Nicky Romero

 

Nick Rotteveel (born 6 January 1989), better known by his stage name Nicky Romero, is a Dutch DJ and music producer. He has worked with, and received support from DJs, such as Tiësto, Fedde Le Grand, Sander van Doorn, David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Armand Van Helden, Avicii and Hardwell. He currently ranks #8 on DJ Magazine's annual Top 100 DJs poll. He is known for his viral hit song "Toulouse", as well as for having a number one hit single in the UK with "I Could Be the One" with Avicii.

 

Marco Reus

 

Marco Reus (born 31 May 1989) is a German professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for the German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund and the Germany national football team. Reus is known for his versatility, speed and technique.
Reus spent his youth career at Borussia Dortmund, prior to leaving for Rot Weiss Ahlen. He has played for three clubs in his senior career, most notably, and with the most influence, in Borussia Mönchengladbach of the German Bundesliga. Reus plays primarily as a left attacker for BVB; however, he is capable of playing on the right also and through the middle, due to his ability to closely control the ball with both feet. 2012 was his most successful season when, scoring 18 and assisting 8, he helped Borussia Mönchengladbach secure a place in the following season's UEFA Champions League. Reus agreed a move to his home club Borussia Dortmund at the end of that season. Reus wears number 11 for Dortmund.
With Dortmund, Reus won the 2013 DFL-Supercup. Reus was the Footballer of the Year in Germany in 2012 and was on the UEFA Team of the Year in 2013. Franz Beckenbauer spoke about Reus, along with Mario Götze, saying, "...as a classic duo there is nobody better than the prolific Reus and Götze." In 2013, Reus was ranked as the fourth best footballer in Europe by Bloomberg.

Steve Aoki

 

Steven Hiroyuki "Steve" Aoki (born November 30, 1977) is a Japanese- American electro house musician, record producer, and music executive. Known for energetic live shows, in 2012 Pollstar designated Aoki as the highest grossing dance artist in North America from tours. He has collaborated with producers and vocalists such as will.i.am, Afrojack, LMFAO, Iggy Azalea, Lil Jon, and Laidback Luke, and is known for his remixes of artists such as Kid Cudi.
Aoki has released several Billboard-charting studio albums as well, notably Wonderland, which was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronica Album in 2013. He is currently releasing his two-part album series Neon Future. The first part was released on September 30, 2014.

Mesut Özil

 

Mesut Özil (born 15 October 1988) is a German footballer who plays for English club Arsenal and the German national team. Özil has been a youth national team member since 2006, and a member of the German national team since 2009. He gained international attention during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and was nominated for the Golden Ball Award, which is awarded to the tournament's best player. Özil started his senior career at hometown club Schalke in the Bundesliga in 2006, transferred to Werder Bremen in 2008 and was signed by Real Madrid in August 2010 following his break-out performance at the FIFA World Cup with Germany. On transfer deadline day of summer 2013, he moved to Arsenal for a club-record fee of £42.5 million. The transfer makes him the most expensive German football player of all time.
Özil is acclaimed for his finesse and improvisation as an attacking midfielder. His style and ability for providing assists for his team-mates has been compared by former manager José Mourinho to that of Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane. In 2011, Özil ranked first in assists in major European and domestic competitions with 25. In 2012, he ranked first in assists in La Liga with 17. He was also one of the top assist providers in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2012 with three in both tournaments.

Hardwell

Robbert van de Corput (born 7 January 1988 in Breda, Netherlands)better known by his stage name Hardwell, is a Dutch big room house and electro house DJ and music producer. He was voted the world's #1 DJ on DJ Magazine's annual Top 100 DJs poll in 2013 and then again in 2014. Hardwell is widely known for his live sets at major music festivals such as Tomorrowland and Ultra. The video streams of his performances on his personal YouTube channel have collectively garnered more than 100 million views, and helped him gain over 2 million subscribers.

Hardwell first gained recognition in 2009 for his bootleg of "Show Me Love vs. Be". He founded record label Revealed Recordings in 2010 and his own radio show and podcast, Hardwell On Air in 2011. He has since released five compilation albums through his label, as well as his own documentary film. In October 2014, Hardwell announced that his debut studio album, United We Are will be released on January 23, 2015.

 

Early life

Robbert van de Corput was born on 7 January 1988 in Breda, Netherlands, where he grew up as well. He started learning classical piano when he was six years old and DJing when he was 12. Corput was first inspired to become a DJ at the age of 11 after watching a documentary about DJs on the Dutch MTV. At the age of 13, he was signed to his first record label and by the age of 14, he began DJing at reputable clubs across the Netherlands. However, his parents had to chaperone as he wasn't allowed into the clubs at such a young age. As a kid, he enrolled at a music oriented school and the Rock Academy. Three months into the Rock Academy, he was advised to quit and to pursue a career in music immediately. He often cited fellow Breda native, Tiësto, as his biggest inspiration and mentor.

 

Musical career

Hardwell's remixing debut came in 2003 when his version of The Underdog Project's "Summer Jam 2003" hit the clubs, then 2007 found him remixing the stadium techno act Scooter ("Lass Uns Tanzen") and collaborating with fellow DJ Greatski on the track "Never Knew Love" but it wasn't until two years later when Hardwell first gained recognition in 2009 for his bootleg of "Show Me Love vs. Be". The song is a mashup of Robin S.'s "Show Me Love" and the instrumental track "Be" by Steve Angello & Laidback Luke.
In 2010, Hardwell formed his own record label, Revealed Recordings. Soon after the launch, Hardwell started the release of Hardwell presents Revealed, a compilation album released annually which featured some of the label's biggest tracks of that year.
In March 2011, Hardwell launched his own radio show and podcast, Hardwell On Air. It is being broadcast on various international radio stations. Additionally, the podcast has a spot on iTunes' Top 10 Podcasts in several countries. His collaboration single with Tiësto, "Zero 76," was one of the biggest club tracks of that year and his first single to chart at #1 on Beatport and on the American iTunes dance chart. In addition to multiple other hits released by Hardwell in 2011, including "Encoded" and "Cobra," Hardwell entered DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJs annual poll at #24.
In 2012, Hardwell's biggest track was the solo-original known as "Spaceman," which has seen more sets, bootlegs, and remixes than any of his previous releases. In July of that year, he went on to perform at the main stage of Tomorrowland. As of March 2014, the performance holds over 21 million views on YouTube and was the most watched live DJ set on the site for over a year. It was dubbed by many as a contender for the best set of the year. Alongside other artists such as Alesso, Nicky Romero and R3hab, Hardwell was named an EDM artist to watch in 2012 by MTV. He then placed at #6 on DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJs annual poll for 2012.
Hardwell kicked off 2013 with a nationwide "Hardwell presents Revealed: Canadian Bus Tour," joined by fellow DJs Dyro and Dannic. This was then followed with a nationwide "Go Hardwell Or Go Home" tour that took place in venues across the United States. In March 2013, having featured for the first time on the main stage of Ultra Music Festival only one year prior in 2012, he returned to the Miami event and with over 22 million views, it is the most watched live DJ set on YouTube as of February 2014, surpassing Hardwell's 2012 Tomorrowland set. Hardwell’s set also broke all records for the most watched Ultra live broadcast with over 80,000 people watching his set online through the live stream.
In April 2013, Hardwell launched his "I Am Hardwell" world tour. The first phase of the tour saw sold-out shows in Jakarta, Singapore, Bangalore, Mumbai, Lisbon, and London with further venues coming up. Following on from his 2012 Tomorrowland performance, he returned to the main stage of the music festival in 2013. This time the live set gained a million views on YouTube in several days and has been viewed over 19 million as of April 2014.
During Amsterdam dance event (ADE) in October 2013, Hardwell held the world premiere of his I Am Hardwell documentary at the Tuschinski cinema in Amsterdam. The documentary, filmed by Robin Piree, provides an inside-look at Hardwell’s rise and career over the past few years. The premiere was attended by several other famous DJs, including Armin van Buuren and Tiësto. Shortly after, Hardwell ranked at #1 on DJ Magazine's annual Top 100 DJs poll, making him the youngest DJ ever to top the list at 25 years of age. In an interview with DJ magazine, Hardwell stated that he is working on his debut studio album, which is expected to be released sometime in 2014. However, he later stated that the release date has been postponed to early 2015.
In October 2014, he released the music video of the album's lead single "Young Again," which features vocals from Chris Jones. A day prior to that, he unveiled the cover art for his debut album which is entitled United We Are. On October 18, DJ Magazine announced that Hardwell has topped their annual top 100 DJs poll at #1 for the second year in a row. He was the only DJ on the list to have not move from their previous spot. On November 3, Hardwell announced that he will release another single prior to the album release date, his collaboration with W&W featuring vocals from Fatman Scoop, "Don't Stop the Madness." On November 15, Hardwell concluded the North American leg of his "I AM Hardwell" tour at Madison Square Garden, following the way of many other big artists.

 

DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJs Rankings

• 2011: #24 (New Entry)
• 2012: #6 (Up 18)
• 2013: #1 (Up 5)
• 2014: #1 (Unchanged)