After meeting up back in 2007 Willem van Hanegem & Ward van der Harst came together to form W&W and they haven’t looked back since. The past years this Dutch production and DJ duo have transcend the boundaries of genre and traverse the globe with their music and performances.
Fusing styles and mixing influences, W&W combine the uplifting and melodic elements of trance with the raw intensity of electro and progressiveness of house to create a sound that is uniquely their own. Infectious, rebellious and highly energetic, their list of productions is championed by the likes of Hardwell, Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, David Guetta and more for its breadth, diversity and massive appeal to multiple audiences.
From their earlier works like the synth-driven ‘Moscow’ and floor pounding ‘Shotgun’, to later projects like ‘Invasion’, ‘Lift Off’, the embodiment of their multidimensional sound, ‘D# Fat’ with Armin van Buuren, the massive ‘Jumper’ with Hardwell, Beatport #1 smash ‘The Code’ with Ummet Ozcan (which became the most played track of Miami Music Week 2013), their chart topping remix of Armin van Buuren’s ‘This Is What It Feels Like’ and the official Amsterdam Music Festival anthem ‘Thunder’, these tracks have more than 10 million plays on Spotify; it’s clear each of the tunes leaving the W&W studio is a sure-shot of dance floor thrill.
But the biggest track of W&W so far was yet to come. The massive hit ‘Bigfoot’ came out in February 2014, became #1 at Beatport, generated many plays at international radio stations and festivals all over the world. And that was only the start of 2014; after ‘Bigfoot’ W&W continued to release hit after hit after hit. In 2015 they continued their success by releasing major tracks like ‘Rave After Rave’ and ‘The One’, a tribute to Whitney Houston, which uses the vocal samples from Whitney’s major hit ‘How Will I Know’.
As DJs, currently #14 in the DJ Mag Top 100, they are also dominating dance floors and festivals around the world. 2015 featured a hugely successful Miami Music Week/Winter Music Conference/Ultra weekend with the performance at the main stage at Ultra Miami as a highlight, Ultra worldwide, Tomorrowland, EDC and their ‘Rave After Rave’ summer tour. Their headlining status at the world’s most leading festival and clubs is about to get even bigger.
W&W were the first ever dance music act to perform at a Major League Baseball stadium when they took over Philadelphia Phillies Citizen’s Bank Ball Park for a two-hour set. If that wasn’t enough, W&W continues to prove their status as innovators and tastemakers in the scene by also curating music for their Mainstage Music label, which released tracks from Armin van Buuren, Headhunterz, Dash Berlin, 3LAU, Andrew Rayel, Tritonal, Sick Individuals and many more!
Since October 2014, W&W have their own radio show on SLAM!. Every Friday night, from 23:00 until 00:00, Willem and Ward will rock Dutch airwaves with their show ‘Mainstage’. In this program, the two demonstrate their versatility and play only the best new music. The show has more than 300.000 listeners per week and gets uploaded to Soundcloud plus is available as a Podcast. North American fans can enjoy the show at the biggest radio station in the USA: SiriusXM.
They started 2016 with ‘Arcade’ a new collaboration with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, and a vocal solo single ‘How Many’. Next to those their special ‘Festival Mixes’ of Justin Bieber’s Sorry and Adele’s ‘Hello’ have also been doing major damage recently, with the former proving one of the highlights of their killer Ultra Music Festival set in Miami. With over 2.000.000 plays on YouTube, their set has become one of the Top 5 most watched of the entire event.
