Armand Van Helden

Armand van Helden is an American DJ, record producer, remixer and songwriter from Boston. Born on February 16, 1970 to an Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) father and a French-Lebanese mother but traveled around the world as a child, spending time in the Netherlands, Latvia, Turkey, and Italy as his father was a member of the U.S. Air Force. At the age of 13, he bought a drum machine and started DJing two years later. He is considered one of house music's most revered figures spanning three decades.

Van Helden's most well-known singles are "You Don't Know Me", "I Want Your Soul", "My My My" featuring Tara McDonald, as well as "Bonkers" featuring Dizzee Rascal, all of which became #1 on the UK Dance Chart and reached as high as #2 on the Billboard Dance Chart.

In 2009, van Helden formed the DJ duo Duck Sauce with Canadian DJ A-Trak, receiving a nomination at the 54th Grammy Awards for Best Dance Recording for their song “Barbra Streisand" which topped the charts in 12 countries. The duo also released the singles "Anyway" which reached No. 1 the UK Dance Chart, "Big Bad Wolf" and "NRG".

Although much of his chart success has been in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom, van Helden has been closely linked to the electronic music scene of New York since the early-mid 1990s where he was considered one of the best remixers in the business and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording in 1998. Van Helden often remixes and uses samples of funk, soul, R&B and hip hop. He also uses filters and dub progressions, as in NYC beat, dancehall and reggae samples. Among his greatest remixes have been the remix of the song "Spin Spin Sugar" by Sneaker Pimps, The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind) by The Bucketheads, Sugar Is Sweeter by CJ Bolland and "Professional Widow" by Tori Amos.

Van Helden is widely regarded as the pioneer of the speed garage genre and has continued remixing various artists such as Katy Perry, Van Halen, Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams, Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias, David Guetta, Sam Smith, Bloc Party, Janet Jackson, Juliet Roberts and KRS-One among others with this musical style.