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DJ Mag Top100 DJs
15
Calvin Harris
1

Quoted by Digital Spy as originally adopting the moniker Calvin Harris because it “sounded a bit more racially ambiguous”, the Scottish producer not better known as Adam Wiles actually began putting out soul-influenced tracks. So while a string of very North European-influenced EDM hits might have made him one of the richest men in dance music — earning him $48.5 million in 2017, according to Forbes — you get the impression that this year's album 'Funk Wav Bounces Vol.1' (a title nodding to the cursory names of all freshly-written demos) is a return to his roots.

Columbia Records is a long way from the Unabombers' Electric Chair, who put out Harris' first record in 2004, but you can almost imagine 'Funk Wav Bounces Vol.1' getting spun at the Mancunian institution (almost). It depends on their taste in massive guest vocalists. Having maxed out on a paltry one per track on 2014's 'Motion', 2017 was the year Harris got speed-dialing. Big Sean, Katy Perry and Pharrell Williams together on 'Feels' — easy. John Legend, Snoop Dogg and Takeoff crammed into 'Holiday' — done.

Small wonder then that he's back in the poll, while snapping up lucrative gigs such as the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.