When you’re 17, you’re usually fretting about your studies, deciding upon which college to go to or handling other issues. Oliver Heldens was being signed by Spinnin’ Records when he was 17. But signing onto Spinnin’ in 2013 was just the beginning of the road for this Dutch prodigy, who in the space of 2 years has gone onto become one of the leading faces of dance music around the world today.
But it was not until he was 18, when he released his first single ‘Thumper’ in collaboration with Jacob van Hage, followed by Stinger that saw him gain a lot of support from stalwarts of the dance music industry, including the likes of Hardwell, Tiesto, Nicky Romero, Sander van Doorn, Ferry Corsten amongst others. Oliver Heldens had arrived. And that too in quite some style. But it was his single Gecko that catapulted the Dutch DJ and producer to dance music stardom. Gecko caught the attention of Tiesto, who wasted no time in signing Oliver onto his label Musical Freedom and released both the original version and a vocal mix of the track featuring vocalist Becky Hill on his label. Gecko saw Heldens receive the support from the likes of Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Axwell /\ Ingrosso, Steve Angello, Jack U, Mark Knight, Martin Garrix, Calvin Harris amongst others (that’s quite a list, isn’t it?).
2014 turned out be a massive year for Oliver Heldens, as it saw the release of no less than 6 singles, including Gecko, Gecko (Overdrive) with vocals from Becky Hill, Koala, THIS in a collaboration with Sander van Doorn, Pikachu in collaboration with Mr. Belt & Wezol and Last All Night (Koala) with vocals from KStewart, along with remixes for Robin Thicke’s ‘Feel Good’, Disclosure’s ‘Latch’, Coldplay’s ‘A Sky Full Of Stars’, Dr. Kucho & Gregor Salto’s ‘Can’t Stop Playing’, The Voyager’s ‘A Lot Like Love’ and Tiesto’s ‘Light Years Away’. 2015 has seen him release his first single of the year ‘You Know’ in a collaboration with Zeds Dead, while also a remix of Lady Bee’s ‘Return Of The Mack’.
A further proof of his growing stature is his performance at some of the biggest festivals around the world, including Tomorrowland, Global Gathering, Electric Zoo, Creamfields, TomorrowWorld, Stereosonic, EDC to name a few, while 2015 will see him play at festivals like Coachella, UMF Miami, South Africa and Buenos Aires and EDC Mexico and Puerto Rico.
Heldens debuted in DJ Mag Top 100 polls at 34 last year, and has already received praise from Pete Tong, who called him ‘the producer of the year’ in 2014, and even asked him to do an Essential Mix for his show. Oliver Heldens also hosts his own weekly radio show ‘Heldeep Radio’ through his Soundcloud page and ‘Heldens Mixtape‘, where the first mixtape featured his remix of Martin Garrix’s ‘Animals’.
In a recent announcement, Shazam predicted Oliver Heldens to be one of the most listened to artists in 2015. And the way things are going for this future house whiz kid, it certainly will be true.
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