Armand Van Helden biography
Armand Van Helden (born February 16, 1970, Boston, Massachusetts) is a record producer, DJ and remixer whose biggest commercial successes came from his remixes of the 1996 Tori Amos song "Professional Widow" (released on East West Records), which reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1997, and his own track "U Don't Know Me (released on Ffrr Records)", which went to number 1 in the UK in February 1999. In 2009, he featured on English rapper Dizzee Rascal's song "Bonkers", which reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in 2009. Later in 2009, Van Helden worked with Canadian DJ A-Trak to create "aNYway", which was released in October under the name Duck Sauce. The duo later gained chart success with their hit "Barbra Streisand", which reached number one in numerous other countries.
Biography
Van Helden was born 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 returned to Boston in 1988, moonlighting as a DJ in Boston clubs. He attended college in Boston. He quit his legal-review job in 1991 to work as a remixer under the management of Neil Petricone and X-Mix. He took up a DJ residency at the Loft, a top Boston nightclub at the time. He released his first official single, a mix of Deep Creed's "Stay On My Mind" through Nervous Records.
He released "Move It To the Left" (credited to Sultans of Swing) in 1992 on the Strictly Rhythm label, which became a moderate club hit and led to a string of singles released under several monikers for that label. His first track to make the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart was "Witch Doktor," which made the top 5 in 1994, and led to opportunities to remix acts such as New Order, Deep Forest, Jimmy Somerville, Deee-Lite, and Faithless.
However, it was the "Professional Widow" remix that established him and became a dance hit around the world as well as a number-one hit in the UK. Unfortunately, Van Helden did not receive a penny for this remix because he presented it non-commissioned and, thus, was not entitled to compensation. However, it led to work remixing the Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, and Puff Daddy, as well as Daft Punk and Sneaker Pimps, adding to his reputation as one of the world's top house-music musicians.
"Cha Cha" was another top-ten dance hit from his first album, Old School Junkies: The Album, which was released in 1996, along with "The Funk Phenomena." A greatest hits album appeared the next year, followed by a breakbeat album later in 1997. "U Don't Know Me" was a number two hit on the Billboard dance chart, a number one in the UK, and a top 20 single on the pop charts in Australia and Canada. The song was the breakout track from his 2Future4U album, which was released stateside on Armand's own label, Armed Records.
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