Robbert van de Copurt, best known as Hardwell, was born on 7th of January in 1988, in Breda, Netherlands. Ever since childhood, he was passionate about music and dreamt of making it big in music. With is growing passion and hard work, he made his dream come true.
Hardwell was recognized as world number 1 on DJ Mag 2013 and in 2014 consecutively. In 2017, on DJ Mag, Hardwell was ranked number 4 DJ among the top 100 DJ poll. Tiësto, who is also from Breda, inspired Hardwell. His journey of recognition and popularity started in 2009 when he released his remix of ‘Show Me Love vs. Be’. The public loved the remix and people gained more interest in DJ Hardwell and his music. Go on and read below to know everything about the journey of DJ Hardwell.
How it all began?
The journey of DJ Hardwell started as a hip-hop DJ but soon moved to a different genre which was commercial electronic dance tracks, as hip-hop got confined to the underground. Hardwell began producing mixes and music and uploaded it over the internet using different platforms. When he was 14 years old, he was offered to work on a deal with a producers Klubbheads. Twenty days after that, he released his first official record, based on two discs which were called, ‘Bubbling Beats 1’. This release started his journey in the Netherlands, where he appeared in various dance clubs. People loved his music and mixes. He released the first single ‘Play it Around’ in 2006, which played in many German clubs.
Collaboration with other Artists
Around December 2007, he released a new song in collaboration with Great Ski. His remixes of ‘Toys Are’ by Gregor Salto and Chuckie along with R3hab (a Dutch DJ and music producer) and a remix of the song ‘You do not Love me’ by the famous Sidney Samson and the famous Skitzofrenix, which he released in 2008, made it to the heights of the Billboards and dance charts and remained there for weeks. The Same year, he also produced a new mashup of ‘Be’ by Steve Angello and Laidback Luke along with ‘Show Me Love’ which was by Robin S.
Hardwell’s bootleg, called ‘Show me Love’ was performed and played by several DJs and got appreciated by Steve Angello and Laidback Luke. Around 2009, Hardwell was invited by Tiësto at his performance. Hardwell performed alongside him, which gave a big career boost to Hardwell’s career. He was called for several gigs in music festivals and events. Dance Valley Festival was one of those events. Its main anthem was created and performed by Hardwell under ‘Twilight Zone’.
Revealed Recordings
Hardwell announced his record label, called, Revealed Recordings, in 2010. The Revealed Recordings was founded to give a platform for young talents to release electronic dance genre of music. He collaborated with several EDM artists, along with, W&W and his friends, Dyro and Dannic. Every year, the Revealed Recordings now releases a whole collection which is called, ‘Hardwell Revealed Presents’ which contains, tracks by this label along with Hardwell’s new tracks.
Deal with Kontor Records
Around 2011, Hardwell signed and confirmed a record-deal with Kontor Records, which is a Germany-based record label. This step gave his tracks more recognition in several other parts of the world. Hardwell started his very own podcast in March 2011, called ‘Hardwell on Air’. The podcast featured an entertaining hour of tracks by several artists. This podcast aired on various radio stations such as Slam! In the Netherlands and Sirius XM in the US.
Hardwell and Tiësto collaborated to produce the song called, ‘Zero 76’ which is named on their hometown’s telephone prefix, 076.
Both the popular artists from Breda performed in Belgium’s music festival Tomorrowland in 2014. The single track, called ‘Cobra’ made it to the singles charts.
The same track was made the theme song in the music festival called ‘Trance Energy 2011’. His ‘Encoded’ gained similar fame and later used in Hardwell’s podcasts as an intro song. In 2011, for the first time, Hardwell was ranked in the top 100 DJs by DJ Mag. He won the ‘best breakthrough DJ award’ at the International Dance Music Awards in 2012.
Way Forward
One of his most popular tracks, ‘the Spaceman‘, was released on 31st July 2012.
This track was sold almost half a million times in the United States. In 2012, it became the life of the parties and music festivals. It was played all over, extensively. The track is also titled to be one of the few credited with the creation of the big room house genre.
The journey of DJ Hardwell continued, as did his achievements. In January 2013, Hardwell started, ‘I am Hardwell Tour’ which was a bus tour through Canada, alongside his friends, Dannic and Dyro. The trio was later called, Dutch-House-Mafia. The tour was initiated in collaboration with the Revealed Recordings. In April, his ‘I am Hardwell tour’ was launched worldwide. In fall of 2013, Hardwell was ranked as the youngest DJ to make number one DJ of the world.
Follow him for the latest updates on Facebook, Youtube, Beatport, Soundcloud, Spotify, Twitter, and his Official website.