Dance

This week in dance music: Legendary dance vocalist Evelyn Thomas died at age 70; we trekked to Belgium for Tomorrowland and recapped its best moment and ten most played tracks; Anyma reported selling an incredible 100,000 tickets in less than 24 hours for his six sold out shows in Sphere in Las Vegas this December and Meduza shared the secrets of “Italian touch” for the latest cover of Billboard Italy.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

And we’ve got the goods, too. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.

Trending on Billboard

Gordo, Diamante

[embedded content]

Think of Diamante, the debut album from Gordo, as the companion piece to Drake’s Honestly Nevermind, with Gordo producing that 2022 album and Drake featuring on two tracks on this new project by his longtime friend. The connective tissue extends well beyond credits, as Diamante picks up and in many ways extends Honestly Nevermind‘s underground house terrain, with its 16 tracks embodying simmering, sophisticated and in many cases sensual dancefloor music that folds in elements of reggaeton, pop, indie, jazz and hip-hop, altogether sounding like any given afterhours in Miami, Tulum, Berlin or Ibiza. The album features not just the two Drake collabs, but a crew of other guests including Fuerza Regida, T-Pain, Maluma, Nicki Nicole, Feid, Leon Bridges, &ME and Rampa of Keinemusik and Young Dolph.

Gordo is of course the producer formerly known as Carnage, with the Nicaraguan-American artist born Diamanté Blackmon abandoning the Carnage project in 2022, telling us that it was making him “miserable.” With Diamante, out via Ultra Records, he’s clearly found and gotten comfortable in a new, more mature groove. Blackmon spent four years making the project, and dedicates it to his grandmother and his other nearest and dearest.

“I called in every favor I could for this body of work….,” he writes. “It’s really really beautiful….I have never been so nervous in my life… I guess that’s a good sign??? To be honest with you all… I thought about calling it quits after I dropped this album…i felt a bit lost when I finished it because i couldn’t fathom something better than this… everything I’ve dreamed of is right here in this project… all of my dreams collab came true…so many talented people helped with this project… I’m so grateful… this isn’t a gordo album… it’s a diamante album… from carnage to gordo… it’s been a wild ride… i hope I make you guys proud.” — KATIE BAIN

Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding, “Free”

[embedded content]

After nabbing a No. 1 hit in the U.K. last year with “Miracle,” Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding return with what could be its successful sequel, “Free.” The Scottish producer has been rinsing the new track in his recent DJ sets, including one earlier this week at Ibiza mega-club Ushuaïa, where Goulding popped in for a live performance. Like its predecessor, “Free” is high in energy and steeped in ‘90s-era sounds, but it leaves the trance route in favor of euphoric piano house with cascading breaks and waves of warm, glowing synths. Goulding’s vocals float above, her gossamer timbre naturally capturing the song’s vulnerable but hopeful lyrics: “Eyes closed, holding on/ Alone no more/ I’m free when I’m with you.” —KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ

Sophie, “Berlin Nightmare”

[embedded content]

Ahead of Sophie’s final album release, two new tracks from the late Scottish producer have emerged: “One More Time” featuring Popstar and “Berlin Nightmare” featuring Evita Manji. “Berlin Nightmare” is delightfully dark and grimy, with multiple synth lines squelching and skipping across unrelenting percussion, culminating in a last-second speedup that yanks you out of their trance. It evokes images of hazy warehouse parties, where in the dim-lit space the dancefloor looks like a single mass of writhing limbs, and dried puddles of spilled drinks occasionally glue your shoes to the concrete. The two tracks follow lead single “Reason Why,” released last month. Sophie is due out on September 27. — K.R.

Hayla, “Freefall”

[embedded content]

As one of current electronic music’s most in-demand vocalists, Hayla has been omnipresent on the dance floor and on the charts, logging recent collaborations with Kx5, John Summit and Kygo. High-profile as they may be, the British singer/songwriter is fierce all on her own as shown on her latest solo single “Freefall.” It’s an atmospheric yet hard-hitting affair, with rumbling and swirling synths echoing the duality of Hayla’s love conundrum, and her drawn-out chorus pulls you into a state of weightlessness.

“I wrote this song in L.A. about a year and a half ago with Carl Ryden,” says Hayla. “The track was one that I always loved and when we were thinking about what to put on the album this track really stuck out as a stand alone single release. This song’s story happens after the love has gone – when the realization hits that no matter how hard you try to make something work you can’t. The chorus however asks the question of gravitational pull … maybe in another time it would bring you back together.” “Freefall” is Hayla’s final single release ahead of her debut album, which is slated for a November release. — K.R.

Mochakk feat. VTSS “Locomotiva Ibiza 2099”

[embedded content]

Brazilian phenom Mochakk (of “Jealous” fame) further proves he’s got the goods to stay in it for the long haul with his latest, “Locomotiva Ibiza 2099.” The title track from of the producer’s new three-song EP, the nearly seven-minute clubland opus takes its time warming up, then shifts into high gear with the sound of an actual locomotive and a cascade of acid-soaked synths that capture the heady, warm, happily weird vibes of going for it in the club at 5 a.m. on the song’s namesake island.

A collaboration with producer/vocalist Vtss (whose Boys Noize collab “Steady Pace” was a 2023 favorite), “Locomotiva Ibiza 2099” is out via Circo Loco Records and comes from the first installment of a two part EP, with the second installment coming in September. Both are out via CircoLoco Records, the label birthed from Ibiza’s DC10 where Mochakk is a current resident. He’ll play his own Mochakk Calling event in São Paulo this Saturday, July 27, along with upcoming festivals including Lollapalooza, Osheaga and Hard Summer. — K.B.

Boys Noize, “Fvkvrvnd”

[embedded content]

Ahead of Hard Summer next weekend, the festival’s namesake label is setting the tone for the event with this, the latest from German fav Boys Noize. Clocking in at a throttling, threatening 148 BPM, the track is all kickdrum and relentless buzzaw bassline, adding up to a happily hectic, cathartically tough song that sounds like it’s got your head in a vice in the best kind of way. Naturally, Boys Noize plays Hard Summer on the first day of the August 3-4 festival in Los Angeles. — K.B.

David Guetta & Oliver Heldens feat. Fast Boy, “Chills (Feel My Love)”

[embedded content]

This past week has yielded something of a stylistic whiplash for Oliver Heldens. Last Friday, the Dutch producer released the dark and absolutely drilling single “Baddadan Bad” under his Hi-Lo alias, and today he teams up with David Guetta and Fast Boy on “Chills (Feel My Love),” an uplifting summer anthem that invites hands-in-the-air festival moments. The powerful combination of skyward builds, stadium-sized synths and Fast Boy’s impassioned vocals must sound like how it feels when you experience a love so strong that your heart threatens to burst out of your chest.

“Earlier last year, I was looking for some uplifting vocals, and Fast Boy sent me a few vocal demos,” Heldens says. “One of them, ‘Chills,’ really stood out to me, and I was immediately drawn to its emotional and melancholic vibes, so I started working on it. In the summer of 2023, I tested an early demo at some of my shows but felt it wasn’t totally right, so I went into the studio and kept re-working, and during a session in Amsterdam during ADE where I actually met Fast Boy for the first time, we got it to a place where it sounded so big and fresh! The new version reminded us a lot of some of David Guetta’s older hits, like ‘When Love Takes Over,’ so we had to send it to him. He loved it and put his touch on it, and we all finished it up together!” — K.R.

This week in dance music: Anyma was announced as the first electronic artist to play Sphere in Las Vegas, with two additional shows quickly being added to the originally announced New Years Eve Date. Will Ferrell announced that Swedish House Mafia will be playing his big charity show in Chicago this fall, Charli XCX told us about her brat summer strategy in our latest cover story, we went inside the Saudi Arabian dance-focused festival Soundstorm and dropped exclusive sets from Lightning In a Bottle 2024.
You wanted more? Baby, we’ve got more. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.

Trending on Billboard

Snakehips x Earthgang, “Glimmer”

[embedded content]

U.K. production outfit Snakehips links with Atlanta hip-hop duo Earthgang for a project that could of course only be called Snakegang. The fearsome foursome come hot out the gate with “Glimmer,” which mind melts house music as bubbly as freshly poured champagne with breezy verses for a finished product that’s just plain summertime fun. The track comes from the just out Snakegang EP Vol. 1, a five track collection with a name that we hope means that more volumes are en route. Hear it on the floor during Snakehips’ U.S. club tour, which extends through late September.

Deadmau5, some ep

[embedded content]

The one and only Deadmau5 has dug into his archives for the new four-track some ep, which features three new Deadmau5 tracks and a fourth from his techno project Testpilot. Like the lead track “Quetzacotl” which came out last week, “Sever” is quintessential Deadmau5, with pulsing, cinematic synths giving way to territory that’s darker but, as ever, produced so cleanly that it seems to glow. “Sever” comes with a video of the song’s live show visualizer, with Deadmau5 himself currently building a new studio, wherein he will soon get to work on a new full-length. In the meantime, he’s got a stacked summer and fall schedule that includes performing with Rezz as Rezzmau5 at Tomorrowland this weekend and his own Day of the Deadmau5 shows in October in Chicago, Washington D.C., Mexico City and Puerto Rico.

Hugel, Topic & Arash 7 Daecolm, “I Adore You”

[embedded content]

If the phrase “simmering lust” had a soundtrack, it’d be this one from French producer Hugel, German/Croation producer Topic, Swedish artist Arash and Zimbabwe-born, London-raised singer Daecolm. Together, the guys fuse Latin and Afro-house rhythms for a track, out via Astralwerks, that’s subtle, sophisticated, radiating romance and perhaps most crucially, currently blowing up on TikTok and other social platforms.

Gorgon City, “Are You Feeling It Too?”

[embedded content]

Two of the most consistent guys in the game, Gorgon City today drop their club-focused summer album Reverie. The track opens with “Are You Feeling It Too,” a query which in this moment in time could refer to the creeping feeling of societal dystopia but which in this case seems to just mean the chemistry between two humans who are very into each other. In any case, the juxtaposition of the dreamy/stoney vocals and shifts into tougher, darker, higher-BPM material that, just like so much of the GC catalog, works very well.

Overmono, “Gem Lingo (ovr now)”

[embedded content]

This one from the Welsh duo was debuted during a Lot Radio set alongside Fred again.. and Lil Yachty this past February, quickly becoming an in-demand ID. Officially out today via XL Recordings, it’s clear why — with the shuffling garage beat serving as a foundation for clouds of synth and vocals from Jai Paul’s Paul Institute-affiliated singer/songwriter Ruthven, whose presence gives the whole thing a plaintive, soulful and deeply human quality.

Sofi Tukker, “Hey Homie”

[embedded content]

Coming from Sofi Tukker’s forthcoming album, Bread, “Hey Homie” is lyrically about romantic love, although the video for the gentle, Brazilian-influenced track gives it a platonic twist, with the clip built of home-movie style clips of the duo’s Sofi Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern traveling the world, making music, performing and generally being, well, homies. A sweet as hell recommended watch.

Praxis feat. Kathy Brown, “Turn Me Out (Extended Dance Remix)”

[embedded content]

Kathy Brown is the legendary singer whose voice has graced dance classics including Eminence’s “Give It Up” and Soul Central’s “Strings of Life”, with a new collection celebrating her truly dazzling catalog — and also functioning as a fundraiser to help Brown pay for her current stage four cancer treatments. Out via Glitterbox, which will direct all profits towards Brown’s healthcare fund, Legacy brings together some of her classics, along with new edits — including an undeniable take on “Turn Me Out,” a 1997 Dance Club Songs No. 1.

“None of us can live forever, but some are fortunate enough to create a body of work that will endure long after we are no longer physically present on this Earth,” Brown says in a statement. “I always put the entirety of my soul into every single performance and recording, and that is what the world will hear when they listen, play, and dance to this album. That will be my legacy.”

Electronic music is landing at Sphere. After much speculation about which electronic act might be the first to bring the genre to the boundary-pushing venue in Las Vegas, Sphere announced on Monday (July 15) that the role will be filled by Anyma. The Italian producer, born Matteo Milleri, is also one half of the duo […]