David Guetta Biography

French DJ and record producer (born 1967)"Jack Back" redirects here. Not to be confused with Jack Black.

Pierre David Guetta (/ˈɡɛtə/ GHET-ə, French: ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and record producer. He has sold over 10 million albums and 65 million singles globally, with more than 14 billion streams. In 2011, 2020, 2021 and 2023, Guetta was voted the number one DJ in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs poll. In 2013, Billboard ranked his song "When Love Takes Over" (featuring Kelly Rowland) as the number one dance-pop collaboration of all time.

He released his debut album, Just a Little More Love, in 2002. Later, he released Guetta Blaster (2004) and Pop Life (2007). Guetta achieved mainstream success with his fourth album One Love (2009), which included his breakthrough singles "When Love Takes Over," "Gettin' Over You" (with Chris Willis featuring LMFAO and Fergie), "Sexy *" (featuring Akon) and "Memories" (featuring Kid Cudi); the former three reached number one in the United Kingdom. His 2011 follow-up album, Nothing but the Beat was met with continued success, containing the hit singles "Where Them Girls At" (featuring Flo Rida and Nicki Minaj), "Little Bad Girl" (featuring Taio Cruz and Ludacris), "Without You" (featuring Usher), "*anium" (featuring Sia) and "Turn Me On" (featuring Nicki Minaj). In 2018, he released his seventh album 7, which included twelve tracks under his alias Jack Back. In 2019, he announced his creation of the EDM subgenre "future rave" along with fellow producer Morten Breum; they released a collaborative extended play, New Rave in July 2020. In 2022, he released the single "I'm Good (Blue)" (with Bebe Rexha), which remains the second longest-running chart-topping song on the US Dance/Electronic chart.

Guetta's accolades include two Grammy Awards, an American Music Award and a Billboard Music Award. In June 2021, Guetta sold his recorded music catalog for an amount in the region of US$100 million, with Music Business Worldwide citing a source saying it was more than that, but less than US$150 million.

Early life

Guetta was born and raised in Paris. Guetta's father, Pierre, was a sociologist who was born in a Moroccan Jewish family. His mother, Monique, was of Belgian descent. Through his father, Guetta is the younger half-brother of the prominent French journalist Bernard Guetta and French-Italian actress Nathalie Guetta. He also has a half-brother, Dominique Vidal and a half-sister, Joëlle Vidal from his mother's first marriage to French cybernetician Jacques Vidal.

Career

1984–2000: Early work

Guetta began to DJ at the Broad Club in Paris. He first played popular songs, and he discovered house music when he heard a Farley "Jackmaster" Funk track on French radio in 1987. The next year, he began hosting his own club nights. In 1987, he released "Nation Rap", a hip-hop collaboration with French rapper Sidney Duteil.

In the mid-1990s Guetta played in clubs including Le Centrale, the Rex, Le Boy, and Folies Pigalle. Released in 1994 Guetta's second single, a collaboration with American house vocalist Robert Owens *led "Up & Away", was a minor club hit. In 1994, Guetta became the manager of Le Palace nightclub and he continued to organise parties there and in other clubs, such as the "Scream" parties in Les Bains Douches.

2001–2003: Just a Little More Love

In 2001, Guetta and Joachim Garraud founded Gum Productions, and in the same year Guetta's first hit single, "Just a Little More Love", featuring American singer Chris Willis was released. Willis was vacationing in France when he met Guetta. Guetta's debut album Just a Little More Love was released in 2002 on Virgin Records and sold over 300,000 copies. The follow-up singles, ("Love Don't Let Me Go", "People Come People Go" and "Give Me Something"), were released in 2002. Guetta released a compilation, F*ck Me I'm Famous, in 2003, named after his party in Ibiza. It included "Just for One Day (Heroes)", a remix of David Bowie's song "Heroes". Later in his career, Guetta continued recording compilations under that *le. Along with Garraud, Guetta remixed Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's 1980 hit "Enola Gay" for The OMD Singles (2003).

2004–2006: Guetta Blaster

Guetta's second album, Guetta Blaster, was released in 2004. It was supported with the release of four singles: "Money" and "Stay" featuring Chris Willis and "The World Is Mine" and "In Love With Myself" featuring JD Davis. In 2006 the Just a Little More Love single "Love Don't Let Me Go" was re-released as a mash-up with the Tocadisco remix of "Walking Away" by The Egg. The mash-up single en*led "Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away)" was charted higher than the original release of the song.

2007–2009: Pop Life

Guetta (left) performing for BBC Radio 1 in 2007David Guetta (2008)

In 2007, Guetta's third album Pop Life was released. The album was successful in the UK and Ireland as well as in mainland Europe. According to EMI in 2010, the album has sold a total of 530,000 copies worldwide. The lead single "Love Is Gone" reached Number 1 on the American Dance Chart and charted on the Billboard Hot 100.

"Delirious" featured the vocals of Tara McDonald who also co wrote the record. The song was released as the album's fourth single on 31 January 2008. The song charted #27 Austrian singles chart, #17 Belgian (Flanders) chart, #2 Belgian (Wallonia) singles chart. #12 Dutch singles chart, #16 French singles chart, #16 Swiss singles chart, #36 Hungary singles chart, #29 Romanian singles chart, #51 Swedish singles chart. The remixes of the song, including mixes by Fred Rister, Marc Mysterio, Laidback Luke, and Arno Cost and Norman Doray were released. A video clip for the song was filmed by Denys Thibaut in Montreal, featuring Guetta and Tara McDonald, picturing an executive *istant throwing paint all over her boss's office. McDonald also sang and co wrote "You're Not Alone" from this album.

He has played in many countries around the world to promote the album. He played in Mauritius in January 2008, accompanied by French rapper JoeyStarr. In the same year, he and his wife Cathy also planned a new event which took place in the Stade de France on 5 July 2008. The event was called "UNIGHTED", he performed with Tiësto, Carl Cox, Joachim Garraud and Martin Solveig in front of a crowd of 40,000.

In 2009, he was placed third in the "Top 100 DJs" poll by DJ Magazine, and was elected "Best House DJ" by DJ Awards in 2008. Since April 2009, Guetta had his own radio show on the internet radio station RauteMusik on Saturday evening. The show was afterwards moved into Radio 538, being aired every Friday evening after Tiësto's Club Life.

2009–2010: One Love and international breakthrough

Guetta and Kelly Rowland in concert at the Orange Rockcorps festival in London, 2009

Guetta's fourth studio album, One Love, was released in August 2009. Its first single "When Love Takes Over", which featured Kelly Rowland, peaked at #1 on the UK Singles Chart and topped many other countries worldwide, selling over 5,5 million copies worldwide. His second single from the album, "Sexy *" featuring Akon, became his second #1 in the UK. "One Love" featuring Estelle, "Memories" featuring Kid Cudi and "Gettin' Over You" featuring Chris Willis, Fergie and LMFAO followed. As of May 2011 the album had sold three million copies worldwide. Guetta's fourth studio album One Love was nominated as "Best Electronic/Dance Album" at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. His song "When Love Takes Over" featuring American R&B singer Kelly Rowland received two nominations; Best Dance Recording and Best Remixed Recording, Non-Cl*ical, and won the latter. After conflicts over whether or not an album re-issue should go ahead, One More Love was released on 29 November 2010. The first single, *led "Who's That Chick?" featuring Rihanna was released a few weeks prior.

On 16 June 2009, The Black Eyed Peas released the Guetta-produced "I Gotta Feeling" as their second single from their fifth studio album, The E.N.D.. It became a worldwide hit topping the charts in seventeen countries. It became the most downloaded song of all-time in the United States with almost 7.5 million downloads and in the United Kingdom selling more than 1 million copies. He was nominated twice for his work with The Black Eyed Peas at the 52nd Grammy Awards; in the category Record of the Year for "I Gotta Feeling" and Album of the Year for their album The E.N.D.. In 2010, Guetta co-wrote and produced Kelly Rowland's "Commander" from her third album Here I Am. It peaked at number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs chart in the United States, and reached top ten positions in Belgium and the United Kingdom. Guetta has also co-produced "Forever and a Day", which was Kelly's next UK single from that album. Guetta also produced the singles "Acapella" and "Scream" for American singer-songwriter Kelis's fifth studio album, Flesh Tone, released on 14 May 2010. "Acapella" was released as the lead single on 23 February 2010 and topped the dance charts in the United Kingdom and United States. On 28 June 2010 American rapper Flo Rida released the single "Club Can't Handle Me" featuring Guetta. The song is included on the soundtrack album to the American 3D dance film Step Up 3D and Flo Rida's third studio album, Only One Flo (Part 1).

2011–2012: Nothing but the Beat and Jack Back Records

Guetta on stage with Afrojack, 2011

Guetta's fifth studio album, Nothing but the Beat was released on 26 August 2011. It was released as a double-disc album; one disc being vocal and the other being electronic. Guetta was inspired by rock bands such as Kings of Leon and Coldplay to add rock influences to his dance productions. "Where Them Girls At" featuring Flo Rida and Nicki Minaj, the first single off the album, was released worldwide on 2 May 2011. "Little Bad Girl", with Taio Cruz and Ludacris, was released as the second single on 28 June 2011. The third single, "Without You" with Usher, was released on 27 September 2011. Guetta has also released four promotional singles for Nothing But the Beat which were "*anium" with Sia, "Lunar" with Afrojack, "Night of Your Life" with Jennifer Hudson, and "The Alphabeat". The album also features the hit singles "Sweat" with Snoop Dogg and "Turn Me On" with Nicki Minaj.

Guetta teamed up with Afrojack and Tara McDonald again to release "Pandemonium" on his FMIF Ibiza Mix 2011 compilation through EMI records. Guetta also performed alongside Nicky Romero and Nervo at London's Alexandra Palace on 1 June 2012.

A re-release of Nothing but the Beat, *led Nothing but the Beat 2.0, was released on 7 September 2012. The first single from the album, "She Wolf (Falling to Pieces)", which saw Guetta collaborate with Sia yet again, was released in support of the album. The next single off Nothing But The Beat 2.0 was confirmed by Guetta as "Just One Last Time" which features vocals from Swedish duo Taped Rai. In 2012, Guetta also made an album named Nothing But The Beat: Ultimate, which combined the two albums Nothing But The Beat and Nothing But The Beat 2.0 together. Summer 2012 Guetta played in Finland in Weekend Festival and he was the festival's headliner also for year 2013. 15 March saw the third single release from Nothing but the Beat 2.0 en*led "Play Hard". The song features vocals from American singers Ne-Yo and Akon.

Guetta performing at Creamfields Australia, 2012

Nothing But the Beat is a feature-length biographical do*entary about Guetta's rise to fame, featuring many of his collaborators, including Kelly Rowland, will.i.am and Snoop Dogg. It was financed by the energy drink, burn, with whom Guetta became a brand amb*ador from 2011. Together with burn, Guetta also provided support and mentoring for the burn-sponsored "burn studios residency" program for up-and-coming DJs.

Guetta also wrote, produced, and featured on Rihanna's seventh studio album, Unapologetic, and acts as the support act for the European leg of her Diamonds World Tour.

In 2012, Guetta created a new record label known as Jack Back Records, where he intends to focus only on electronic music releases (compared to the dance pop productions he's most known for). The label is named after a project Guetta started alongside Nicky Romero when they remixed the song "Wild Ones". The premiere release of the new label was "Metropolis", another one of his collaboration with Romero, which also became a track from Nothing but the Beat 2.0. The label also included releases from the likes of Daddy's Groove and other collaborators, as well as a two-track EP from production duo Spencer & Hill. All of the label's releases can be found on Beatport.

2013: Lovers on the Sun EP

While on tour with Rihanna, he debuted his new track at Twickenham Stadium on 15 June 2013. Guetta stated "Twickenham, I hope you like this new track, it's brand new and you're the first people in the world to hear it." The single, called "Ain't a Party", was released on 8 July 2013. It is a collaboration between GLOWINTHEDARK and Harrison. Guetta released the artwork for his new single on his Instagram profile on 19 June 2013.

In September, Guetta unveiled the music video for new track "One Voice" featuring indie singer Mikky Ekko. It was released on 4 November as part of the UN's humanitarian campaign called The World Needs More.

Guetta co-wrote and produced the song "Fashion!" on Lady Gaga's third studio album Artpop. He also had songwriting and production contributions to Britney Spears' eighth studio album Britney Jean, on multiple tracks and instrumentation imitations.

On 20 January 2014, Guetta released "Shot Me Down" featuring American singer Skylar Grey. It is an adaption of the Cher song "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". The song was co-produced by Giorgio Tuinfort.

In February, Guetta released a remix of Avicii's track "Addicted to You" on Beatport. Later that month, record label Cherrytree hinted through a message on Twitter that English singer-songwriter Natalia Kills was in a studio in Stockholm, Sweden, along with Guetta and Giorgio Tuinfort to record a new song. The trio was later joined by DJ Afrojack, and Avicii. On 17 March 2014, he released "Bad", a collaboration with Showtek and V*y on Jack Back Records, and released his remix of Afrojack's single "Ten Feet Tall" on 15 April.

Guetta released "Blast Off", with Kaz James on 14 June. It appeared on the four-track EP *led Lovers on the Sun he released later that month. The EP contains "Blast Off", "Shot Me Down", "Bad", and "Lovers on the Sun" featuring vocals from American singer Sam Martin.

2014–2016: Listen and UEFA Euro 2016

The UEFA Euro 2016 opening ceremony before Guetta's set

On 30 June 2014, "Lovers on the Sun" saw official single release as the first single from Guetta's sixth studio album, Listen. The second single from the album, "Dangerous", (also featuring Sam Martin), was released as the second single from the album on 5 October 2014. The album itself was released worldwide on 21 November 2014 through Big Beat Records and Atlantic Records with collaborations from prior favourites such as Sia, Afrojack, and Nicki Minaj as well as new collaborators like Ryan Tedder, Bebe Rexha, and The Script. The *le track "Listen" (featuring John Legend) was co-written by Guetta and Austin Bis.

On 20 February 2015, the third single from the album "What I Did for Love" featuring Emeli Sandé was issued.On 30 April 2015, the song was released as a special version featuring vocals from *anese singer Namie Amuro for her studio album Genic. In March 2015, Guetta released the fourth single from Listen, en*led "Hey Mama". It features the vocals of Nicki Minaj and Bebe Rexha, and also features Afrojack. The single proved successful, reaching the top ten in the UK and in the US. On 22 June 2015, Guetta became the third artist to reach 2 billion streams on Spotify and released a remix of "Hey Mama" by Boaz van de Beatz to celebrate the occasion.

On 27 November 2015, Guetta re-released Listen as Listen Again to promote the songs and then-recent singles "Sun Goes Down", "Pelican", "The Death of EDM", "Clap Your Hands" and a new version of "Bang My Head" featuring Fetty Wap alongside Sia.

In December 2015, UEFA announced that Guetta would be the music amb*ador for UEFA Euro 2016, with the official song for the tournament being "This One's for You" featuring vocals from Swedish singer Zara Larsson. UEFA also announced that the song would be integrated throughout the tournament, including during the opening and closing sequences for every television match broadcast, and will also be performed by Guetta at the Opening ceremony and Closing ceremony, as well as during a free concert at the Champ de Mars under the Eiffel Tower on 9 June. "This One's for You" was released on 13 May 2016, followed by a remix pack on 8 July.

On 15 April 2016, Guetta released a single with Disciples, *led "No Worries". Later, on 16 May 2016, saw Guetta released an extended mix of his song "Pelican" on his label Jack Back Records.

Guetta performing at the 2016 Utopía Festival in Madrid

On 30 September 2016, Guetta released a new single with Cedric Gervais and Chris Willis named "Would I Lie to You" on his label Jack Back Records. The song interpolates the vocals/lyrics of the 1992 Charles & Eddie hit "Would I Lie to You?". 2016 also saw Guetta collaborate with German DJ Robin Schulz on the third single from Schulz's third album, Uncovered, en*led "Shed a Light" which also featured American DJs Cheat Codes. The song was released on 25 November and certified Gold and Platinum in various European countries.

2017–2019: 7

On 24 March 2017, Guetta released "Light My Body Up". The single was his fourth collaboration with rapper Nicki Minaj and also featured Lil Wayne. The following month, on 28 April, Guetta released his collaboration with DJ Afrojack en*led "Another Life". The song featured singer Ester Dean. On 9 June 2017, Guetta's single "2U" featuring Justin Bieber was released, this song was featured on Worldhit and marked the Top 200 in over 40 countries as well as certifying Gold to Multi Platinum in many European and Oceanian countries. The end on the month saw Guetta release a remix version of "Versace on the Floor" by Bruno Mars and served as the third single from Mars's highly successful album 24K Magic.

During the summer, Guetta headlined Tomorrowland, providing a main stage performance for Night 3 on both weekends. In addition, he was a guest during Martin Garrix's closing set, during which they debuted their yet to be released single "So Far Away" which featured vocals from Jamie Scott and Ellie Goulding. Guetta also had Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike join him on stage to premier their new song "Complicated" which was released on the Friday of the festival's second weekend. During this time Guetta, Vegas, and Mike also performed the latter two's long-awaited single with W&W: "Crowd Control".

On 3 November 2017, Guetta and Afrojack released their single "Dirty Sexy Money" featuring Charli XCX and French Montana. This song is David Guetta's 3rd single from his upcoming 7th studio album, which was released in 2018. He performed a live-version of his new single at the NRJ Music Awards and the MTV Europe Music Awards.

On 1 December 2017, Guetta released the single "So Far Away" on Garrix's label Stmpd Rcrds. The single version contained vocals from Jamie Scott and Romy Dya. Ellie Goulding's vocals were cut from the song as her label was pushing back the release. That is the reason why the two DJs decided to replace her and use the vocals of Romy Dya. On 25 January 2018 Guetta released a remix version of Sia's Helium along with Dutch DJ Afrojack. This marks Guetta's and Sia's sixth collaboration.

Guetta at Stavernfestivalen 2018

On 16 February 2018, David Guetta released his new song "Mad Love", together with Sean Paul and Becky G. A few months before the release Sean Paul reported that Shakira would be the singer of the song, but she has been replaced by Becky G. A week later, Guetta released his second collaboration with Martin Garrix and Dutch DJ Brooks en*led "Like I Do". Guetta's seventh collaboration with Sia, "Flames", was released on 22 March 2018.

On 29 June 2018, Guetta announced in an interview with Billboard China that he was almost finished working on his seventh studio album and that it would be released after the summer of 2018. During that summer when he played Tomorrowland, a video emerged of Guetta apparently playing a remixed version of the Spanish Falangist anthem Cara al Sol used during Francisco Franco's dictatorship. However, the video was confirmed to have been faked. On 23 August, Guetta confirmed the album's *le as 7 and revealed its track list, including the singles "2U", "Like I Do", "Flames" and "Don't Leave Me Alone". The album also included the Bebe Rexha and J Balvin featured single, "Say My Name". In December 2019, Guetta led a DJ set at an Avicii tribute concert where he previewed a previously unheard collaboration with Avicii, Giorgio Tuinfort and Afrojack. In Guetta's own words, he played "Before I Say Goodbye" for the first and probably only time during the concert. It features British singer-songwriter Amanda Wilson.

2020–present: New Rave EP, United at Home and Future Rave

Discography

Main articles: David Guetta discography and David Guetta production discography

Just a Little More Love (2002)
Guetta Blaster (2004)
Pop Life (2007)
One Love (2009)
Nothing but the Beat (2011)
Listen (2014)
7 (2018)

Tours

Listen Tour (2014–15)

Personal life

Guetta and his then-wife Cathy in January 2012 at the NRJ Music Awards

Guetta married nightclub manager Cathy Lobé in 1992. They had two children: son Tim Elvis Eric (born 9 February 2004) and daughter Angie (born 23 September 2007). After 22 years of marriage, the couple divorced in a Paris court in March 2014. Neither party was present at the hearing and the reason for their divorce is unknown.

In 2015, Forbes estimated that Guetta's annual income was $37 million.

Guetta announced at the Latin Grammys 2023 that he was expecting a child with his long-term partner Jessica Ledon. On 17 March 2024, he announced the birth of their son, Cyan.

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by David Guetta

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to David Guetta.

David Guetta at IMDb
David Guetta at AllMusic

Nothing but the Beat

"Sweat"
"Where Them Girls At"
"Little Bad Girl"
"Without You"
"*anium"
"Turn Me On"
"The Alphabeat"
"I Can Only Imagine"

Listen

"Shot Me Down"
"Bad"
"Blast Off"
"Lovers on the Sun"
"Dangerous"
"What I Did for Love"
"Hey Mama"
"Sun Goes Down"

"2U"
"Dirty Sexy Money"
"So Far Away"
"Mad Love"
"Like I Do"
"Flames"
"Your Love"
"Don't Leave Me Alone"
"Goodbye"
"Say My Name"

* Me I'm Famous series

"Just for One Day (Heroes)"
"Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away)"
"Grrrr"
"Ain't a Party"

Non-album singles

"No Worries"
"This One's for You"
"Would I Lie to You"
"Shed a Light"
"Light My Body Up"
"Another Life"
"Versace on the Floor"
"Complicated"
"Helium"
"(It Happens) Sometimes"
"Put Your Phone Down (Low)"
"Better When You're Gone"
"Stay (Don't Go Away)"
"Instagram"
"Thing for You"
"Never Be Alone"
"Jump"
"Make It to Heaven"
"Conversations in the Dark"
"Let's Love"
"Big"
"Floating Through Space"
"Bed"
"Hero"
"Heartbreak Anthem"
"Remember"
"If You Really Love Me (How Will I Know)"
"Redrum"
"Crazy What Love Can Do"
"I'm Good (Blue)"
"Baby Don't Hurt Me"
"She Knows"
"One in a Million"
"On My Love"
"When We Were Young (The Logical Song)"

Featured singles

"Wavin' Flag (Celebration Mix)"
"Commander"
"Club Can't Handle Me"
"Laserlight"
"Rest of My Life"
"Right Now"
"Don't You Worry"

Promotional singles

"I Wanna Go Crazy"
"Louder than Words"
"Lunar"
"Night of Your Life"

Other songs

"Crank It Up"
"Repeat"
"Sunshine"
"Lift Me Up"
"Listen"
"I'll Keep Loving You"
"The Whisperer"

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