Spijkenisse, NL · electro-house · big-room

Afrojack

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Dutch producer whose fingerprints are on a startling share of 2010s pop radio — big-room electro-house drops and pop collaborations that made him a main-stage fixture worldwide.

Afrojack is the stage name of Nick van de Wall, born in Spijkenisse to a Dutch mother and a Surinamese father. He learned piano at five, grew up in a single-parent household where his mother ran a local gym, and started producing tracks from home at eleven. It took him roughly seven years of work before his first release, "In Your Face", came out in 2007 under the Afrojack name.

He began DJing local pubs and clubs at fourteen, paying his way partly by designing websites for other musicians, and briefly studied graphic design in Rotterdam before committing to music full-time. He founded his label, Wall Recordings, in 2007, three years before "Take Over Control" featuring Eva Simons became a hit across ten countries and pushed him into DJ Mag's Top 100 rankings.

His production work runs through other people's records as much as his own: he co-produced Pitbull's "Give Me Everything", contributed to Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)", and worked with David Guetta on "Hey Mama" with Nicki Minaj and Bebe Rexha. His debut album, Forget the World, arrived in 2014 to a mixed reception.

Afrojack headlined Tomorrowland, Ultra Music Festival and Coachella by 2012 and has repeatedly placed in the top ten of DJ Mag's annual poll. Beyond production and DJing he runs a side alias, NLW, for more underground material, and serves as CEO of LDH Europe.

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electro-housebig-room