Biography

HARDWELL

Robbert van de Corput, better known as Hardwell, was born January 7th 1988 in the Dutch city of Breda, based in the southern region of the Netherlands.

By age 6, a young Robbert was already playing musical instruments like the piano. His earliest memories of music are of his father plucking chords to tracks by James Brown and Michael Jackson.

Aged 10, Robbert watched a documentary about Dutch dance music that featured DJs Tiësto, Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten. This film was to change his life and was the first spark that ignited his interest in electronic music.

At 12 years old he DJed at his first gig, a friends birthday party, in front of a 100 people. After the party, Robberts dad came up with the idea of changing his DJ name from Robbert to Hardwell; by translating the family's last name, van de Corput, from latin and dutch into english.

Aged just 14 he signed his first record deal. Between the ages of 14 and 18 years old Hardwell was regularly DJing at numerous clubs around the Netherlands, playing alongside respected DJs such as Chuckie. During this time, Hardwell had to take his parents with him to all of his gigs, because he was too young to enter the clubs on his own.

At 18 years old Hardwell launched his Eclectic Beatz compilations series which to date has released a total of 10 editions and during its early years was one of the best selling mix CDs in the scene.

2008 saw him claim the #1 position in the Dutch dance single chart 6 times in a row.

His international breakthrough came when his bootleg, Show Me Love vs. Be bootleg, became one of the popular and played dance hits of 2009. The song is a mash-up of Robin S' Show Me Love and the instrumental of Steve Angello & Laidback Luke's track Be.

By personal invitation of Tiësto, Hardwell made his Ibiza debut when he joined the Dutch dance pioneer at his, now legendary, Club Life event at the 10,000 capacity club Privilege. In 2010 he released several noteworthy tracks such as Alright 2010 feat. Red Carpet and Feel so High feat. I-Fan, which were licensed to 10 countries and received strong support from DJs around the world. Move It To The Drum was a collaboration with fellow Dutch producer Chuckie and was one of Hardwell's earliest collaboration projects. Revealed Recordings was born in 2010 as a home for Hardwell's music and a platform for him to support music and artists he believes in.

Launched his Hardwell On Air radio show. Today the show is broadcast to more than 65 international radio stations around the world and also ranks in the iTunes Top 10 Podcasts in more than 40 countries! Made his US festival debut at the iconic EDC Las Vegas. When a classic artist and a fresh rising star team up to produce, you know the output is gonna be good. When they give a house track some trancy edge to get things going, you know it's gonna be even better. Tiesto and Hardwell's production achieves this powerful blend. This crowd-pleaser with a new-school bite is known as Zero 76, named after the Dutch area code (076) that the two share.

Hardwell's 2012 Tomorrowland set received over 12 millions views on YouTube by the end of the year and was dubbed by many as a solid contender for the best set of the year. His collaboration Zero 76 with Tiësto topped the #1 Beatport and #1 US iTunes spot, and became a YouTube sensation. The track is dedicated to the area code of the city both of them proudly hail from Breda; which is tucked deep within the Netherlands. The track was also Hardwells first Beatport #1 single. Hardwells solo single Cobra went to #1 in the dance charts in Holland and Top 10 on Beatport. November 2012 saw Hardwell complete his debut BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix

In April 2013 Hardwell launched his most ambitious project to date when he unveiled his I Am Hardwell world tour concept at Amsterdams Heineken Music Hall to a 6000 capacity crowd. A spectacle of unprecedented musical vision and production detail, the entire show was broadcast live on a HD feed to 100,000s of fans around the world and placed a solid marker to the immense popularity of Hardwells position within the dance community.

His recent performance at the 2013 Ultra Music Festival in Miami clocked up a staggering 6 million views in just 8 weeks and over 12 million views on YouTube before the year was out. Additionally his set on the day was trending worldwide breaking all preview records for the most watched Ultralive broadcast during the festival with over 80,000 people watching his set via the feed.

In 2013 he returned to the mainstage of Tomorrowland where his inimitable set drew in excess of 1 million views in just a few days and more than 15 million views on YouTube by the close of the year.; making him the single most in demand liveset artist in the electronic scene that year.

Featured as one of the headliners for the 10th anniversary edition of Tomorrowland, appearing across both weekends where 360,000 graced the event, playing no less than 4 mainstage sets including 2 special B2B sets with fellow headline DJ Tiësto.

After releasing 21 mix albums, and a little under 2 years in the making, United We Are was released worldwide on January 23rd and marked the debut artist album from the Dutch maestro. The longplayer release features a host of collaborations that include Jason Derulo, Fatman Scoop, W&W, Bright Lights, Harrison, Jonathan Mendelsohn, Amba Shepherd, Joey Dale, Luciana Headhunterz, Chris Jones, Haris, Mr Probz, Funkerman feat. I-fan and DallasK, as well as a track together with Tiësto and singer-songwriter Andreas Moe.

Hardwell’s international radio show ‘Hardwell On Air’ continues to pump out the freshest new music and heaviest beats weekly, his HOA 250 special edition being no exception. Engaging in a special 2-hour live broadcast celebrating the long withstanding show, Hardwell premiered new material, exclusive edits and had special guests joining him including Revealed Recordings artists Dannic and Julian Calor.

Following the label winning ‘Best Compilation/ Full Length DJ Mix’ at the 2016 IDMA’s in Miami, Hardwell and his renowned imprint Revealed Recordings release the 7th edition of his popular - Hardwell Presents Revealed Volume 7! Featuring 21 dancefloor weapons ready for deployment on music fans around the world, this 7th release in the series climbed multiple album charts worldwide!

Source = https://www.djhardwell.com/biography