Dance
Charli XCX has invited Troye Sivan to Sweat with her some more. The Brat star opened the door for a one-time re-boot of her 2024 sold-out Sweat tour with Sivan on Thursday (Dec. 19) when she invited the “Rush” singer to join her on stage again next year. “ok so i know it’s already been […]
The life and times of beloved Swedish DJ/producer Avicii are celebrated in the first official trailer for the upcoming Netflix doc chronicling his life, Avicii – I’m Tim. The nearly two-minute preview of the film due out globally on Dec. 31 opens with an image of Avicii (born Tim Bergling) posted up behind his decks in front of a massive festival crowd as towering pyro flames fill the frame and the audience shouts “AVICII! AVICII!”
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Featuring voiceover narration recorded with the late global superstar before he died in 2018 at age 28 by suicide, the trailer flips through images of Avicii in his youth, landing on a snap of a teenage Tim strumming an acoustic guitar as he explains, “I’ve always loved music. I knew that whatever I wanted to do later in life, I wanted to do something creative.”
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He describes working on his music at home, constantly sending his tracks out in the hope that someone would notice. “In such a small time, he completely killed it,” says fellow global DJ superstar David Guetta. The focus then shifts to a series of pics and video clips of Avicii in the studio with stars including Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Chic’s Nile Rodgers and others, as Martin recalls that it was Avicii’s signature 2011 hit “Levels” that introduced him to Bergling’s music.
“I had that feeling that I get when I really love something,” Martin says about the inescapably catchy, Grammy-nominated house tune that topped the charts in the DJ’s native Sweden and became his signature hit. The trailer also hits on one of the most audacious, and successful, chances Avicii took in his life when he got booed after debuting the genre-busting Aloe Blacc collab “Wake Me Up” at the Ultra Music Festival in 2013 with a live band — including a banjo and two guitars. The song would go on to be his biggest hit, and his only top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached No. 4 in October 2013 on its way to more than three billion streams.
At the time, Avicii was “really broken about it,” according to the doc, with a voiceover noting that the constant jet-setting touring was “really taking a toll” on Bergling. “I was running after some idea of happiness that wasn’t my own,” Avicii says. “I didn’t like being a persona.”
Avicii struggled as the line between performer and persona got blurred, and in a poignant moment at the end of the sneak preview, the interviewer wonders what his answer would be if someone asked “What’s your story? Who are you?”
Haltingly, Bergling confirms, “I’m… Tim.”
The doc directed by Henrik Burman premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year also features interviews with Avicii’s parents, friends, colleagues and fellow artists. Along with the documentary, Netflix will stream Avicii’s final performance at Ushuaïa Ibiza in August of 2016, his final live set before he stopped touring at 26.
Watch the trailer below.
If you or anyone you know is in crisis and/or experiencing suicidal ideation, reach out to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling 988 or visiting the website. Confidential support is available 24/7, 365 days a year.
This past Oct. 18-19 in Miami, III Points celebrated its 11th anniversary with a lineup that included Jamie xx, Justice, Rezz, Kaytranada, Sara Landry, DJ Koze and many other greats of the electronic genre.
“Each of the departments really locked in, and I feel like we did a really good job as a team,” III Points co-founder David Sinopoli tells Billboard of producing this year’s fest. “It was reflected right back at us with all the bands and the DJ’s in the community coming out and supporting… Everyone was locked in this year, mimicking that focus and energy to their craft.”
One of the many artists showing off their craft at III Points was Canadian producer Jacques Greene, who played a Saturday night set that got right to business, staring with Fonzo’s swaggery 2024 track “Ring Ring” then traversing 90 minutes of techno and experimental electronic music. Hear Greene’s complete set below.
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Sinopoli calls this year of III Points a “special one, because we had all the right people in their respective paths, working with absolute focus and doing an incredible job in their spots – they put on a masterclass with their work. From our sound, tech, lighting, to site operations, site flow, to the music side with [festival staff] Shailee Ben-David, Santi Vidal and Davide Danese’s office helping me put together the lineup. Everyone was really synced up, we have learned over the last few years in this footprint, how to make things flow so that the experience felt a little bit more controlled and comfortable.”
Founded in 2013, the festival puts a strong focus on Miami artists, typically booking more than 50% local acts and bringing in local food vendors and visual artists. This year, as in years past, the two-day fest happened at Miami’s Mana Wynwood event space.
Sinopoli adds that over the festival’s run at the venue, he and the team have “really mastered the site and understood how to lay it out better. Our marketing team helped us fill the space by driving ticket sales and making sure we sold the experience during our sales cycle to the new fan. Laura Kirkpatrick, Leo Piscioneri, Caterina Haddad and the whole team that worked on the marketing killed it. Alexis Sosa-Toro who basically kept it all together for me on every front throughout the year, helped keep all the chaos together with calm and clarity in her leadership.”
III Points partnered with electronic events company Insomniac Events in 2019, with Sinopoli also calling out Insomniac, along with the “OG production team at III Points” for “how well they helped us make this year’s experience so special.”
In November, legendary German techno fest Time Warp touched down for its annual bash in Brooklyn, N.Y. Held at the Brooklyn Storehouse, the two-day event featured a techno league of legends, with Ricardo Villalobos, Sven Väth, Indira Paganotto, DJ Tennis playing b2b with Jimi Jules all gracing the stage.
Among these many stars was American-born, Germany-based producer Afriqua, who played a two-hour set that took its time warming up, before getting wonderfully spatial and far out, then blooming into a full on groovefest. Russian titan Nina Kraviz played 90 minutes of her characteristically sharp-edged techno, while Dutch star Kevin de Vries played two hours of pummeling and undeniable melodic techno.
Hear all three of these sets exclusively below.
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Time Warp USA 2024 was part of the German festival’s 30-year anniversary celebrations, with the party first making the jump to the U.S. in 2014, in partnership with New York City-based promoter Teksupport. Teksupport founder Rob Toma first encountered Time Warp in Germany back in 2010, and was immediately convinced he needed to bring the party and its music to the States.
“In America, it’s usually, like, nine EDM stages and a dubstep stage, [but] this had all great artists,” Toma told Billboard in 2023 of the U.S. electronic events market back in 2010. Determined to shift things, he got in touch with the festival’s owner, Steffen Charles, to see about bringing Time Warp across the Atlantic.
As Toma recalls, Charles’ response was icy: “I’ll never do New York. America is not ready.”
Toma eventually convinced him otherwise, and in 2014 Time Warp made it’s U.S. debut in Brooklyn. The show was a logistical nightmare. Toma lost his license for the Brooklyn Armory days before the festival, and had to relocate to another venue, The Shed. The event lost $400,000. Toma considered it a success.
“It was just kind of a dream,” he said in 2023. “I looked at it as, ‘This is not a loss, this is an investment.’”
A decade later, the investment has clearly paid off.
Kevin de Vries
Nina Kraviz
Afriqua
Daft Punk‘s Coachella 2006 performance is widely considered to be one of the best shows to ever happen at the festival, turning everyone in the packed Sahara tent into dance-music believers and helping set the stage for the genre’s coming explosion in the United States.
But how did the French duo even end up at the festival?
New documentary Busy P Says Oui explores the dynamics that brought the show to life, via interviews with Busy P (real name Pedro Winter), the founder of Ed Banger records who also managed Daft Punk for 12 years, starting when he was 20 years old.
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The documentary as a whole celebrates Winter, one of dance music’s most crucial and beloved figures, while looking at the relationship he and Ed Banger have had with Coachella over the years with artists including Justice, DJ Mehdi and more.
Shot on location at and near Coachella 2024, the documentary is a project by Coachella producer Goldenvoice and one in a series of upcoming pieces (with many more to come) from the original content initiative at Coachella led by Ike Adler, Mikhail Mehra and David Prince. The doc also features an interview with Goldenvoice’s vp of festival talent Stacey Vee, who was instrumental in getting the robots to the desert for their performance on April 29, 2006.
It wasn’t easy. “Daft Punk really wanted to focus on their own career, own music,” Winter says in the doc, “so my job mostly during those 12 years was to say no to everybody, everything.”
“We really didn’t want a no; we really wanted this one to happen,” Vee says of sending Daft Punk’s agent the offer, which would provide the duo with $350,000, plus airfare, hotel and ground transportation.
The pair, of course, ultimately said “oui,” with the documentary unpacking how the show came together, with Sahara tent mastermind Wiley Dailey recalling that “people showed up and lost their minds.”
“Magic happened,” Winter concurs of the performance, which unveiled Daft Punk’s iconic pyramid stage production and more or less changed the course of electronic music forever.
“Whenever I’m given an opportunity to make a film about music, I’m always on board,” the doc’s director Garfield tells Billboard. “I was excited about this project because I am a fan of Pedro Winter’s as well as Coachella’s, but I also knew it came with a challenge. How could I cover everything about the dopeness that is Pedro and his long relationship with the festival in 10 minutes or less? The answer was not to go for all but to go for small. So I chose to focus on just a moment in their shared history and springboard out from there.
“Busy P Says Oui is as much a metaphor for taking chances as it is about the gravitational pull between two musical forces who continue to support each other to this day,” Garfield continues. Hopefully when you watch you will catch a glimpse into the ball of energy that is both Coachella and Busy P. Who knows, maybe it will inspire you to try something too.”
Billie Eilish celebrated her 23rd birthday a day early on Tuesday (Dec. 17) at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles when she invited Charli XCX up on stage for a surprise collaboration on their “Guess” remix. The singers paired up to perform the Grammy-nominated, high-energy song from Charli’s remix album, Brat and It’s the Same […]
A crew of heavy hitters will be ringing in the new year on Apple Music, with Icelandic legend Björk, Swazi-born, South Africa-based DJ Uncle Waffles and British grime icon Skepta all set to play livestreamed New Year’s Eve events on the platform this New Year’s Eve. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest […]
Kygo‘s work has long been the musical equivalent of a waterfront resort, and now he in his team have created the real thing.
Palm Tree Club is a hotel and restaurant project by Palm Tree Crew, the sprawling company created by the Norwegian producer and his manager Myles Shear. Set to open in Miami on Dec. 21, the property is in the former Shuckers Waterfront Bar & Grill, a 150-room hotel that’s been entirely remodeled to reflect Kygo and Palm Tree Crew’s laid-back, tropical aesthetic.
Built in the 1970s, the building reflects the Miami Modern (or MiMo) style of architecture common in the city and South Florida at large in the post World War II era. The hotel also embraces Art Deco with rooms styled in the aesthetic and also features a restaurant, a 24-hour fitness center, a 20-ship marina (so guests can cruise up in their boat for dinner) and other amenities.
See exclusive images of the property below.
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“Hospitality has always been at the heart of the live experiences produced by Palm Tree Crew,” Shear tells Billboard. “We’re thrilled to extend this ethos to a Palm Tree Crew venue, offering a curated year-round experience that combines exceptional hotel, dining and entertainment. Having grown up visiting Shuckers, I’m excited to honor its legacy while creating an elevated experience for both the local community and visitors.”
The resort opening also marks a new expansion the Palm Tree Crew empire, which also includes its ongoing Palm Tree Festival (which takes place in luxe locations like the Hamptons and Aspen), along with an artist management division, a record label and other food and beverage projects.
A resort has long been part of the plan, with Kygo and Shear telling Billboard in 2022 that they’ve taken inspiration from the late great Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville empire of music, resorts, restaurants, events and other lifestyle offerings.
“He created so many areas where [his fans] can come together — it doesn’t even need to be at his shows. It can be at his hotel or a Margaritaville bar,” Kygo said in 2022. “That’s what we’re trying to create: something that’s bigger than the music. A community, a movement.”
Palm Tree Club Miami is a collaboration between Palm Tree Crew, Miami-based management firm Think Hospitality and the Miami and New York City-based real estate development firm Continuum Company.
Palm Tree Club Miami
Courtesy of Palm Tree Club
Palm Tree Club Miami
Courtesy of Palm Tree Club
Palm Tree Club Miami
Courtesy of Palm Tree Club
Palm Tree Club Miami
Courtesy of Palm Tree Club
Palm Tree Club Miami
Courtesy of Palm Tree Club
Palm Tree Club Miami
Courtesy of Palm Tree Club
Palm Tree Club Miami
Courtesy of Palm Tree Club
In the world of electronic dance music, the West has long led the way with its frequent collaborations, driving technical advancements and making electronic music culture popular worldwide. Inspired by Western electronic music culture, ZHANGYE, in collaboration with Cyanhill Music, has created the CHINA EDM Vol.1 compilation, marking a new chapter in Chinese electronic dance music.
This compilation features not only exclusive tracks from top producers such as BEAUZ, CORSAK, Panta.Q, and WILLIM, but also selects other tracks from hundreds of contributors, showcasing the diversity and vitality of Chinese electronic music.
The release of the CHINA EDM Vol.1 compilation is not only a summary of the development of Chinese electronic dance music, but also a new beginning. Crafted to international standards, it aims to promote the works of outstanding Chinese producers on the world stage. On Nov. 29, this musical feast was spectacularly staged at the Escape deLux nightclub in Amsterdam, Netherlands, under the theme of “CHINA EDM NIGHT,” marking a significant step in the global journey of Chinese electronic music.
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“CHINA EDM NIGHT” was an unprecedented performance featuring “Beats from the East,” bringing the rhythm of the Orient to the Western stage. This event was a live rendition of the CHINA EDM Vol.1 compilation and a significant showcase of Chinese electronic music culture to the world. The performance took place at the renowned Amsterdam nightclub Escape deLux, known for its unique atmosphere and high-quality music events.
To ensure that the “CHINA EDM NIGHT” performance garnered more attention in the Netherlands, the organizers put significant effort into promotion. Offline advertising reached close to 4,000 advertising spaces, including large billboards, metro stations, hotels and public notice boards, promoting the compilation, artists and the event activities comprehensively to ensure that the performance information reached every potential audience member.
The release of the CHINA EDM Vol.1 compilation and the staging of the “CHINA EDM NIGHT” performance mark a significant step for Chinese electronic dance music on the global stage. This is a collective showcase of Chinese electronic music producers, as well as an international dissemination of Chinese electronic music culture.
CORSAK
Courtesy of CORSAK
“Oh yes, oh yes, Austin!” techno master Carl Cox announced to the crowd at the start of his set at November’s Seismic Dance Event in the Texas capital. Cox was on hand at the event to play one of his signature Hybrid Live sets, for with he both DJs and employs hardware including drum machines […]