From website designer to DJ, Dutch-born Nick van de Wall aka Afrojack, has consistently scored in the top ten in DJ Magazine’s annual top 100 DJ list and has been nominated for numerous awards for MTV Europe Music Awards. He made it as a celebrity by having a six month relationship with Paris Hilton and is engaged to Italian singer Elettra Lamborghini. He also closed out an incredible year by debuting new music at Tomorrowland in Belgium and having two New Year’s Eve parties in Los Angeles and San Bernardino, California. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Afrojack will claim the number one spot on the top 100 list to close out 2019. Let’s talk about a couple of his smash videos.
The first video I’m going to talk about is his smash video “Hey Mama”, which features David Guetta, Bebe Rexha, and Nicki Minaj. The song was an absolute smash hit. It was released on March 16th, 2015 and it peaked at Number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart in the United States and it peaked in the top ten in 18 other countries. In this song, I love the discotechque island feel to it. Nicki Minaj, while I’m not a fan of her, strikes gold in incorporating her island flow(she’s from Trinidad & Tobago after all) and make this song such a great club feel. However, the song received a ton of criticism because of its anti-feminist approach to it. “I do the cooking/I do the cleaning/Plus I keep the na-na real sweet for your eating/Yes you be the boss and yes I be respecting/Whatever it’s that you tell me cause it’s game you be spitting” flows Nicki Minaj. The song received a lot of backlash because of the antifeminist lyrics. However, the song has over 1.2 BILLION hits on YouTube with over 4.5 million likes and over 246,000 dislikes on the video. From a lyrical standpoint, I can’t stand it, but the beat is catchy.
Afrojack will always be known for his collaboration with David Guetta, Nicki Minaj, and Bebe Rexha. In April 28th, 2017, Afrojack with David Guetta and Ester Dean, released his single “Another Life”. It was a great club hit, quite popular in the underground clubs but obviously didn’t achieve the success that “Hey Mama” did, which is a crying shame because Ester Dean has incredible vocals for the EDM scene. The vibe in this song is so much more chill and it has a bit of trap elements in the “percussion”, especially in the chorus. This song just bangs! It also has over 30 million hits on YouTube. Check it out!
Afrojack will be performing all over the world this year. Check out the tour dates.
Thu. 1/24- Melody Maker in Cancun, Mexico
Sat. 1/26- Avant Gardner in Brooklyn, New York
Fri. 3/1- Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sat. 3/2- Torino Lingotto Fiere in Torino, Italy
Wed. 3/13- L’Alpe d’Huez in Huez, France
Fri. 3/29- Virginia Key Beach Park in Miami, Florida
Thu. 5/30- Stoppelmarkt in Vechta, Germany
Sat. 6/22- Expo Center in Trencin, Slovakia
Fri. 7/19- Suvilhati in Helsinki, Finland
Sat. 7/20- Suvilhati in Helsinki, Finland
Wed. 8/7- Playa de Cullera in Cullera, Spain
For tickets and further information on any of the shows listed above, click here.
Fans can check out Afrojack at the following locations:
