The Top 20 DJs in the World

The Top 20 DJs in the World

Enter a world where music is considered an art form, where beats synchronize hearts and melodies enlighten souls. Welcome to the world of the DJ, the sonic architect who can fire dance floors, transport us to ecstatic states, and seamlessly merge genres with the flick of a wrist.

These turntable and mixer wizards have an enigmatic ability to generate energy that pulses through every cell in our body. They conduct acoustic symphonies by transforming sound waves into continuous journeys that traverse time and space limits. With their remarkable intuition, limitless ingenuity, and unending passion for music, DJs captivate our collective spirit and strike a spark that fires our wildest desires.

1. Roger Sanchez

Roger Sanchez, July 2018.jpg 97.8 Dance FM, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Roger Sanchez was born on June 1, 1967. He is a Dominican-American DJ, remixer, and producer of house music. He earned a Grammy Award in 2003 for his remix of No Doubt’s “Hella Good,” and is best known for his 2001 international smash “Another Chance.”

He has four DJ Awards wins for “Best House DJ” in 1999, 2002, 2004, and 2007, as well as twelve nominations. In 2007, he won the first International Dance Music Award for Best Podcast, and he has gotten eight IDMA nominations for Best American DJ (2003-2010).

2. Richie Hawtin

Richie Hawtin-SMS-2018-2.jpg Sven Volkens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Richard “Richie” Hawtin is a British-Canadian DJ and electronic musician. In the early 1990s, he became connected with the second wave of Detroit techno, and since the mid-1990s, he has been a significant advocate for minimal techno.

He became well-known for the music he created under the aliases Plastikman and F.U.S.E. As a member of Warp’s Artificial Intelligence series, he released his debut album Dimension Intrusion (1993) under the latter.

In May 1990, Hawtin and John Acquaviva founded the Plus 8 record label, naming it after the pitch-adjustment function on their turntable. In 1998, Hawtin debuted M-nus Records.

From 2012 to 2015, Hawtin presided over the weekly ENTER. Ibiza event at Space in Ibiza. In 2016, Hawtin launched his own technical company, PLAYdifferently, and introduced the MODEL 1 mixer, which he co-designed with Andy Rigby-Jones.

3. David Guetta

David Guetta .jpg Parlophone, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pierre David Guetta is a French DJ and music producer. He has sold over 10 million albums and 65 million singles globally, with over 14 billion streams. In 2011, 2020, and 2021, Guetta was voted the best DJ in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs poll. Billboard rated “When Love Takes Over” the finest dance-pop collaboration of all time in 2013.

Just a Little More Love, his debut album, was released in 2002. He also released Guetta Blaster (2004), Pop Life (2007), One Love (2009), and Nothing but the Beat (2011) albums. “Let’s Love” will be released in September 2020 and will feature Guetta and Sia once more.

Guetta has received two Grammy Awards, an American Music Award, and a Billboard Music Award.

Read On Top 10 Fascinating Facts about David Guetta

4. Martin Garrix

Martin Garrix @ Web Summit 2017.jpg Web Summit, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Martijn Gerard Garritsen goes by the alias Martin Garrix. He is a Dutch DJ and music producer and he was crowned the best DJ in DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs lists in 2016, 2017, and 2018. His most well-known songs are “Animals,” “In the Name of Love,” and “Scared to Be Lonely“.

Garrix has played at several music festivals, including Coachella, Electric Daisy Carnival, Ultra Music Festival, Tomorrowland, and Creamfields. In 2014, Ultra South Africa, his first large festival, featured him as its main performance. He created history by being the youngest DJ to open the 2014 Ultra Music Festival at the age of 17.

5. Tiësto

Tiësto @ Airbeat One 2017.jpg Julia Keiser, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tisto is the business name for Tijs Michiel Verwest. He is a Dutch music producer and DJ. He was chosen by fans as “The Greatest DJ of All Time” in a poll conducted by Mix magazine in 2010–2011. He was chosen as the “best DJ of the last 20 years” in 2013 by DJ Mag readers. He is also known as the “Godfather of EDM” according to a lot of sites.

Together with Arny Bink, he established Black Hole Recordings in 1997, where he put out the Magik and In Search of Sunrise CD series. In 1998, Tisto met producer Dennis Waakop Reijers, and the two have collaborated frequently ever since then.

Tisto and Ferry Corsten cooperated as Gouryella from 1998 to 2000. In its annual Top 100 DJs readership survey, DJ Magazine consistently selected him as the World No. 1 DJ for three years, from 2002 to 2004.

6. Armin van Buuren

Armin Van Buuren 2.jpg Peter Drier, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

DJ and record producer Armin Jozef Jacobus Daniel van Buuren is from the Netherlands. Since 2001, he has been the host of the weekly radio program “The State of Trance”, which is heard by about 40 million people in 84 nations on more than 100 FM radio stations.

Van Buuren has received many honours. Four years in a row, he received a record-breaking five top DJ rankings from DJ Mag. He was ranked fourth in 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020, third in 2017, and fifth in 2022 on the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs list.

He became the fourth trance artist to ever receive a Grammy Award nomination when his song “This Is What It Feels Like” with Trevor Guthrie was nominated for Best Dance Recording in 2014. He currently has twenty-one entries on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart, which is a record for the country.

7. Calvin Harris

Calvin Harris – Rock in Rio Madrid 2012 – 03.jpg Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Calvin Harris, a stage name for Adam Richard Wiles, is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter. I Created Disco, his first studio album was released in June 2007. The singles “The Girls” and “Acceptable in the 80s” both peaked in the UK’s top 10.

His second studio album, Ready for the Weekend, was released in 2009; it debuted at the top of the UK Albums Chart, and its lead single, “I’m Not Alone,” became his first to reach the top of the UK Singles Chart.

Harris made history in October 2014 when he became the first performer to have three songs in the top 10 of the Dance/Electronic Songs chart at the same time. Additionally, he made history by being the first UK solo artist to surpass one billion Spotify streams. In addition to five Grammy nominations, Harris has had 18 nominations for Brit Awards, winning British Producer of the Year and British Single of the Year in 2019.

In addition to winning the Top Dance/Electronic Artist honour at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, he was given an Ivor Novello Award in 2013. From 2013 through 2018, he topped Forbes’ list of the highest-paid DJs in the world, then the Chainsmokers deposed him in 2019.

8. Marshmello

Marshmello Mad Decent Block Party 02.jpg Charito Yap, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The stage name Marshmello belongs to American DJ and electronic music producer Christopher Comstock. His songs “Silence,” “Wolves,” “Friends,” “Happier,” and “Alone” have received multi-platinum certification in a number of different nations and charted in the top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. Electronic dance music with a strong bass, synth, and groove is a component of his musical style. His boss is Moe Shalizi.

Early in 2015, Marshmello started to become well-known internationally after posting remixes online. The lead single and Marshmello’s first single “Keep It Mello” were both included on his first studio album, Joytime, which was released in January 2016. The Canadian record label Monstercat released the platinum-certified track “Alone” in May 2016.

9. Hardwell

Hardwell 2018 (cropped).jpg Rudgrcom, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

DJ and music producer Robbert van de Corput, better known by his stage name Hardwell, comes from Breda, Netherlands. DJ Mag named him the top DJ in the world in 2013 and 2014.

He was ranked 43rd in DJ Mag’s list of the top 100 DJs in 2022. His performances at music festivals like Ultra Music Festival, Sunburn, and Tomorrowland are what made him most well-known.

His bootleg of “Show Me Love vs. Be” originally brought him fame in 2009. Through his label, he has released two documentaries as well as ten compilation CDs. United We Are, his debut studio album, was released on January 23, 2015.

10. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike

Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike in TomorrowWorld 2013.jpg Mixtribe, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Brothers Dimitri and Michael Thivaios make up the Belgian-Greek DJ duo known as Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. In 2015 and 2019, they were ranked No. 1 on DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs list, while in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2020, they were ranked No. 2.

They have performed at several festivals across the world, including Creamfields, Tomorrowland, Electric Daisy Carnival, Electric Zoo, Parookaville, UNTOLD Festival, and EXIT Festival. Since 2010, they have served as the official resident DJs at Tomorrowland. In the past two years, they have held summer DJ residencies in Ibiza at Ushua Ibiza and Amnesia (2014–2016).

They are the owners of the 2010-founded record label Smash the House and have worked with Afrojack, Armin van Buuren, Daddy Yankee, David Guetta, and many more well-known DJs.

11. Steve Aoki

Steve Aoki 2011.jpg Jalil Arfaoui from Orgeval, France, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

DJ and music producer Steven Hiroyuki Aoki is from the United States. Aoki was named by Pollstar as the electronic dance music performer in North America with the highest tour revenue in 2012.

Known for his remixes of artists like Kid Cudi, he has worked with will.i.am, Alan Walker, Afrojack, LMFAO, Tini, Linkin Park, AGNEZ MO, Iggy Azalea, Grandson, Lil Jon, blink-182, Taking Back Sunday, Laidback Luke, BTS, Monsta X, Louis Tomlinson, Backstreet Boys, Rise Against, Vini Vici, Lauren Jauregui, and Fall Out Boy.

Aoki has so far released seven studio albums, several of which have reached the top 10 on the Billboard charts. Wonderland, his first studio album, was a 2013 Grammy Award nominee for Best Dance/Electronica Album. Aoki’s autobiography, Blue: The Color of Noise, was released in 2019.

Read On 30 Most Famous Djs Around The World

12. Skrillex

From First To Last – Emo Nite 2 – PH Carl Pocket (cropped).jpg Carl Pocket, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sonny John Moore, best known as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. He grew up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California before joining the post-hardcore band From First to Last in 2004. Before he left in 2007, the band recorded two studio albums with him (Heroine in 2006 and Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Bodycount in 2004).

He began his first solo tour in late April 2007. Moore joined the Alternative Press Tour to support groups such as All Time Low and the Rocket Summer, and he also appeared on the cover of Alternative Press’s annual “100 Bands You Need to Know” edition.

13. Avicii

Avicii interview for GlobalGrindTV.jpg GlobalGrindTV, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tim Bergling, best known as Avicii (September 8, 1989 – April 20, 2018), was a Swedish DJ, remixer, and music producer. When Bergling was 16, he began uploading his remixes to electronic music forums, which led to his first record deal.

In 2011, his song “Levels” pushed him to popularity. True (2013), his debut studio album, combined electronic music with elements from several genres and received mostly positive reviews. It reached the top 10 in more than 15 countries and topped global charts; the lead single, “Wake Me Up,” topped most European music markets and peaked at number four in the United States.

Bergling retired from touring in 2016 after suffering from stress and poor mental health for several years. He committed suicide on April 20, 2018, while on vacation in Muscat, Oman. Tim, his third and final album, was released posthumously in 2019.

Read On Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Avicii

14. DJ Snake

DJ Snake Paris .jpg Anitiopy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

French music producer and DJ William Sami Étienne Grigahcine is better known by his stage moniker, DJ Snake. In 2013, he earned notoriety on a global scale with his song “Turn Down for What” (with Lil Jon).

With the singles “Bird Machine” and “Turn Down for What” in 2013, he made his breakthrough internationally. With fellow French musician Alesia, “Bird Machine” was created. Mad Decent, Diplo’s record label with headquarters in Los Angeles, acquired the tune.

FoxWeekly designated DJ Snake as an “Artist to Watch” in 2014. He and Dillon Francis were listed as Skrillex’s summer Mothership Tour 2014’s alternate supporting acts. DJ Snake was ranked ninth on Billboard’s 2018 ranking of dance musicians, the Billboard Dance 100, in March 2018.

Read On Top 10 Fascinating Facts about DJ Snake

15. Zedd

Zedd at Veld 2017.jpg Charito Yap, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Zedd is the stage name of German DJ, record producer, and songwriter Anton Zaslavski. In Kaiserslautern, Germany, where he was raised, he started his musical career.

He released “Clarity” (with Foxes) in 2012, catapulting him to mainstream stardom. The song peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and won the Best Dance Recording Grammy at the 56th Grammy Awards. His first studio album, Clarity, which he released later in 2012, featured the popular song “Stay the Night” (with Hayley Williams) on its 2013 deluxe version.

His second studio album, True Colors, was released in 2015 and was promoted by the track “I Want You to Know” with Selena Gomez.

16. Alesso

Alesso playing live at Ushuaia Ibiza.jpeg Fiesta Hotels & Resorts S.L..The original uploader was Alice Rising at English Wikipedia.., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Alesso is the stage name of Swedish DJ and record producer Alessandro Renato Rodolfo Lindblad.

In addition to Tove Lo, Theo Hutchcraft, Ryan Tedder, Hailee Steinfeld, Calvin Harris, Katy Perry, Anitta, Usher, David Guetta, Sebastian Ingrosso, Liam Payne, TINI, and Stray Kids, he has collaborated with many more musicians. Numerous music festivals, including Coachella, Electric Daisy Carnival, Creamfields, and Tomorrowland, have included his performances. Alesso was listed as one of the “EDM Rookies to Watch” by MTV in 2012.

He was listed as the 13th-best DJ in the world in DJ Magazine’s Top 100 DJs list for 2015, and he was listed as the 20th-best DJ in the world in DJ Magazine’s Top 100 DJs list for 2016. Forever, his first full-length album was released by Def Jam Recordings in 2015.

17. Oliver Heldens

Airbeat One 2015 Oliver Heldens by Denis Apel-1648.jpg Denis Apel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Originally from Rotterdam, Olivier J. L. Heldens is a Dutch DJ and electronic music producer. He was born on 1 February 1995. He is credited for founding the future house subgenre, bringing it to the attention of listeners throughout the world, and achieving multiple chart triumphs, such as “Gecko (Overdrive),” “Last All Night (Koala),” “The Right Song,” “Fire in My Soul,” and “Turn Me On.”

Under the pseudonym HI-LO, which is the reversal of “Oli H,” he also creates techno music and operates the Heldeep Records label. With nearly a billion cumulative streams, he is the 460th-most streamed artist on Spotify as of February 2021.

18. Don Diablo

Don Diablo bitternzoet.jpg Jasper K, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Don Pepijn Schipper, also known by his stage as Don Diablo is a Dutch DJ, digital artist, record producer, musician, and songwriter of electronic dance music. Schipper was born on February 27, 1980.

He was ranked sixth on DJ Mag’s list of the Top 100 DJs for 2020 and is considered one of the founders of the future house genre. Additionally, he received 1001Tracklists’ Top Producer of the Year ranking for 2018. He was named the top Future House Artist of the Year on Beatport in 2016.

19. The Chainsmokers

The Chainsmokers VELD 2016.jpg The Come Up Show, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Chainsmokers is an American electronic DJ and producing team made up of Andrew “Drew” Taggart and Alexander “Alex” Pall. They first issued remixes of songs by independent musicians.

The 2014 song “#Selfie” by the EDM-pop duo, which peaked in multiple nations’ top twenty singles, marked the group’s breakthrough. They have garnered nine iHeartRadio Music Awards, seven Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, and a Grammy.

The single “Roses” from their debut EP, Bouquet, which was released in October 2015, peaked at number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100. With American vocalist Daya on board, “Don’t Let Me Down” became their first top-five single on the Billboard chart and took home the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording at the 59th annual ceremony.

20. Kshmr

Niles-kshmr.jpg KSHMR, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Niles Hollowell-Dhar is an American musician, composer, DJ, record producer, former rapper, and singer better known by his stage name Kshmr (pronounced “Kashmir” and stylised in all caps). He received the highest new entry award for the year and was placed number 23 in DJ Mag’s 2015 Top 100 DJs poll. In 2016, 2017, and 2020, he moved up to 12th in the same survey.

In the same survey from 2021 and 2022, he was placed 11th and 12, respectively. He established Dharma Worldwide, a Spinnin’ Records subsidiary, in July 2017. At numerous music festivals, including Coachella, Tomorrowland, EDC, Ultra, and Sunburn, Kshmr gave live performances.

DJs are the masters of euphoria in the music industry, where beats and rhythms collide. Their artistic skill surpasses all boundaries, captivating listeners with their aural prowess. Their beats linger in our minds long after the night has passed and the music has faded. DJs are the keepers of life, the bearers of ardour, and the architects of happiness. These musical alchemists, who use music to brighten people’s emotions and paint the world with melody, should continue in perpetuity.