Pop diva Taylor Dayne has always had heart in her art. Her debut single “Tell It to My Heart” propelled her to the top of the charts in the late 1980s and is considered her signature song.

Dayne, who performs April 18-20 at the Blue Note Hawaii, had a number of other tunes with references to the heart, like “With Every Beat of My Heart” and “Heart of Stone.”

Mostly, though, she’s put her heart into singing. It has been not just her calling card professionally, as a three-time Grammy nominee and multiplatinum-selling recording artist, but she considers singing an essential part of her identity.

“You’re born with a drive and a destiny,” said Dayne, whose voice has such a distinctly rich, luscious tone that it carries over a phone connection. “For me, it was inescapable. At 4 or 5 years old, I knew what I wanted to do. … There was an absolute seed. In our DNA, we’re born with something, a gift of some nature, and then how it’s nurtured, and how we see ourselves.”

The seed was planted early, when, as a toddler growing up on Long Island, near New York City, she was given a radio that was tuned to a single New York pop station. She began to sing along, and by the time she was in kindergarten, her ability had gotten so much attention that she was chosen to solo with the sixth-grade glee club. From then on it was all music for her — going to shows in the city, years of operatic training and dance training.

“There was these magical moments, and certain teachers that were my mentors,” she said. “They held on tight and I was just literally at their command, meaning I was just voracious with what I was listening to and hearing. The music just filled my soul.”

THE SUCCESS of “Tell It to My Heart,” written by Seth Swirsky and Ernie Gold of Chappell Music, is something that Dayne sees as a product of not just her talent as a singer and dancer. It was also a matter of knowing how to recognize a good tune and, more importantly, how to promote it.

She started singing as a teenager in clubs around New York City, using the name Les Lee. (She was born Leslie Wunderman, but changed her name to Taylor Dayne, the name her mother had originally given her, as a kind of declaration of independence.) She made a few “12-inchers” — vinyl albums, with wider grooves than LPs, that could record louder, dance club-friendly music — as a way to market her music.

“There was no internet, there were no cellphones,” she said. “You built a song in the clubs, and people start calling the radio stations to get it played.”

She heard a demo of “Tell It to My Heart” while driving in the car and, at the urging of her producer Ric Wake, decided to record the song.

“Ric was adamant. We needed a crossover hit, something that’s going to get picked up at the radio stations and potentially move over from club to radio,” said Dayne.

Dayne got her father to spend $6,000 to get the song recorded, but since she was still an unknown, the song was first released in Europe. It soon became a hit, particularly in Germany, and soon “Tell It to My Heart” had made it back to the states. Boosted by a tightly choreographed dance video featuring Dayne’s big voice and equally big hair, the song stayed on Billboard’s Hot 100 for 25 weeks.

“I look at that (video) and I go ‘What an incredible, ferocious, incredibly fierce, dominating but also beautiful, sexual, powerful being,” she said. “I was comfortable in my skin, that was for damn sure.”

“Tell It to My Heart” also was the name of her debut album, which had three more top 10 singles, No. 7 “Prove Your Love,” No. 1 “I’ll Always Love You” and No. 2 “Don’t Rush Me,” and was a double-platinum seller.

Dayne would go on to tour with Michael Jackson on his “Bad” tour and have a long and varied career, from appearing on Broadway in Elton John’s “Aida” to starring in a cooking show on the Food Network. She would have two more albums reach the charts, the double-platinum seller “Can’t Fight Fate” in 1989 and the 1993 album “Soul Dancing.”

For her appearance here, she’ll sing all the old favorites, plus reminisce some. She recently came out with a book — named “Tell It to My Heart” — that was inspired by the warm reception she got after giving a Ted Talk in 2017 in which she talked about her life and career.

“I’m really honored to be playing that room a few nights,” she said. “It’s going to be fun, a bit more intimate obviously. Storytelling? It’s what we do.”

TAYLOR DAYNE

>> Where: Blue Note Hawaii

>> When: 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. April 18-20

>> Cost: $35-$65

>> Info: 777-4890, bluenotehawaii.com