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DJ Mag Top100 DJs
69
Paul Oakenfold
| NON MOVER

As you will find reading this Top 100 issue, many DJs now cite Las Vegas as the current or next dance music hotspot. Few people have done as much for the desert city's cause in this respect as Paul Oakenfold. The dance music behemoth has been gigging there for years, playing venues like Rain at The Palms and, more recently, Hard Rock Café, who have inducted him into their Hall Of Fame for the second time this year. 

Of course, he hasn't deserted his fans in the rest of the world either, and in 2012 has once again traversed the globe like a true DJ playboy, playing Russia, the UK, Mexico, Slovakia and just about anywhere else you care to name.

One of the highlights of his year has surely been touring with pop matriarch Madonna.  As part of her 'MDNA Tour' this year, Oakenfold has been the warm-up DJ on a total of 19 dates all around the States. As such, he continues to be one of the driving forces behind the continued EDM explosion in the US where more and more pop and rock, hip-hop and metal fans are being turned on to the brightly coloured electro, house and dubstep sounds by an increasing number of different sources.

At the same time as all this, the man our Queen has titled A Pioneer of the Nation (no, really) has continued to broadcast his trance sounds around the world on his own Perfecto radio show (soon to hit its 100th edition) as well as A&R for his label of the same name.

Though productions of his own have been scant in 2012, fans need not be disheartened, because 2013 will see the release of his third studio album entitled 'Pop Killer'. It will feature, amongst others, the vocal talents of breakthrough rap artist Azealia Banks.  Sure to be a commercial affair according to word from the man himself, it will fuse melodic house beats with collaborations from many different stars in many different genres.