Oliver Heldens (NL)

About

Also known as: Olivier J. L. Heldens

Rotterdam's Oliver Heldens is widely credited with putting future house on the map, and his 2013 track 'Gecko' is the moment that launched everything. Tiësto liked it enough to sign it to his Musical Freedom label, and when a vocal version with Becky Hill came out in 2014 as 'Gecko (Overdrive)', it shot to number 1 on the UK Top 40. Pete Tong called it an Essential New Tune, and DJs like David Guetta, Martin Garrix and Zedd all jumped on it. Heldens hit number 12 in the DJ Mag Top 100 the following year, making him the highest ranked house DJ on the list. Beyond his own name, he runs a whole parallel career under the alias HI LO, a palindrome of 'Oli H', where the sound goes deeper and harder into techno territory. He also built Heldeep Records from scratch into a proper label, signing acts like Alok and Dada Life and hosting stages at Tomorrowland and beyond. Later hits like 'Fire in My Soul' and 'Turn Me On', the latter sampling Yazoo's 1982 classic 'Don't Go', kept him well planted in the upper reaches of the dance charts.