All Of The Action from the 22nd Edition of the DJ Awards in 2019.
On Monday 16 September the best-dressed clientele made their way to the avant-garde setting of Heart Ibiza, known for its fantastic fusion of art, entertainment and music to celebrate the twenty-second edition of the awards. Founded by renowned Ibiza organizer Jose Pascual and respected DJ, producer and record label owner Lenny Krarup, DJ Awards is an independent non-profit electronic music awards and has been the only one of its kind since 1998.
It was an opportunity to honour and recognise up-and-coming talent as well as the legends in the electronic dance music industry. The stand out contributors from the season walked away with one of the desired Kryptonite awards.
This year the event had an important theme to support No More Plastic. Working together with the awards Eco Partner Oceanic Global, to help create awareness to the industry, whilst building on Ibiza's commitment to eco-conscious change.
Presenting the significant occasion was last years DJ Awards winner, Graham Sahara and one of the most exciting DJs to break into the UK Scene - DJ Jaguar. Come midnight, the pair lept on stage and began to offload those awards.
How it works:
There was a massive 120 DJ's nominated across 14 categories for the awards. All the usual genres, ranging from house and deep house to trance and techno, will be returning, but this year organisers have also added Afro House and Deep Tech categories. Alongside the genre categories are four non-specific genre awards: Newcomer, Breakthrough, Electronic Live Performer and International DJ.
The winners were chosen using two separate methods. Firstly, the public votes for the music categories via the DJ Awards website. The voting covered 5 continents. Next, a panel of electronic music professionals who currently make up the scene cast their own votes. Amongst the winners were some of the biggest names in dance music, as well as exciting newcomers and tastemakers.
The quirky Butch wins the award for 'Best Deep Tech DJ'. Photo: Sergio G. Cañizares
The Winners:
Carl Cox and Charlotte de Witte were of the most prominent names of the ceremony, with King Coxy taking away the title of 'Best International DJ' and the Belgium DJ and Producer Charlotte De Witte being awarded the 'Best Techno DJ'.
The two new categories: The young Da Capo was awarded the 'Best Afro House DJ' and Bülent Gürler AKA Butch was given the prize for the 'Best Deep Tech DJ'.
Maya Jane Coles won the Deep House award while ONYVAA became the third female winner, for Best Newcomer. ARTBAT collected the Breakthrough award in association with Beatport.
Other big highlights included Bedouin's progressive residence Saga taking home the award for 'Best Ibiza Night', which has absolutely killed its third season at Heart Ibiza. Robert Saurace's 'Joys' won 'Track of the Season' and became an anthem on the dancefloors across Ibiza and continued its rise claiming No.1 most Shazam track from the white isle.
Cercle, Kraftwerk 3D or Kappa Futur Festival were other winners. We leave the complete list below.
Music Categories:
- Afro House - Da Capo
- Bass - Chase & Status
- Breakthrough - Artbat
- Deep House - Maya Jane Coles
- Deep Tech - Butch
- Electronic Live Performer - Stephan Bodzin
- House - Kerri Chandler
- International DJ - Carl Cox
- Melodic House & Techno - Maceo Plex
- Newcomer - ONVYAA
- Progressive House - Hernan Cattaneo
- Tech House - Michael BiBi
- Techno - Charlotte De Witte
- Trance - Aly & Fila
Industry Awards:
- Cutting Edge - Cercle
- Record Label of the Year - Hot Creations
- Outstanding Contribution - Simon Dunmore
- Dance Nation - Isreal
- Ibiza DJ - Francisco Allendes
- Ibiza Music Event - Cocoon Kraftwerk 3D
- Ibiza Night - Saga
- International Festival - Kapp Futur Festival
- Producer - Enrico Sangiuliano
- Track of the Season - Joys by Roberto Saurace
Words: Holly Woulfe