Dance
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“Mwaki,” the urgent progressive house track from Brazilian producer Zerb and Kenyan singer Sofiya Nzau, has been a dance world sensation since its release last November. The track hit No. 1 on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart, with more than 100,000 videos created by fans on social media, and is currently at No. 3 on the global Shazam chart.
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The track — sung in the tribal Kenyan language of Kikuyu — also gained momentum with recent remixes by Major Lazer and Tiësto, with edits from Franky Wah, Major League DJz, Tyler ICU, and Chris Avantgarde forthcoming. The song’s title translates to “fire.”
“I knew ‘Mwaki’ was special, but I didn’t expect the success and love that the song has had,” Zerb said in a statement. “I’m very happy not only with the result, but also with the opportunity to spread my music to the world.”
Now “Mwaki” is coming to life even more vividly via it’s just-out video, starring Zerb, Nzau and a fleet of Kenyan dancers. Directed by by Mikhail Mehra — who helmed the classic video for Major Lazer’s “Lean On” — the video was made in Kenya’s stunning Hells Gate National Park, where the crew traversed the park’s gorges by rope (and avoided the local hippopotamuses) while filming in the canyons and fields.
“Everybody on the team just making miracles happen,” Mehra said in a statement. “Hopefully, we make Kenya proud, because it was a tremendous experience.”
The clip comes with the announcement that the São Paulo-born producer, who has performed at Lollapalooza and Rock In Rio, has signed with UTA for live representation in all territories excluding Brazil.
The track is out on the indie label TH3RD BRAIN, whose global campaign behind the track successfully broken the song in myriad countries.
“Music doesn’t have borders today. It’s inspiring that an artist in Kenya can upload her vocals to the internet, be found by a Brazilian DJ, and turned into one of the biggest dance records of the year,” TH3RD Brain’s Alec Udell tells Billboard. “As an independent label, our partner network is set up to tell stories like this across the globe. Zerb and his manager Gabriel have been at this game for over ten years so what’s next for them is what’s really exciting to us.”
Watch Zerb’s “Mwaki” music video below:
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Go to any given spa or yoga studio and you’re likely to hear music or soundscapes designed to help you relax. Sometimes the sound is of a pan flute, or soft rain. Most often, though, you’ll hear some form of ambient music: gentle, often instrumental “chill out” productions meant to enhance the serene atmosphere.
Now, two longstanding electronic music industry executives, in partnership with leaders in the wellness and music audio technology spaces, are getting into the genre through a new ambient label: Sacred Society Music Group.
The label is a project of founders Bradley Roulier, who also co-founded the electronic music digital download store Beatport in 2004, and Barbie Beltran, a wellness expert and co-founder of a Denver wellness center also called Sacred Society. Co-founders include Paul Morris — the founder of electronic agency AM Only, which was acquired by Paradigm in 2017, and Tiësto’s longtime manager — and Dolby Atmos specialist Adelio Lombardi. Matthew Evertsen handles A&R and special projects.
With Sacred Society, the label’s founders are aiming to heighten the quality and effectiveness of ambient music by producing its entire catalog in Dolby Atmos — a move they believe can increase the well-being of listeners who use the genre for relaxation, sleep and various wellness practices.
“As label owners, we felt we could make this music that is part of life extraordinary,” Roulier tells Billboard.
Based in Denver, the label launched this week with a collection of more than 55 tracks and over six hours of immersive content. A track named “Ancient Chant” features hand drum, a rain stick and lapping water with various bells and a voice repeating, “You have it all inside.” A meditation track, “Inside The Womb Of The Earth,” is precisely 11 minutes and 11 seconds long.
This music, organized by more than two dozen tags to help users find ambient sounds best suited for certain activities and times of day, is currently available on Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon Music. (It’s not yet on Spotify or YouTube, as those platforms don’t currently support Dolby Atmos.) So far the label features music from nine contributing musicians including Dynasty Electric, Matthew James Kelly, Cobane Ivory, Sean Stolar and Roulier himself, with all artists appearing under the “Sacred Society” name.
While a barrage of ambient music already exists on the market (a search for “ambient” on Spotify results in upwards of 30 playlists), the Sacred Society founders believe their output is distinguished by its production in Dolby Atmos. The spatial audio technology adds dimension and depth to music and can only be made, and played, through specialized equipment. The label founders claim that listeners will benefit from this technology; as Roulier says, by helping them “explore meditative and ambient soundscapes more deeply than [they] ever thought possible.”
Sacred Society Music Group’s side3 studio in Denver, Colo./Photo Courtesy Sacred Society Music Group
Sacred Society music is produced exclusively at Denver’s Dolby Atmos-equipped side3 studio, which was built by Lombardi. While construction of the studio required, as a Sacred Society rep says, “significant financial investment,” it was more intensive to set up the precise technical specifications necessary to record in Dolby Atmos.
But this investment was worth it, Lombardi tells Billboard, because “adding immersive audio to this [music] experience elevates it significantly.”
This may all sound like a niche endeavor, but there’s potential to tap a wide audience given how many people engage in wellness practices at home and how often this music is licensed for use in facilities like spas and yoga studios. Roulier says the group “wants our music to be widely available within the wellness space globally,” and has discussed launching a subscription service tailored for practitioners, hotels and spas that would allow them to use Sacred Society content commercially.
The demand for ambient music is also expected to grow; the label cites a report that says the genre was valued at $1.8 billion in 2022, with that number expected to rise to $3.21 billion by 2030. The demand for Dolby Atmos is also expanding, with the label citing a statistic that 90% of Apple Music users have engaged with the format, as well as that plays for music available in spatial audio have more than tripled in the past two years.
All this work is ultimately meant to deliver on the founders’ goal of sharing the holistic benefits embedded in the genre.
“I have always enjoyed ambient music, and I truly believe that music has the power to heal,” Morris tells Billboard. “With anxiety, depression, and mental health problems having escalated to unprecedented levels in our society, I can’t think of a more fitting time for the launch of Sacred Society Music. I have made a living from music my entire career and, by helping to put this music out into the world, I feel I am giving back in a small way through a medium that has given so much to me.”
“It’s about providing a unique and serene musical journey for our listeners, regardless of market trends,” Beltran adds. “We aim to offer a path to serenity, self-discovery and inner harmony through the transformative power of sound.”
This week in dance music: Lightning In a Bottle announed a 2024 lineup lead by Skrillex, Labrinth and James Blake, Boiler Room announced its 2024 world tour city stops, Movement 2024 announced its phase one lineup, Tomorrowland announced a lineup for its July festival featuring more than 400 artists, Justice announced the release date for their fourth studio album, Hyperdrama, Michael Bibi announced a comeback show after beating cancer that’s being billed as the biggest ever electronic music show in London and the Super Bowl announced that Tiësto (who also released a track with his pal Heidi Klum this week) will be the first ever in-game DJ for the game in February.
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That’s a whole lot of announcements, and there’s new music too. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.
Carlita, “Cash for Love’
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Turkish-born producer Carlita had a very big 2023, racking up streams and touring the world playing shows and festivals including Coachella, Glastonbury and Burning Man. (Many of them alongside DJ Tennis, who she plays with as Astra Club.) Now she’s aiming for a similarly massive 2024, with those efforts including “Cash For Love,” a deep house trip of a track built around vocals finely chopped into a hooky melody which altogether demonstrates Carlita’s penchant for lush, hypnotic productions that balance depth, toughness and a cool sort of beauty. The track is out via CircoLoco Records. Astra Club is headlining Space in Miami on Feb. 3, and Carlita will return to Coachella in April.
Purple Disco Machine & ÁSDÍS, “Beat of Your Heart”
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German disco maestro Purple Disco Machine does it again with “Beat of Your Heart,” a collab with velvet-voiced Icelandic singer ÁSDIS. Like so much of the producer’s work, the track manages to heavily incorporate pop-forward ’80s synth without veering into pastiche. Recorded in the producer’s Dresden studio, the song comes with a music video situated on both a nightclub dancefloor and within the vital organ referenced in the title. The producer will play Coachella this April and launch a European tour in the fall.
The Temper Trap, “Sweet Disposition” (John Summit & Silver Panda Remix)
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Many producers have successfully — often epically, sometimes tearjerkingly — remixed The Temper Trap’s 2008 indie pop classic “Sweet Disposition” (we’re looking at you, Swedish House Mafia). But John Summit and Israeli melodic techno duo Silver Panda prove that there’s still juice to be squeezed here with their own fresh edit. Out on Summit’s Experts Only label, the remix (unsurprisingly) takes the song in a melodic house direction, with the trio in moments paring the production down to only its most essential parts before ramping the whole the back up to a dark, pummeling place that gives the now 16-year-old hit a very current sound of dance music update.
Rinzen feat. Shallou, “Burnin’”
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Los Angeles-based producer Rinzen has been releasing meticulously made house and techno with soul for upwards of seven years, in the process having caught the attention of Richie Hawtin, Rüfüs du Sol and deadmau5, all of whom Rinzen has supported during live shows. He’s releasing his debut album, Bend To The Light, on April 5 through Lane 8’s label This Never Happened, with the album’s lead single “Burnin” — a steamy, sleek melodic house collaboration with L.A.-based singer/producer Shallou — setting a high bar for the rest of the project.
Bad Tuner, “24 Hours”
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New York City-based producer Bad Tuner makes his debut on Foreign Family Collective / Ninja Tune with “24 Hours.” Evoking the acid-soaked sounds of peak era Chemical Brothers, the song achieves a thrilling, hectic kind of grittiness, but holds a deep message about connectedness. Says the producer: “Social media can create a false sense of connection in the sense that you’re seeing snippets of everyone’s lives from a one-sided lens… Music on the other hand — through public performance, through community, and group listening is a universal language — it is a means to connect and share. It is both the musician and the fans that make a show special, they feed on each other’s energy. In the crowd you dance with a stranger, you look over and see your friends enjoying the song you love, and when there is nothing to say you can just listen!”
Following public backlash, the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Ga. has cancelled a pair of Bassnectar shows scheduled at the venue for April. The cancellation comes amid an ongoing lawsuit against the producer for sexual misconduct allegations. The producer, born Lorin Ashton, has denied these claims. “Upon learning about the allegations facing the artist […]
There’s no mistaking the opening riff. A moody synth played in a minor key bumps back and forth over a insistent kickdrum before Corey Hart saunters onto the song to sing about wearing his sunglasses at night, so he can “watch you weave then breathe your story lines.”
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Today (Jan. 26), the 1983 classic – which spent 23 weeks on the Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 7 — gets a reboot from Heidi Klum.
Yes, Heidi Klum! The German supermodel, television host and noted Halloween-enthusiast has extended her musical catalog with a club-ready remake of the hit with help from her longtime pal, Tiësto.
“Okay everyone get your sunglasses out,” Klum purrs on the opening of the track, which serves as the theme song to the new season of the Klum-hosted Germany’s Next Top Model. But over Zoom, Klum, 50, says that the sync “is not the whole reason I’m doing this; it’s more because it’s so fun to do.”
“I love a lot of different things than just modeling or sitting on America’s Got Talent,” she continues, looking characteristically goddesslike while sitting crosslegged, wearing a flowy white top and pants. “I love painting; I’ve loved designing my whole life, or coming up with crazy costume ideas for Halloween. I’ve always loved being a creative person. And for me, music was always part of that.”
The “Sunglasses At Night” remake started when Klum and Tiësto (who was just anointed as the first ever in-game DJ for the 2024 Super Bowl) were hanging out before one of his shows, and Klum pitched him the idea.
“It was completely natural to want to help her with the production,” Tiësto tells Billboard. Not long after, Klum got in the studio and passed over her breathy, delicate vocals. “It was such a great experience working with not only a friend, but such a professional,” he adds. “You never know how something is going to turn out … and this one I love.”
Debuted during a November Tiësto set at Zouk in Las Vegas (to which Klum wore, naturally, very large, very dark black sunglasses), the track expands her catalog, which also includes the 2022 Snoop Dogg collab “Chai Tea With Heidi” and the the 2006 Christmas song “Wonderland.”
Here, Klum reflects on wearing sunglasses during nights that have turned into mornings, and more.
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You’ve traveled the world with your career, so you must have had access to all the best nightclubs. What are your memories of those days?
I never went out a lot because I was always working so much. Traveling, being jet-lagged, I would go to events and then maybe to an after party, but then I was home. When I had my first child, then second, then third, then fourth, I didn’t go out much because I was always super tired. I’m going out more now at 50 than other people go out in their 20s.
Where do you like to go out?
When the kids are with their dad, I love to sometimes go to Las Vegas with my husband. Last time we were in Las Vegas was for Formula 1, and Tiësto’s set started at one in the morning and went until 3 a.m. Then afterwards we went to another party, then another. I wore the glasses that night, and then the sun came up.
That makes me so excited, because I feel like I’ve achieved a night where I stayed out and was not the boring mom in bed at 9:30. I can still do it. It makes me personally happy. There are other people that are like, “the sun is coming out” and they hate it. They’re like vampires. I love it, because I actually stayed awake. For me, this is always an achievement.
After a big night like that, how do you take care of yourself the next day?
Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, and then usually a Big Mac with fries and a Coca-Cola. That is like medicine.
Outside of Vegas have you been to any clubs or festivals that were especially memorable?
I go to Burning Man almost every year … Probably from all the festivals, Burning Man is my favorite. To me it’s the most free spirited. I love Coachella also, but it’s a lot of people very tight together and there’s a lot of Instagramming and social media and taking photos. Even paparazzi is there, so it’s very much out there for people to see what you do. Burning Man is about the arts. Have you ever been?
I have! But tell me about your experience.
So you understand it. You drive on the bicycle for miles, and it’s all of these amazing experiences. People always think that people just go there to party, but you see families there, because it’s a different kind of vibe. You have to kind of be okay with being super dirty. You have all these amazing DJs playing… I have my fishnet stockings on. I always go very sexy — I have no top on, so I’m just topless driving around on my bicycle, and no one gives a rat’s, which I love.
It’s hard to get to, and people really appreciate being there. No one leaves garbage anywhere; people are very respectful of the nature. From all festivals, that’s probably my favorite.
That’s so cool.
We go also to Coachella. I went with my kids, and that’s also fun because they introduced me to people they love that I’d never heard of before. Now I’m like, “What rock was I under?” Kali Uchis, for example, I love Kali Uchis now, but my son has been listening to her for way longer. At Coachella he’s like, “Kali Uchis is at this time,” and I’m like “What the heck is this Kali Uchis person?’ Then we go and it was like, “Oh my god, I love her.”
Heidi Klum & Tiësto
Conor Olmsted
What are your memories of the original “Sunglasses At Night”?
I just always remember how [Corey Hart] was so nonchalant in his singing. Like, when you look at the video, he just stands there. It almost feels like he just couldn’t care less. It’s not like, the vocal performance of a lifetime. But I feel like at that time, when people were singing, it was more about having a vibe than having the best vocal performance on the planet.
It was more of an attitude than trying to be Whitney Houston.
Yeah, it was an attitude. And I just always loved the song and the feeling it gave me. I feel like it can give that to a lot of other people too.
You have a lot of different creative outlets: painting, hosting, designing. Does singing provide you with anything that isn’t otherwise expressed?
It’s just a fun thing to do. I love getting ready before going out; I have the music blasting and sing along to it. Then it’s just the idea of hearing something and wishing I could redo it and make it more [modern.] Because of knowing so many people in the music world, I just have the opportunity to connect the dots and make these things happen. Obviously I’m very lucky that I’m surrounded by these amazing, talented people.
Maybe if it was just my voice, coming from the small town I come from, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity. But because of where I’ve finagled my way into, where I am today, they say yes to my crazy ideas.
The world’s biggest electronic music festival, Tomorrowland, has released its 2024 lineup. As always, the festival will gather many of the world’s biggest dance music artists for the event, happening in Boom, Belgium, July 19-21 and 26-28.
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You’ll need a magnifying glass to read the lineup poster, which features 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 other artists representing techno, hard techno, house, bass, EDM and most other varieties of electronic music.
Special events include Italian duo Tale of Us curating their own lineup at the Freedom stage on July 21 and July 28 — where performers will include Anyma, Argy, Chris Avantgarde, Kevin de Vries, MRAK, Olympe and more — and playing a mainstage show on July 27. Tale of Us’ Matteo Milleri will also perform o the mainstage for the first time on July 20 under with his Anyma project.
Amelie Lens’s EXHALE label will also curate a stage, with Lens also taking her style of techno to the festival mainstage.
Tomorrowland typically hosts 400,000 people over its two weekends, with organizers reporting that attendees come from 200 countries. The festival features 16 stages, along with expansive experiential areas, a sprawling campsite and other whimsical fun including a “Symphony of Unity” that fuses electronic and classical music and is composed especially for Tomorrowland.
The festival was founded by brothers Michiel and Many Beers in 2005.
See the Tomorrowland 2024 lineup below:
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Following Michael Bibi’s December announcement that he is officially free from cancer, the British producer is celebrating with a comeback tour titled One Life. The trek will include a July 6 stop at London’s 45,000-capacity Finsbury Park. In a press release the event’s producers, Cream and Festival Republic, are billing this performance as “the biggest […]
Detroit’s Movement festival is back for 2024 with a sprawling phase lineup. Released Wednesday (Jan. 24), the festival will feature sets from U.K. legends Fatboy Slim and Goldie, the latter of whom will play with a live band, a DJ set from James Blake, British experimental producer Floating Points, Detroit techno pioneer Kevin Saunderson playing […]
Last month, Diplo played what was surely one of his coolest sets ever, both literally and figuratively — performing from the helipad of a ship in the Southern Ocean off the coast of Antarctica. Today (Jan. 23), the producer shared the full 90-minute performance on YouTube, with the video using multiple cameras to capture the […]
Boiler Room is going global, again, in 2024.
The dance culture event series and streaming platform announced a world tour on Tuesday (Jan. 23) that will feature rising acts, local artists and scene stars playing across 25 cities.
Expanding on the platform’s first-ever world tour last year, in 2024 Boiler Room will return to London, Mumbai, Manchester, Milan, New York, Seoul, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne. The tour will also touch down in cities including Amsterdam, Auckland, Barcelona, Bogota, Buenes Aires, Paris, Tokyo, Glasgow, São Paulo, Shanghai, Delhi, Lagos and U.S. cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas and Miami.
Dates will be announced in the forthcoming months. Organizers say that the 2024 events will be bigger than on the 2023 tour, and will include weekend takeovers in addition to one-off shows.
Artists to be featured on the tour include Avalon Emergson, Chase & Status, Flowdan, Optimo, Rico Nasty, Skream & Benga, Armand van Helden, SHERELLE, Sara Landry and many more. Like the 2023 tour, the 2024 event series will also focus on local artists and rising stars.
Boiler Room’s 2023 tour hosted more than 200,000 attendees across 20 shows. In addition to the live events, streams of the events have aggregated millions of views.
Since launching in 2010, Boiler Room has created an archive of more than 8,000 performances bymore than 5,000 artists across 200 cities. This archive now aggregates more than 283 million streams per month. Boiler Room was acquired by ticketing platform Dice in 2021.
See the complete city and artist roster below.
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