Dance
Page: 25
Nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards were announced Friday (Nov. 8), with the Recording Academy recognizing a wide range of artists in the four dance categories.
The fields were introduced by Kylie Minogue during the Grammy nominations livestream, with the Australian icon last year being the first-ever recipient of the pop dance award, newly introduced to the ceremony in 2024 and now called dance pop.
The dance artists with the most nominations this year include Justice, who clocked a nom for recording and album with their 2024 singler “Neverender” and the album from whence it came, Hyperdrama. Four Tet is also a double nominee this year, in the album category for his release Three and its track “Loved.” Zedd also scored an album nomination for his first LP in nine years, Telos.
Meanwhile Charli XCX make three appearances in the dance nominations, with her club-ready Brat in the album category, the electro throwback “Von Dutch” in recording and the A.G. Cook remix of that same song in best remixed recording.
Trending on Billboard
See the complete list of dance related nominees below:
Best Dance/Electronic Recording
“She’s Gone, Dance On” – Disclosure
“Loved” – Four Tet
“Leavemealone” – Fred Again.. & Baby Keem
“Neverender” – Justice & Tame Impala
“Witchy” – Kaytranada Featuring Childish Gambino
Best Dance/Electronic Album
Brat, Charli XCX
Three, Four Tet
Hyperdrama, Justice
Telos, Zedd
Timeless, Kaytranada
Best Dance Pop Recording
“Make You Mine” – Madison Beer
“Von Dutch” – Charli XCX
“L’Amour De Ma Vie (Over Now Extended Edit)” – Billie Eilish
“Yes, And” – Ariana Grande
“Got Me Started” – Troye Sivan
Best Remixed Recording
“Alter Ego” – Kaytranada Remix – Kaytranada, Remixer (Doechii Featuring JT)
“A Bar Song (Tipsy) [Remix]” – David Guetta, Remixer (Shaboozey & David Guetta)
“Espresso” (Mark Ronson & FNZ Working Late Remix) – FNZ & Mark Ronson Remixers (Sabrina Carpenter)
“Jah Sees Them” – Amapiano Remix – Alex Antaeus, Footsteps & Mrmyish, Remixers (Julian Marley & Antaeus)
“Von Dutch” – A.G. Cook Remixer (Charli XCX & A.G. Cook Featuring Addison Rae)
In June, the Recording Academy unveiled a flurry of rule tweaks that will be implemented at the 2025 awards. Among these 10 changes, three were directly related to the dance/electronic categories, with a fourth also affecting those categories.
One of the changes involves an award that was introduced to the Grammys just this year, with the best pop dance recording category now being called best dance pop recording. This tweak is not just a matter of aesthetics, but meant to make the category more accurately reflect the well-established style of dance pop music it was created to showcase.
The next rule change involves the best remixed recording category, which has long focused on dance/electronic artists but was never an official dance/electronic category. That changes in 2025, with this category being moved from the production, engineering, composition and arrangement field into the pop and dance/electronic field
Moby has joined the chorus of musicians who’ve responded to Donald Trump’s win in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. On Wednesday (Nov. 6), the producer and activist posted a video of himself outside in New York City, addressing the camera by saying “So obviously the election results are terrible and America and Americans have clearly […]
Three years after its release, Illenium is sharing the emotional backstory behind his track “Brave Soul,” the closer from his 2021 album Fallen Embers.
In a video posted to YouTube Monday (Nov. 4), the producer tells this story alongside Jordan Hamilton, the CEO of Choice House, the Colorado addiction and mental health treatment center for men where Illenium (born Nick Miller) got sober more than a decade ago after an opiate addiction.
“I met Jordan when I was on my long trek of rehabs,” Miller says in the video. “Jordan had two years sober at the time. I had gone through treatment a couple years before that and was just trying to figure out how to live life.” Watch the complete video below.
The pair became friends, with Jordan’s sister Emma, a singer-songwriter, getting introduced to the group. Together, they eventually wrote a song that turned into “Brave Soul,” with this music written in memory of Jordan and Emma’s late brother Braden, who they lost to an overdose in 2018.
“Emma and I shared the love of [being] able to speak through music and heal through music,” Miller says in the clip. “I think that’s a really impactful thing to give back to a person that you love, and give back to yourself.”
Illenium debuted the track at his Trilogy show at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on July 3, 2021. “It was so sick having you there and having Emma there and being able to give your brother the words from beyond,” Miller says in the video.
“To hear 40,000 people respond to that and to hear his memory, it was a super special special moment,” Hamilton continues of the song, whose lyrics honor his brother memory by saying “here’s to your brave soul/ you fought but you lost hold/ and now I’m alone to face the truth.”
Illenium opened up about his journey of finding sobriety and going on to became a stadium filling artist in his Billboard cover story this past March. Of how addiction effected his relationship with his mom, he said, “Watching that relationship get torn by the s–t you keep doing — at first, it’s like, ‘Why are you on me so much, I’m not even that bad,.’ Then it goes into ‘OK, I can’t stop’ and then it goes into, like, “F–k everyone. I can’t live without it.’ And then you’re just breaking down.”
“For anyone who’s in that place, it feels so horrible in that moment,” Hamilton says in the video, “but if you’re willing to ask for help and take some steps, that’s the jumping off point of where we get better.”
If you or anyone you know is struggling with substance abuse, visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s website for resources.
While Shygirl was crushing performances onstage as the supporting act for Charli XCX and Troye Sivan‘s recently wrapped Sweat tour, a lot more was happening behind the scenes and on the road. “We would get off the tour bus at every truck stop just to look at and buy every souvenir that caught our eye,” […]
In the techno hall of fame, Dubfire exists alongside the greats. The producer, who was born in Iran and moved to Washington D.C. as a child as his family fled the Iranian Revolution, has been a fixture in the global scene for more than 15 years, playing under both his techno moniker and as half of Deep Dish, his longstanding and beloved progressive house project with Sharam.
The artist born Ali Shirazinia has been putting in work on both projects as of late, releasing his two-track Redacted EP, a collaborative project with Argentinean artist Flug, in late October, shortly after he wrapped a week at ADE in Amsterdam. He played a whirlwind of showcases, including the annual Homeless Homies fundraiser, which donates 100% of ticket profits and a portion of drink sales to homeless shelter in Amsterdam and the home of techno, Detroit.
Trending on Billboard
Next month, Deep Dish will play their first shows in London in more than a decade, premiering a load of new music to intimate crowds at venue The Cause. Dubfire will also globetrot to Tulum, Mexico in January to play at Damian Lazarus’ annual Day Zero party.
Here, he reflects on ADE, the passing of Jackmaster, the state of techno and more.
1. Where are you in the world right now, and what’s the setting like?
I’m currently in Montreal, recovering from the marathon 12-hour set I played at Stereo with my Deep Dish co-pilot Sharam. That kind of DJing is a dying art so we aim to not just entertain our audience, but inspire the next generation to step up and keep it alive.
2. What is the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself, and what was the medium
Ultravox’s The Collection on cassette. I didn’t really buy much vinyl — I was purely a cassette tape guy.
3. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid, and what do or did they think of what you’ve done and do now?
We came to the U.S.A. initially not intending to stay, but the Islamic Revolution forced my parents to take up odd jobs to keep us afloat after we chose to stay. Though they had hoped I’d take up a reputable profession, they nevertheless helped launch the first Deep Dish release and watched in amazement as I began to tour the world over that decade and beyond. They have always been my biggest support.
4. What is the first non-gear thing you bought for yourself when you started making money as an artist?
It must have been a pager.
5. If you had to recommend one album for someone looking to get into dance music, what would you give them?
Global Communication’s 76:14.
6. What’s the last song you listened to?
Blixa Bargeld and Teho Teardo’s “Starkregen.”
7. You just spent the week at ADE. What are your big takeaways from the experience?
Choose all the panels you want to see in advance and schedule your meetings around them. Do not go out to any parties until Friday, and never try to organize an event unless you work with a local promoter.
8. What were your best ADE moments?
Catching up with legendary dub producer Adrian Sherwood at Melkweg and meeting with Armada at their incredible offices. Deep Dish couldn’t have found a better home.
9. You participated in the Homeless Homies event, which raised money for homeless organizations. Tell us what that program is and why you were compelled to participate?
Donating my name and time by playing an intense afternoon techno set is the least I can do to help the homeless epidemic. It’s inspiring to watch how committed [event organizers] DJ Bone and Ahnne are to easing, and eventually eradicating, homelessness in Amsterdam and Detroit. I wish more DJs, myself included, gave themselves to worthy community service.
10. What’s going on in electronic music right now that you’re most excited about?
The new STEMS feature in Native Instruments’ latest update of Traktor Pro is a game-change moment for DJing and production. I’m also excited by the sheer quantity of dance music which defies categorization, sitting comfortably in between genres and sub-genres.
11. What’s going on in electronic music that you’re over?
Social media and poseur DJs.
12. You won a Grammy in 2002 with Deep Dish for your remix of Dido’s “Thank You.” Did winning that award change your career in any way?
I can’t say that it had any residual effect.
13. Were you at the awards ceremony when you won? If so, what are your strongest memories of the night?
I recall Coldplay getting an award for their first album and going through the backstage press maze together with them.
14. You posted a really lovely tribute to Jackmaster after his passing last month. Do you have any great Jackmaster memories you’d like to share?
It is still incredibly tragic to think about; his brother who I hadn’t met reached out to me after my post with a very sweet message which was touching. We all knew, and saw, how loved he was by the sheer number of posts which surfaced, and in some way I think that helped our dance music community cope with the loss. I do recall another time where we DJ’d the same event in Valencia, and he was dancing and singing to Danny Tenaglia’s “Be Yourself” in complete bliss when I dropped it at the end of my set. I would notice this often with Jack; he’d become completely immersed in this music as if he was in a trance. It was beautiful to witness that.
15. What’s your take on the current state of techno?
True techno music has honestly never been better; I am buried in quality tracks at the moment, and these are mainly from newer, younger artists. Though it seems to be getting sidelined by this new form of EDM that is cloaked in techno which I find incredibly cheesy and irritating.
16. What artists are you taking inspiration from lately?
Joy Orbison, Chlär, SNYL, Nick Cave, Einstürzende Neubauten to name just a random few…and believe it or not, I’m completely obsessed with Lykke Li at the moment; especially her ü&me EP which is achingly beautiful.
17. What cities around the world feel the most exciting to play in right now?
Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Miami.
18. What’s the best business decision you’ve ever made?
Quitting my day job, which allowed me to pursue my dreams full time.
19. who’s been your greatest mentor and what’s the best advice they ever gave you?
My mother who forced me to park my money in real estate.
20. What’s one piece of advice you’d give your younger self?
Buy a villa in Ibiza.
After premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, a new documentary about late producer Avicii is set for release on Netflix Dec. 31
The documentary, I’m Tim, is narrated by the Avicii (born Tim Bergling), with this narration taken from interviews he did before his death by suicide on April 20, 2018. The documentary also features interviews with Bergling’s parents, friends, colleagues and fellow artists, tracking his rise from boyhood in Sweden to international stardom as the archetypal artist of the EDM era.
I’m Tim was directed by Henrik Burman and produced by Björn Tjärnberg. This documentary follows a previously released 2017 doc on the artist, Avicii: True Stories, directed by Levan Tsikurishvili.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Along with the new documentary, Netflix will stream Avicii’s final performance at Ushuaïa Ibiza in August of 2016. This performance was the final live set from the dance producer after he stopped touring at age 26. In March 2016, Bergling took to his website to tell his millions of fans about the decision, writing, “Two weeks ago, I took the time to drive across the U.S. with my friends and team, to just look and see and think about things in a new way. It really helped me realize that I needed to make the change that I’d been struggling with for a while.” Two years later, he died in Muscat, Oman, at age 28.
Trending on Billboard
The releases of I’m Tim and the Ushuaïa performance come amidst a general shoring up of the Avicii legacy, with the upcoming film following the summer release of a photobook, Avicii: The Life and Music of Tim Bergling, featuring images of the producer’s early life, private life and career.
Additionally, an auction of the producer’s personal effects that happened last October in Stockholm raised $750,000 for the Tim Bergling Foundation, which works to educate young people about mental health. A biography of the artist, Tim, written by Swedish journalist Måns Mosesson was released in early 2022.
Meanwhile, in the fall of 2022, the Avicii Estate sold 75% of the Avicii catalog — which includes hits such as “Levels,” “Wake Me Up” and “Seek Bromance” — to Pophouse, the Stockholm-based music investment company co-founded by ABBA member Björn Ulvaeus.
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.
Spinnin’ Records president Roger de Graaf is retiring, a representative for the label has confirmed to Billboard. De Graaf co-founded the Dutch label in 1999 alongside Eelko van Kooten, maneuvering it through several eras of electronic music and quickly evolving consumption models, from CDs to DSPs. “In the beginning, we wanted to become the No. […]
Two years ago next month, Hayla stood on the side of the stage at the Los Angeles Coliseum, observing the 46,000 people assembled before her. There in the shadows, she kept repeating to herself that everything was going to be alright. Then, it was her cue.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
She maneuvered through the dark, onto the stage and into the spotlight. Suddenly, the voice booming out of the stadium’s speakers was her own.
The British artist was closing the set with “Escape,” the 2022 hit by deadmau5 and Kaskade’s collaborative project Kx5 which she co-wrote and contributed vocals on, forging the track’s emotional core. The album that the song came from was nominated for a 2024 Grammy for best dance/electronic album, and the Coliseum show was the year’s biggest ticketed global headliner dance event. The spotlight Hayla stepped into that night wasn’t just a literal one.
“It changed the trajectory of my career completely,” she says of the song while speaking to Billboard over Zoom from her place in London, cozied up in a black sweater and black horn rimmed glasses. “It’s been an interesting few years.”
Trending on Billboard
Born Hayley Williams, the artist has since sang on charting hits by producers including Sub Focus, Kygo and John Summit. The track with Summit, “Where You Are” landed on both Hot Dance/Electronic Songs and Barack Obama’s list of favorite music from 2023. “I thought it was a joke,” she says. “Blew my mind.”
Hayla co-wrote this song with the same group of collaborators with whom she wrote “Escape,” with the idea to get it to Summit after he did the “Escape” remix. “We thought that it might be nice to see if he would like something in a similar sound,” she says. He did, with the pair forging a working relationship that would contribute to the “domino effect” of Hayla collaborations with marquee producers over the last two years.
Now, after establishing herself as one of the defining voices of the current dance music moment, Hayla is releasing her own solo project — her debut album, Dusk. Out through Believe Music, the 10-track collection has already generated millions of streams, with singles like “Fall Again,” “Treading Water” and “Embers,” and finds Hayla fusing her love of ambient and electronica with the more progressive mainstream sounds that have helped make her a star.
She started writing the tracks that would become Dusk in 2021, in that moment leaning into the sounds of influences like Portishead, Bonobo and Massive Attack. During one writing session, she and a few collaborators came up with the topline of “Escape”, an exercise that was done “just for the love of writing,” she says. The song eventually found its way to deadmau5 and Kaskade, who decided to keep the voice on the demo, Hayla’s, on the final product. And as her singular voice became increasingly interwoven into chart hits, she found the writing on her own work shifted more towards those sounds.
“I started writing in this sort of more EDM/house way for some of the album,” she says, “I think it’s got a really nice ebb and flow of what I’ve been influenced by and what I’ve been listening to along the way.
Dusk is named for Hayla’s favorite time of day, with this vibe enhanced her X-Men meets haute couture aesthetic, which she calls “dopamine dressing” because it makes her feel good. The album amalgamates this twilight mood into a cohesive, moody, sometimes melancholic, often achingly pretty 34 minutes of music. songs were produced by a group of collaborators, although the album-closing title track was produced solely by Hayla. It’s the only album song she doesn’t actually sing on, although her signature is all over it in the lush, emotive vibe it conjures.
“I’ve always produced at a level where I can put an idea across,” she says, “but I’ve never had the confidence to be able to put it out there and show off my own skill set. ‘Dusk’ was definitely a feel-the-fear-and-do-it-anyway kind of track, because I had a huge amount of anxiety in putting this on the album initially, because it’s quite exposing.”
Many components of Dusk are examples of finding such self-assurance. While Hayla’s rich timbre is enviable, it took her a long time to get over her “incredible” shyness about singing in front of people.
That shifted “when I started noticing that singing was a healer,” she says. “I realized that I felt amazing when I sang, because it was a form of therapy for me. I realized that it may resonate with other people in the same way, and if I can make people feel the way I feel when I sing, I’ve sort of done my job.”
This same type of vulnerability exists in the album’s subject matter. “Treading Water” is about a breakup that “rocked my foundations of who I was as a person.” While “quite a heartbreaking one to write,” the song’s effect is soothing, like the hand of a knowing friend on your shoulder.
She says success for the album for her is simply the fact that it exists, with particular pride coming from having it in a tangible form on vinyl. She’ll perform her first-ever headlining show at the Roxy in Los Angeles on December 4, and while she’s coy about 2025 performances, she doesn’t deny that some big and stuff is on the calendar, with a few other collaborations also incoming. She’s also well into the writing of her second album.
Now, after once being too terrified to sing publicly and having to hype herself up in order to step onstage at the Coliseum, two years, many hits and one album later, she says singing live “is definitely where I feel most myself.”
Seventeen years before Justice brought a boundary-smashing stage setup to the Outdoor Stage at Coachella 2024, they were just two young producers from France wondering if their work would ever translate into a real career in live music.
For the duo — Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé — the answer became a definitive oui after their 2007 debut performance at Coachella, which was also their first ever live performance.
Now, the two are looking back on their four Coachella performances — which happened at the fest in 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2024 — in new mini-documentary produced by the festival. The eight-minute visual, titled …And Justice for All: Coachella Edition, is comprised of archival footage and new interviews with Justice, their team and a few of the many people who helped put the show together at Coachella 2024 this past April.
Trending on Billboard
“I remember after we played our first set we felt so relieved,” de Rosnay says of the duo’s 2007 set in the doc, “because we had spent the four previous years thinking, ‘Maybe we are just meant to make remixes and not even albums,’ and then here we were in the desert thinking, ‘Well, maybe we are actually a real band.’”
The doc puts a special focus on duo’s 2024 performance on Coachella’s Outdoor Stage. Justice and their creative team spent six months working with seven computer scientists to make the show, which they’ve toured the world with over the last six months. The doc features an interview with the group’s longtime technical director Manu Mouton.
The documentary was directed by photographer and filmmaker Connor Brashier, who’s worked on projects with artists including Shawn Mendes, Niall Horan and Kygo. The film was produced by Goldenvoice’s Ike Adler, Mikhail Mehra and David Prince as part of a new initiative at Coachella focused on creating original content.
“As this piece became to come together, I quickly realized I was making this for my younger, nerdy self, who dug for hours and hours trying to find out more about the people and processes behind the iconic Justice shows both past and present,” Brashier tells Billboard. “I hope someone out there is as giddy as I was to see a few of these monumental Coachella performances in HD and meet a small portion of the magician-like talents who played a part in putting them all on.”
Watch the mini-documentary below:
Daft Punk will give the world an early holiday gift on December 12, when their 2003 anime film Interstella 5555: The 5story of the 5ecret 5tar 5system screens in more than 80 theaters in 40 countries around the globe. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Fans of […]