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DJ Mag Top100 DJs
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David Guetta
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David Guetta has recently tipped over the 10 million friends mark on Facebook. In the past two months alone, he's been racking up a million more fans per week. It pretty much says all that needs to be said about how chart-smashingly enormous he has become in the past 12 months. And to think, we thought he was getting big last year.
This year, he's won a Grammy, sold an eye-popping 20 million tracks and become the first-ever DJ to get himself on the cover of Billboard magazine. It's an astonishing roll call of achievements.
"This last year has been the most incredible journey, but my life is the same; I spend every day making music and most nights playing it," says the ever-genial Frenchman. "What's different is that I sold more records and played to bigger crowds. I'm proud of what I've achieved, not just for me, but for dance music. I always believed that our music wasn't regarded in the same way as other genres, like hip-hop or rock. Now it's the 'new' sound across the world.
"I've been a DJ for over 20 years, and it's funny to say "new", but to the young generation, it is - and they are discovering it before they are even old enough to go to clubs, which I hope will keep the scene strong for decades to come."

It's no surprise that he's achieved so much. His collaboration with Kelly Rowland, 'When Love Takes Over' somehow didn't seem to be such a life-changing event at the time, undisputedly great as it was. But what it did seem to do was fling open doors for him. Soon, the likes of the Black Eyed Peas, Rihanna (who features on his next single), Kelis, Akon, Kid Cudi, Madonna and Flo Rida were all on board his hyped disco sound, and these are acts with undisputed global appeal. Aligning himself with the world of hip-hop seems to have been a particularly shrewd move. When we spoke to Guetta this time last year, the effects of his album 'One Love' were just starting to take hold. Now the dIe is pretty much cast and he's leapfrogged the opposition into becoming the go-to guy for dance music, whoever you are, a position once held firm by Paul Oakenfold.
But how does getting a Grammy change your life?
"I won one Grammy, but I was nominated for five, not only as a dance artist, but as an artist producer, period," he says. "This is really important for all of us, as it meant the Academy didn't see us anymore only as a sub-genre. I've certainly seen how the heads of all the labels in America are chasing our sound, and if me winning has helped make that happen, then I hope it changes more than just my life."

As he prepares to lock himself in the lab for three months to record his new album, it's a certainty that some of the biggest stars in pop music will be dropping by to spend an afternoon in the vocal booth. But what's nicest about Guetta's success is that the comparatively small achievements, considering his current superstar status, still matter. "Getting a Beatport No.1 with 'Louder Than Words', with Afrojack, the same day as I was No.1 in the UK charts with 'Gettin' Over You' meant a lot. As much as pop success is great, it's so important to me that my music still speaks to clubbers. I still make music for fun. As much as I love to collaborate with the biggest talents in the world, making tracks with and discovering new producers makes me tick." Good man.