024 album Piano Diaries – The Hits, is a compilation album featuring eight of his career-defining global hits re-recorded with minimalist piano and string arrangements. While Gad himself played the piano on these tracks, he invited new artists to contribute the vocals, such as Victoria Justice for "Big Girls Don't Cry", Angelina Jordan for "If I Were A Boy", Celina Sharma for "All of Me", and Camylio for "Skyscraper".

Gad also performed these new arrangements live on stage with various artists. Initially done for promotion, he stated that he considers to continue to perform live in the future, citing David Foster's touring model as an inspiration. Decade Hot 100 13 Year-End Hot 100 2007 4

All Time Hot 100 Hits 138 Decade Hot 100 32 Year-End Hot 100 2014 3 If I Were a Boy Beyoncé 2008 Decade Billboard 200 178

Grammy Wins The following singles written and/or produced by Toby Gad as presented by The Recording Academy:

Grammy Nominations The following singles written and/or produced by Toby Gad as presented by The Recording Academy:

UK single peaks The following singles charted inside the top 40 of the UK Download or UK Singles Chart: "If I Were a Boy" by Beyonce - #1 (2008) "Don't Hold Your Breath" by Nicole Scherzinger - #1 (2011) "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie - #2 (2007) "All of Me" by John Legend - #2 (2013) "Skyscraper" by Sam Bailey - #1 (2013) "Love You More" by JLS - #1 (2010) "Skyscraper" by Demi Lovato - #7 (2011) "Who You Are" by Jessie J - #8 (2011) "Untouched" by The Veronicas - #8 (2009) "Living for Love" by Madonna - #26 (2015) "Up" by James Morrison & Jessie J - #30 (2011) "Fire Under My Feet" by Leona Lewis - #26 (2015)

RIAA certifications

Discography