There were plenty of big winners at the 18th edition of the DJ Awards, but when you consider how much good music was made over the course of the last year, you begin to realize we all come out winners. The Meet on the Beat theme of this year’s awards focuses on giving attention to as many disparate styles of electronic music as possible. And sure enough, plenty of heavyweights turned up to claim their due in their respective genres. Carl Cox too the Techno prize, while Solomun won for Deep House. Hardwell earned awards for both Electro/Progressive House and International DJ. Hannah Wants was not left wanting, after winning for Bass. And Black Coffee took home the honors for both Breakthrough and Dance Nation of the Year for South Africa.
There were also several Special Awards, going to everyone from Manu Gonzalez for Ibiza DJ to Arthur Baker for Electronic Music Pioneer. In fact, it was the electro godfather himself who gifted attendees of the event’s official after party with a live set, in which he busted out some appropriately old-school analog gear, including an 808 and a 303, though he kept things a bit more current by throwing a Maschine into his mix.
Are you sorry you weren’t there to see it? Well, don’t sweat it, we weren’t either.