Dance
Page: 35
This week in dance music: Charli XCX announced dates for the tour behind her forthcoming album, BRAT, we shared exclusive sets from the spring edition of CRSSD and ran down the best moments of Ultra Music Festival 2024. Meanwhile, Ultra headliner Calvin Harris had some sharp words for critics of his festival set, and IMS Ibiza announced the speaker lineup for its conference next month.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
And, here are the best new dance tracks of the week.
Trending on Billboard
HoneyLuv, “Right Spot”
[embedded content]
Cleveland-born, London-based house producer HoneyLuv makes her debut of Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels label with “Right Spot.” Built from pulsing synth and scintillating percussion, the track is HoneyLuv’s first solo release of the year and comes in tandem with remixes from Dennis Ferrer and Byron The Aquarius. “I was inspired to make this track after listening to some old school deep Chicago tracks and wanted to make something of my own,” she says. “I wanted to experiment with this track to create something different and simple. The lyrics flowed to me, and the rest is history.”
Purple Disco Machine feat. Roosevelt, “Higher Ground”
[embedded content]
After repeatedly running into each other at festivals around the world, German favs Purple Disco Machine and Roosevelt decided to make something together, with the resulting “Higher Ground” fusing PDM’s signature ’80s synth aesthetic and Roosevelt’s indie electronic style. Out via Sony Music Germany/RCA Records, the song oscillates between dark and light, thumping along on a heavy bassline and building to moments of brightness rendered from Roosevelt’s melodies. “I loved the process of sending Tino a vocal and him tailoring the whole track around it,” Roosevelt says of the process. “I was able to take a step back from production duties and focus on my vocal performance, which was challenging but a lot of fun.”
Walker & Royce, No Big Deal
[embedded content]
The New York City duo release the second album of their 13 year history with No Big Deal, out via Dirtybird Records. The 10-track project is sophisticated yet unpretentious house music, pure party starting fare that finds the pair — Sam Walker and Gavin Royce — letting their club-focused heaters prevail over TikToks and marketing plans. “Good music isn’t enough anymore; today it seems like you need to release music with something attached to it in order for it to make any kind of forward motion,” the pair tell Billboard in a joint statement. “No Big Deal is poised to be the opposite of that. With limited announce to release timelines, the goal for this rollout was music first, gimmick last. Make something memorable that sticks, and you won’t have anything to worry about.”
Gesaffelstein, GAMMA
[embedded content]
Clocking in at a tight 27 minutes, Gesaffelstein’s 11-track album GAMMA finds the French producer in a characteristically dark and heavy state of play, with these songs taking that aesthetic and pushing it further into post-punk, distorted experimental electronic, industrial and even, in more than one moment, doo wop. Consider our interest piqued in regard to how the producer will present this music next month at Coachella, which are currently the only shows on his tour schedule.
Jauz, “Teardrops”
[embedded content]
Bay Area-born, Los Angeles-based mainstay Jauz returns with “Teardrops,” a slinky, sophisticated house track centered around stuttering synth. (Early cosigns have come from fellow artists including Illenium, who simply commented “Fire” on an Instagram post previewing the song.) Out via the producer’s own Bite This! label, “Teardrops” comes ahead of Jauz’s Wise vs. Wicked 2024 tour behind his 2023 albums Rise of the Wise and Wrath of the Wicked. Launching next month, each tour stop will feature a pair of shows, with fans able to buy tickets for a progressive house-focused “Wise” set, a bass-heavy “Wicked” show, or both.
Despite reports that Tomorrowland will be launching a Thai edition of the festival in 2026, organizers say this event is not yet a reality.
Last week, the English language Thai news site The Nation published a story quoting Thai government spokesperson Chai Wacharonke, who said the festival was coming to Thailand and could be hosted there for 10 consecutive years.
But in a statement provided Friday (March 29) to Billboard, festival representative Debby Wilmsen says that while “Tomorrowland has a real interest in Thailand and is seriously exploring the possibility of a festival in Thailand … at this stage, there is no confirmation yet on an actual festival taking place.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
But that’s not to say this event won’t happen, with the statement noting that currently, “Tomorrowland is investigating the feasibility of the project, and has signed an exclusive MOU agreement with a Thai private sector partner to conduct this study together.”
Trending on Billboard
This memorandum of understanding is a legal agreement indicating an intended common action, with the feasibility study intending to make clear whether or not Tomorrowland Thailand can occur. The statement concludes, “Tomorrowland is very honored that the authorities are eager to welcome us.”
If launched, the event would mark the fourth edition of Tomorrowland to happen outside of its home in Belgium, with the company hosting TomorrowWorld in Georgia from 2013 to 2015, Tomorrowland Brazil in 2015-2016 and again in 2023, and Tomorrowland Winter in the French Alps annually since 2019.
Meanwhile, the mothership edition will happen in Boom, Belgium, July 19-21 and 26-28, with a genre-spanning lineup of dance artists including Swedish House Mafia, Tale of Us, Alesso, Amelie Lens, Bonobo, Dom Dolla, The Blessed Madonna, Rezz and Deadmau5 performing as REZZMAU5, David Guetta, Solomun b2b Four Tet, Eliza Rose and hundreds of others.
Tomorrowland co-founder Michiel Beers will also deliver a keynote speech at IMS Ibiza 2024, happening next month on the conference’s namesake island.
IMS Ibiza has announced the lineup for its 15th annual conference next month. The 2024 event happens April 24-26 and takes place at a new location, the Mondrian Ibiza and Hyde Ibiza hotels. The program features more than 60 discussions and 125 speakers over three days.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Program highlights include a keynote speech from Tomorrowland co-founder Michiel Beers, Defected Records founder Simon Dunmore and new CEO Wez Saunders in conversation with IMS co-founder Pete Tong and Aloki Batra, the new CEO of Pacha Group. Additionally, the conference will include its annual presentation of the IMS Business Report, which includes a breakdown of the dance industry’s performance over the last 12 months.
Artist appearances include a conversation with Fatboy Slim on the 30 year anniversary of his Southern Fried Records label, Amapiano star Sarz, Brazilian phenom Mochakk, rising producer Chloe Caillet and many more. Meanwhile, an event titled “Celebrating the Godfather of House: 10 Years of the Frankie Knuckles Foundation” will honor the pioneering producer’s life and achievements.
Trending on Billboard
There will also be live recordings of Resident Advisor‘s RA Exchange podcast featuring Smokin’Jo, DJ Pierre and Juan Atkins. A live recording of Jaguar’s Utopia Talks, hosted by BBC Radio 1 presenter and IMS co-host Jaguar, will feature TSHA, DJ Paulette and Smokin’ Jo discussing the experiences of Black women in dance music. There will also be a new space hosted by U.K. party collective HE.SHE.THEY. and many more.
See the complete 2024 program on IMS’s website.
The theme of this year’s conference is “rebuilding our community,” with a featured conversation called “How To Bring Back Peace, Love, Unity & Respect” looking at how the dance scene can restore its values amid a fractured community, particularly with respect to recent global events.
“These are strained and complicated times in electronic music – not a landscape this industry has had to navigate before,” IMS co-founder Ben Turner said in a statement. “Now in our 15th edition, the key theme of trying to understand how to Rebuild Our Community is designed to be constructive, positive and impactful. Special thanks to the team of IMS advisors and experts for their input to this year’s program. We hope those in attendance will find something insightful and inspirational to take home with them along with new connections, new music and positive thoughts and actions for the future.”

After headlining the Main Stage at Ultra Music Festival in Miami on the final night of the festival this past Sunday (March 24), Calvin Harris defended the performance to a gaggle of internet haters.
In the comments section of a post about the set on the Instagram account for dance music publication Dancing Astronaut, two commenters called the performance “underwhelming.”
Trending on Billboard
In response, Harris joined the conversation yesterday (March 27) to defend the massive success of his catalog, writing “You expect me to play none of my songs? … how deep is your love – billion streams, this is what u came for – billion streams, my way – billion streams, slide – billion streams, feels – billion streams, one kiss – billion streams, and the other 5 half a bil, and before 2014 another 20, and not cheesy s—, proper f—ing songs with real artists, and you’d rather I play “Fein” trap edits today,” referring to the 2023 Travis Scott and Playboi Carti song.
Harris’ set featured many of his aforementioned classics, including the 2016 Rihanna collab “This Is What You Came For,” his 2012 Ellie Goulding collab “I Need Your Love” and his era-defining 2011 anthem “Feel So Close.” Harris continued by noting that he “spent months making new versions of everything for this,” pointing to the new and unreleased edits of his music featured in the Ultra set.
“And you wonder why I never play edm festivals,” he wrote. “At least people I saw irl had a great time and I can be happy with that, but f— at this point whatever I do is gonna piss you off.”
Harris’ comment garnered a furry of support, with one commenter responding that “no need to cater to these trolls sir, you will always be one of the greatest producers of all time for many of us.”
This Ultra performance marked Harris’ first appearance at the Miami festival in 11 years. The Scottish producer’s summer tour schedule includes a handful of European festivals, dates at LIV Nightclub in Las Vegas and his residency at Ushuaïa in Ibiza.
03/26/2024
Despite (and maybe also because of) a Friday night rainstorm, dance music’s first festival of the 2024 season felt like one for the record books.
03/26/2024
CRSSD began its nine-year anniversary celebrations earlier this month (March 2-3) when the festival returned to San Diego’s Waterfront Park for its spring iteration.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Produced by FNGRS CRSSD and Goldenvoice, the event has been a mainstay on the Southern California dance festival circuit since 2015, when it launched as a boutique destination for house and techno fans in SoCal, a market then dominated by dance megafestivals like EDC and HARD.
CRSSD’s 2024 spring festival (another follows annually each fall) welcomed roughly 15,000 fans per day, along with headliners including Tale of Us, Armand Van Helden, Jeff Milles and Lane 8. Additionally, the event hosted a flurry of crucial rising and veteran artists including Syreeta, Joris Voorn, Trym and X Club. Hear exclusive sets from these four acts below.
Trending on Billboard
Syreeta
Ending her debut U.S. tour with this CRSSD appearance, the London-based producer opened her set with a spacious, slow-build edit of Kendrick Lamar’s 2012 classic “Swimming Pools,” shifted into Latin rhythms, a subtle remix of Eminem’s “Superman” and then put her foot on the gas for an hour of fresh, sophisticated house music.
Joris Voorn
The Dutch mainstay played an evening set on the festival’s City Steps stage, opening with Infamous Zol’s lush 2019 production “Nocturnals” before ramping up into 90 minutes of progressive house and melodic techno that altogether helped segue the festival from day to night.
Trym
French DJ Trym wasted no time getting into it, starting his set with heavy-hitting techno and maintaining a very high BPM for the duration of his March 2 headlining set on the festival’s City Steps stage.
X Club.
On Saturday, the Australian duo played to a packed late afternoon crowd on CRSSD’s City Steps stage. There, they delivered an impeccable set made from ravey electronica, increasingly hard techno, one surprising and very welcome “Groove Is in the Heart” remix and a trance-oriented finale.
Charli XCX announced the international dates for her 2024 Brat tour on Monday (March 25), which will be a mix of live concerts and what she’s dubbed “partygirl” events. The run will kick off with a set at Primavera Sound Barcelona on June 1, followed by shows in London, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Mexico City before winding down on June 22 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Just hours after announcing the dates, the singer noted on Instagram that all the shows were already sold out.
At press time Charli had not yet announced the release date for BRAT, her sixth full-length album, though she did recently reveal that it is out this summer, contains 15 songs and is 41:23 long. The follow-up to her 2022 album Crash has been advanced by the uptempo first single, “Von Dutch.”
Trending on Billboard
Speaking to Billboard at this year’s 2024 Women in Music event, Charli said that BRAT is a club record meant to evoke the illegal London rave scene of the early 2000s where she started performing as a 14 and 15-year-old, produced from a tight collection of sounds to create “this unique minimalism that is very loud and bold.”
She also said that the album is “very direct” eschewing “metaphor and flowery lyricism” for language that is closer to the way she talks to her friends in text messages. “This record is all the things I would talk about with my friends, said exactly how I would say them. It’s in ways very aggressive and confrontational, but also very conversational and personal,” she said. “And not in that boring way where artists are like, ‘This is my most personal record.’ To me, it feels like listening to a conversation with a friend.
See the Brat tour announcement and dates below.
BRAT tour dates:
June 1 — Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound Barcelona
June 7 — London, England @ Here at Outernet
June 11 — Queens, NY @ Knockdown Center
June 12 — Chicago, IL @ Radius
June 15 — Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Expo Hall
June 19 — Mexico City, Mexico @ LooLoo Studio
June 22 — São Paulo, Brazil @ Zig Club
Jon Bon Jovi made what was arguably the most unexpected appearance at Ultra Music Festival 2024 in Miami over the weekend, performing with trance legend Armin van Buuren during van Buuren’s Sunday night (March 24) mainstage festival set.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Bon Jovi arrived onstage in jeans, a white t-shirt, sneakers and sunglasses, jumping up and down alongside Van Buuren while the producer unveiled his remix of the 1992 Bon Jovi classic “Keep The Faith.” Bon Jovi then climbed up on the decks to sing along with the edit, for which van Buuren added a kickdrum thump to the song’s classic “everybody needs somebody to love” build.
“Ultra make some noise for this legend Mr. Jon Bon Jovi!” van Buuren yelled into the mic as the song came to its climax, with van Buuren outfitting the original with shimmery trance elements and turning the dial all the way up on the chorus as pyro shot from the stage during the climax. A fan in the audience caught video of the moment, with Van Buuren also sharing footage on his Instagram stories.
Trending on Billboard
“It’s an incredible honor to remix this track and to share the stage with Jon Bon Jovi, as I’ve been a massive fan for years,” van Buuren says in a statement. “This track is different from anything I’ve ever released before, and no better place to first share it with you all than on the Ultra mainstage.”
“Keep The Faith” spent 16 weeks on the Hot 100 in the fall of 1992, peaking at No. 29. It’s a busy time for the Bon Jovi frontman, with the band preparing for the release of its 16th studio album, Forever, coming June 9. A docuseries about the band, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, will debut on Hulu April 26 in conjunction with the New Jersey band’s 40th anniversary.
Ultra may be one of the only live appearances in the cards for the iconic Bon Jovi frontman, 61, in the near future, as he is still recovering from a 2022 vocal chord surgery and recently said that he’s not yet sure about touring behind Forever.
“I don’t know about a tour,” Bon Jovi told Mix 104.1 Boston earlier this month. “It is my desire to do a tour next year, but I’m just still recovering from a major surgery.”
Day one of Ultra Music festival 2024 has been shut down due to severe weather. As thunder and lightning storms and strong winds moved through the Miami area, where the festival takes place in the city’s downtown Bayfront Park, organizers posted an announcement that “for your safety, Ultra Friday is temporarily shutting down. Please calmly […]

This week in dance music: Australian dance festival Rabbit Eats Lettuce announced that it will be the first event in Australian history to offer on-site pill testing, Coachella will debut a new stage for extended dance sets called Quasar at the festival next month and Illenium — who’s on the current cover of Billboard — was announced amongst a massive lineup for Summerfest 2024.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
And these are the best new dance tracks of the week.
Trending on Billboard
Logic1000, Mother
[embedded content]
There’s dance music to dance to, and there’s dance music to live with. The debut album from Logic1000, Mother, delivers both. Out via Because Music, the 12-track LP opens with “From Within,” a lush, cerebral slice of lDM built from clean breakbeat and a gently pulsing synth that’s altogether deep, nuanced and appropriate for a cozy Friday night on the couch. Elsewhere, the Australia-born, Berlin-based producer born Samantha Poulter gets the blood pumping with club-ready tracks like the slinky, sophisticated “Side by Side.” Altogether, the project is an homage to Poulter becoming a mother (she and her husband, fellow producer Tom McAlister, welcomed a daughter in 2022) and all the depth, nuance, excitement and reflection that comes with it.
“If hearing the story about my transformation during motherhood inspires someone to look deep within themselves and think about how they want to grow and transform,” Poulter recently told Billboard, “that will make this album successful to me.”
Cakes Da Killa, Black Sheep
[embedded content]
Over three albums going back eight years, New York City’s Cakes Da Killa has cultivated a flow best described as unmistakable. That signature vocal dexterity and lyrical verve are all over his latest LP, Black Sheep, produced in partnership with Cakes’ longtime collaborator Sam Katz and out via Tokimonsta’s Young Art Record. The album contains already released dancefloor fire including “Mindreader” and the Rochelle Jordan collab “Do Dat Baby.” Meanwhile the brand new “Make Me Ovah” finds the hip-house artist at his coolest and most confident, singing about taking flights to Brazil and “going straight through the gate ’cause I’m worth the mils.” To wit, Cakes is currently on tour in Australia, Korea and China.
Justice feat. Miguel, “Saturnine”
[embedded content]
After dipping into both lightly psychedelic and body-pummeling territory on the previously released singles from their forthcoming Hyperdrama, Justice shifts into hazy, slow burn mode on “Saturnine,” a collaboration with the perpetually silken-voiced Miguel. Made from waves of synthesized guitar, crashes of percussion and a cheeky bell, the track finds the duo at their most playful.
“We don’t think we’ve ever made anything that sounds remotely like this track before,” the pair, Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, say in a statement. “It started with Gaspard playing around with an E-mu synthesizer guitar sound, and he found the main riff. The rest came very quickly. We love Miguel’s voice when it’s raw. We wanted him to sound outrageously frontal, with no space around his voice. We felt confident we could make this work with a single mono take of his voice, and minimal processing. It also suited the theme of the song, that’s this sort of fear and loathing in Las Vegas sweaty, hallucinatory flow. Feeling well in feeling bad.”
Speaking with Billboard at SXSW in Austin last week, the duo confirmed that they’ll tour North America behind the album, with dates to be announced. They also just added a second show at Paris’ Accor Arena in December after the first sold out in a flash.
Seven Lions & ILLENIUM feat. ÁSDÍS, “Not Even Love”
[embedded content]
Illenium and Seven Lions reunite for their first collaboration in eight years, “Not Even Love.” Getting its live debut during Seven Lion’s surprise appearance at Illenium’s Trilogy show at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium last month, the track is a slick hybrid of Seven Lions’ trance-iest impulses and Illenium’s chest-pumping future bass, with vocals from Iceland-born, Berlin-based vocalist ÁSDÍS turning the emotion dial up to anthemic. The track is Illenium’s first single of 2024, with collaborations with REZZ, Tiësto, Mike Shinoda and more also forthcoming. Meanwhile, Seven Lions plays Ultra Music Festival in Miami this weekend.
Ahadadream, Priya Ragu & Skrillex, “TAKA”
[embedded content]
British-Pakistani producer Ahadadream and Tamil-Swiss artist Priya Ragu link with Skrillex for the undeniable “TAKA.” Recorded in London a few years back and previewed during Ahadadream’s debut Boiler Room set last September — a show during which Skrillex materialized as if from nowhere when the song played — the track melds warm waves of synth, lyrics paying homage to South Asian culture from Ragu like “Chin Mudras up/ Take off, levitate/ It’s a vibe, it’s a vibe/ Let the dhol demonstrate,” loads of hand percussion and a generally extremely ebullient vibe.
Ragu is currently on tour in the U.S., while Ahadadream is playing The Do Lab stage at Coachella next month and Skrillex is making his only North American U.S. festival appearance of the summer at Lightning In a Bottle in May. Meanwhile, “TAKA” is out via Major Recordings and FFRR.
SIDEPIECE & San Pacho, “Taka”
[embedded content]
Wait, what? Yes indeed, there are two dance tracks named “Taka” out today. Why? We’re not sure. While Skrillex’s and crew’s song possesses South Asian influence, SIDEPIECE and Croatian producer San Pacho offer a Latin-leaning, tech house oriented track, with the song outfitted with a horn, hand percussion and a male voice repeating the song’s title at a rapidfire pace.
Moby feat. Lady Blackbird “dark days”
[embedded content]
Earlier this week Moby announced his 22nd (!) studio album, Always Centered At Night, with the news coming in tandem with his latest single, “dark days.” A collaboration with jazz and soul singer Lady Blackbird, the track lays her rich, deeply human voice over production that merges scintillating percussion and bass groove, with the whole thing pulling off that very Moby balance of beauty and doom. Always Centered At Night features collaborations with 13 different artists and is coming June 13 via Moby’s label of the same name. The artist will also play five European shows this September to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of his era-defining album, Play.