6 Celebrities you (probably) didn’t know were DJs
6 Celebrities you (probably) didn’t know were DJs While it’s widely known that reality star Pauly D is a DJ
October 31, 2022
Dutch DJs are everywhere in the electronic music industry. That might raise the question, why are there so many Dutch DJs? This is mostly because the Netherlands has a great infrastructure for Dutch DJs, and electronic dance music in general, to thrive in. The Amsterdam Dance Event festival and conference is a big staple of the industry where a big part of the dance music industry gathers each year, including some of the most famous DJs in the world. The latter anticipate Amsterdam Dance Event each year for the unveiling of the no. 1 DJ in the world. Dutch national radio stations even give these artists the time and space to host their own weekly shows on the stations. Without further ado, here are the top 10 Dutch DJs according to DJmag.
Bassjackers, better known as Marlon Flohr & Ralph van Hilst are Dutch DJs from Tilburg, the Netherlands. The DJ duo is famous for their high-energy big room EDM shows and songs. The two members of Bassjackers have two completely different personalities, Marlon being the energetic extraverted showman, and Ralph being the brains behind the project, preferring studio time. Bassjackers is currently ranked #28 in the DJ mag list.
Their first breakthrough hit came in 2013 when they released ‘Crackin’, including a Martin Garrix remix. The latter became a big festival hit.
Nicky Romero is a DJ from Amerongen, the Netherlands. He is known for his energetic progressive house tracks, and events. The DJ was, together with Skrillex and Dash Berlin, the highest ever new entry in the DJ mag top 100, at number 17. Today he ranks at #26 in said list.
Nicky started out in 2008 with his song QWERTY, in 2009 he got his first bit of recognition for remixing Tony Cha Cha’s track ‘Get On The Floor’. He continued on like this until 2012, when he released ‘Toulouse’, a massive viral & radio hit. His even bigger hit ‘I Could Be The One’ came out a year later. The Dutch DJ launched his own label ‘Protocol Recordings’ in 2012.
Fedde le Grand is a DJ from Bunnik. Fedde got famous for his typical electro-house sound, and DJ sets at different editions of Sensation. Fedde is currently ranked #19 in the DJmag list.
He started out his career doing drive-in shows in his local town. After doing this for a while he got noticed by a nightclub in Eindhoven where he got his first residency. Fedde has been producing music for as long as he is DJ-ing, and his first big hit couldn’t stay away for long. And so it happened, ‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’ became a massive hit. After this, he got his residency at Sensation and a few more big hits.
W&W is a duo of Dutch DJs Willem van Hanegem jr, and Ward van der Harst. The duo started out producing trance, with one semi-big hit song ‘Lift Off’. The duo then moved on to big room EDM where they found more success. First releasing the big room EDM song ‘Thunder’ back in 2013. Their first big hit was ‘Bigfoot’ in 2014. W&W are currently ranking at #14 in the DJ mag list.
Tiësto is a true dance music legend. Hailing from Breda, a city in North Brabant, he started out in the late 90s, with his first hit being Lethal Industry in 2001. He is mainly known for his longevity, still having one of the top spots in the DJ mag list in 2022.
Tiësto produced his first studio album ‘Parade of the Athletes’ for the Olympics in Athens in 2004. This was after being noticed for his track ‘Adagio for Strings’. The IOC enjoyed it’s mix between a modern sound and classical music. It was a huge success. After this Tiësto just kept on pumping out new music, among wich are massive hits such as Traffic, Flight 643, Love Comes Again, and Sweet Misery. In 2012 Tiësto started making the switch to a more mainstream EDM sound. He has been doing so successfully for 11 years now, still selling out big arena’s in his own country and around the world.
Oliver Heldens is a DJ from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He is often credited with creating the genre of Future house, most fans dispute this as something French DJ Tchami came up with first. Oliver started out producing big room EDM, and got signed to Spinnin’ in 2013. His early tracks do already contain hints of that typical Oliver Heldens sound but are much more generic than the tracks that were to come. Gecko, Oliver’s breakthrough hit was released at the end of the year and launched Oliver into stardom. Oliver is currently ranked at #8 in the DJ mag list.
After this he became one of the most sought after house music producers in the scene. Pretty much every track became a hit. He launched his techno alias Hi-Lo in 2015. This alias became quite successful, releasing songs on the legendary Adam Beyer’s label ‘Drumcode’.
Don Diablo, real name Don Pepijn Schipper, is a DJ from Coevoorden, the Netherlands. He is one of the few DJs that has actually made multiple successful comebacks. Starting out in 1997 with multiple Gabber EP’s as ‘Fast Forward’, and then going on to produce under his current alias. His first breakthrough was in 2004 when his first album blew up, and he got a sync deal with the movie ‘Snakes On A Plane’. Don then focussed on writing content for the (then) popular American music blog Hypemachine. This resulted in over 7 million (illegal) downloads on his music, and multiple number 1 tracks in their charts. This lasted until 2009.
In 2010 Don produced a song with one of the singers from the band Dragonette. “Animale” became a big internet hit over it’s controversial video clip. This video eventually won an award for best video clip at the Dutch TMF awards.
In 2013 Don experienced full-on international succes with his track ‘Starlight (Could You Be Mine)’ with Swedish producer Axwell.
After this Don did release some music but it didn’t become very successful, until 2015. When he launched his current label Hexagon. Don is now very much involved in NFT’s, and has multiple massive radio hits.
Afrojack is a DJ & producer from Spijkernisse, the Netherlands. He is known for being one of the pioneers of the Dirty Dutch sound, multiple massive hit records, and big mainstage DJ sets. Afrojack is currently ranked #6 in de DJ mag top 100 DJs poll.
Afrojack had his first major hit in 2008, together with the Dutch DJs Partysquad. In 2010 he followed up this track together with Eva Simons. This turned out to be a massive success in the Netherlands and the UK. He really made it big in 2011 with his collaboration with Pitbull and Ne-Yo. This track charted worldwide and got him a collaboration with David Guetta. They remixed ‘Revolver’ by Madonna and won a Grammy for it.
Martijn Gerard Garritsen, stage name Martin Garrix, is a DJ & producer from Amstelveen, the Netherlands. He is known for his big-room progressive house sound, euphoric melodies, and big visual production with his live shows. He is currently ranked #2 in the DJmag top 100 DJs poll.
Martin Garrix started out at the Herman Brood Academie in Utrecht, a school that specializes in the electronic music industry. In his time here he met Julian Jordan, and they produced Garrix’ first hit: ‘BFAM’ on Spinnin’ Records. One year later Garrix released ‘Animals’, which absolutely launched the Dutch DJ into stardom. After this he has had countless hits, such as: ‘In The Name Of Love’ with Bebe Rexha, ‘Lions in the Wild’ with Third Party, and ‘Scared To Be Lonely’ with Dua Lipa.
Armin van Buuren is a DJ & producer from Leiden, the Netherlands. Armin is known for his euphoric trance records, and big radio hits. A true jack-of-all-trades that can do both commercial tracks and a more underground trance sound. Armin van Buuren is currently ranked #3 in the DJ mag top 100 DJs poll.
Armin started out playing DJ sets and cleaning toilets in club Next in Leiden. He studied law here and continued to do so until he got his degree. Armin famously has two big live concepts, namely Armin only: a show where the Dutch DJ is the only one playing all night. And A State Of Trance: a concept where Armin invites other DJs, he does usually play the headline slot himself.
Armin has been producing music since the 90s. Armin is known for his versatility. Anything from trance to an ordinary pop song goes. He released some massive hits, among wich are classics like ‘Intense’ and ‘This Is What It Feels Like’.
Want to listen to the music some of the best DJs out there? Check out some of our Spotify playlists HERE.
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