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DJ Mag Top100 DJs
20
Alesso
7

Alessandro ‘Alesso’ Lindblad continues to do no wrong. 2015 was a big year for the 25-year-old EDM golden boy as Def Jam released his debut album ‘Forever’, an LP that charted across the world hitting the top 5 in his native Sweden and the top 30 in both the UK and US. Rather than churn out hit after hit from the album, Alesso has spent this year with a much more selective range of releases and an interesting approach: he’s put out the same song twice! 

‘I Wanna Know’ was originally released in April with Norwegian pop duo Nico & Vinz, peppering the early summer with its gentle guitars and soulful vocals. It then reappeared last month with a female vocal from Jolin Tsai, one of Asia’s most celebrated pop stars who’s often compared to Madonna for her encouragement of dance music in the continent’s mainstream pop market. While there’s little difference between the tracks stylistically (besides the vocals themselves), this unique feat alone expresses how global Alesso’s reputation and fan-base are… Something which is only set to amplify since the announcement of a forthcoming single ‘Years’ with the K-pop icon Chen. 

Never one to fly too far from the peak-time signature that he made his name with, Alesso has also delivered two notable remixes: a collaborative festival hair-raiser remix of ‘All I Know’ and, last month, a steamy beat-infused take on Jolin Tsai’s ‘Play’ that will continue to cement his headline status on both sides of the Pacific.   

With this less-is-more release rate, Alesso has been able to commit to one of his busiest touring years in his short-but-ridiculously successful career so far: year-defining headline shows from Creamfields to Ultra Singapore and the coveted closing slot of the International Music Summit Asia last month are just some of the highlights of the year when Alesso took his melodic EDM fusion even further around the world than ever before. DAVE JENKINS