Spotlight – Oliver Heldens
In this spotlight we look back on the career of the Dutch DJ Oliver Heldens. He originates from Rotterdam.
Oliver Heldens started his carrer when like any other bedroom producer he had his first single singed to a label. His first releases were on the label Spinnin Records and were titled ‘Thumper & Stinger’. Later releases inclued ‘Panther’ with Robby East which was released on the Oxygen record label.
His big breakthrough occured towards the end of 2013, with the release of ‘Gecko’ which was a future house club banger. He timed this release perfectly as future house was just emerging as a new genre and was set for a surge in popularity as people started to delve into other genres after the boom of EDM in 2010-2012. The song was released on the Musical Freedom label run by Tiesto.
Oliver Heldens released a second version of the song in June 2014, which included the vocal talents of Becky Hill. It debuted at number 1 in the UK Singles Chart and was the last song to reach that spot based solely on downloads.
Also in 2014 he launched his own radio show titled Heldeep showcasing all hs favourite songs in an hour long format on Soundcloud. He also entered the DJ Mag Top 100 of 2014, making his debut at 34. At the end of 2014 he released his second vocal single ‘Koala’ with singer KStewart. This song reachd number 5 in the UK Singles Chart.
Throughout his carrer he has played at many high profile events such as Tomorrowland, Ibiza, Creamfields, Ultra Miami.
At the end of 2015 the HI-LO song ‘Renegade Mastah’ was the first song to be released on Heldeep Records his record label. It was later revealed by UKF that in fact HI-LO was an alias for Oliver Heldens to give him the license to release more bass and techno influenced records. ‘Crank It Up’, ‘Wappy Flirt’, ‘Alien Technology’ & ‘Steam Train’ and more have been released under this alias.
Since 2016 he has been playing more bass heavy tunes in his sets and more underground tunes moving away from his future house roots without forgetting them in some of his productions. He has also delved into disco with his remixes of ‘Attention’ by Charlie Puth and ‘Superfresh’ by Jamiroquai. He has collaborated with many different artists such as Throttle, Alok and Chocolate Puma and has produced a ton of remixes. His highest position in the DJ Mag Top 100 came in 2016 when he was number 8.
He has had over 1 billion streams across his songs and is one of the biggest DJs at only 23 years old. Having recently released a remix for ‘One Kiss’ by Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa. With many more tunes in the pipeline he is only going to grow from strength to strength.
