David Guetta French DJ With 12.4M Instagram Followers

Early life

David Guetta was born in Paris on 7 November 1967 and grew up in the city. He began working as a disc jockey in Parisian nightclubs while studying economics and social policy at Paris Nanterre University.

Career

Guetta started out at the Broad Club in Paris. He first played popular songs, and in 1987 he heard a track by Farley "Jackmaster" Funk on French radio and discovered house music. The next year he began hosting his own club nights. His first release, the hip-hop collaboration "Nation Rap" with the rapper Sidney Duteil, appeared in 1990, and in 1994 "Up & Away", a collaboration with the American house vocalist Robert Owens, became a minor club hit. That year he also took over as manager of the Le Palace nightclub, where he organised parties.

In 2001 he and Joachim Garraud founded the company Gum Productions, and the single "Just a Little More Love", featuring the American singer Chris Willis, became his first hit. The album of the same name followed in 2002 on Virgin Records. Guetta Blaster arrived in 2004 and Pop Life in 2007, the latter scoring well in the United Kingdom, Ireland and mainland Europe. His compilation series F*ck Me I'm Famous, named after his party in Ibiza, began in 2003.

His international breakthrough came with the fourth album, One Love, in August 2009. Its lead single "When Love Takes Over", featuring Kelly Rowland, reached number one in the United Kingdom and topped charts in many other countries. "Sexy Bitch", with Akon, became his second UK number one. In the same year he produced "I Gotta Feeling" for The Black Eyed Peas, which topped the charts in seventeen countries. Nothing but the Beat followed on 26 August 2011 as a double album with one vocal and one electronic disc, and its singles included "Where Them Girls At" with Flo Rida and Nicki Minaj, "Without You" with Usher and "Titanium" with Sia. In 2012 he created the label Jack Back Records for purely electronic releases.

Guetta released Listen in November 2014 and 7 in 2018, and in 2015 he became the third artist to pass two billion streams on Spotify. UEFA named him music ambassador for the 2016 European Championship, with "This One's for You", featuring Zara Larsson, as the official song. With the producer Morten Breum he developed a style they called future rave, and their New Rave EP appeared in July 2020. In 2020 he gave charity livestream performances under the name United at Home to raise money for relief organisations. In June 2021 Warner Music acquired the rights to his recorded music catalogue of the previous two decades.

His later singles include "I'm Good (Blue)" with Bebe Rexha in 2022, which stayed on top of the US Dance/Electronic chart for a long run, and "Crazy What Love Can Do" with Becky Hill and Ella Henderson the same year. He worked with Little Mix and Galantis on "Heartbreak Anthem" in 2021, and with Jennifer Lopez on "Save Me Tonight" in March 2026. He also took part in the screen projects And the Beat Goes On in 2009 and Avicii – I'm Tim in 2024.

Recognition

Guetta received the Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical in 2010, for "When Love Takes Over". In 2007 he was named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France, and he won the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Electronic in both 2020 and 2021. DJ Mag readers voted him number one in its Top 100 DJs poll in 2011 and again in 2020.

Personal life

Guetta married the nightclub manager Cathy Lobé in 1992, and the marriage ended in 2014.