Nicky Romero

Early life

Nick Rotteveel was born and raised in Amerongen, the Netherlands. He moved to Kingston, Ontario, Canada for a year, and later moved back to the Netherlands to continue his education where he did his final semesters in France.

Career

School was never his interest, so after graduating he worked as a bartender for a while and also started producing music. Eventually, he was signed to his first label Once Records, which went on to release the tracks "Privilege" and "Qwerty". Shortly after the track entitled "Funktion One" was released. From that moment on everything rapidly changed. Dutch DJ/producer Madskillz signed "Funktion One" to Azucar (from Madskillz and Gregor Salto) and later added "Hear My Sound". In 2009 he remixed Sidney Samson and Tony Cha Cha's track "Get on the Floor" and a bootleg for David Guetta entitled "When Love Takes Over". Both tracks got a lot of publicity where Ministry of Sound contacted him to do some remixes on their label. About a few hundred movies came up on YouTube from DJs who played the Nicky Romero bootleg When Love Takes Over. He also made a remix for the Dirty South track "Alamo".

In 2010 Nicky came up with a new track called "My Friend" (released on Spinnin' Records) which features a sample from the well known Groove Armada track of the same name. The combination between Groove Armada and the innovative Romero sound results in a monster track. "My Friend" has been played by Tiesto, Axwell, Fedde le Grand, Sander van Doorn and many more. This track reached No. 4 at Beatport worldwide overall chart, No. 1 at Dance-Tunes chart and several other famous DJ charts. 2011 saw Romero release plenty of remixes such as "Where Them Girls At" by David Guetta featuring Flo Rida and Nicki Minaj, "What A Feeling" by Alex Gaudino featuring Kelly Rowland, "Stronger" by Erick Morillo and Eddie Thoneick featuring Shawnee Taylor, "Where Is The Love" by Eddie Thoneick and "Rockin' High" by Ben Liebrand.

2012–2013: Mainstream success

In 2012, Romero achieved popularity with the recording "Toulouse", which became a mainstay on the Beatport Top Ten for a significant period of time. Recognizing his talent, MTV named him an EDM artist to watch in 2012. His popularity has risen in recent years, and he has attained a joint residency with David Guetta at party hot spot Ibiza for the summer of 2012.

In October 2012, Nicky Romero received the DJ Mag 'Highest New Entry' award on DJ Mag's top 100 DJs fan poll, and with spot number 17, he is one of the highest new entries ever, together with Skrillex and Dash Berlin. In that same year, Romero collaborated with Swedish DJ/Producer, Avicii, to produce the highly anticipated single "I Could Be the One" which became a massive success across Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom, where the single debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 17 February 2013 ― for the week ending on 23 February 2013 ― becoming both Romero and Avicii's first chart-topper in the UK. On the UK Dance Chart, "I Could Be the One" debuted at number one ahead of Baauer's "Harlem Shake", which entered at number two.

Following "I Could Be the One" in 2013, Romero released his long-awaited single, "Symphonica", that reached No. 1 on the overall Beatport Top 100 chart. His next release, a collaboration with Krewella, "Legacy" also saw Beatport chart success hitting the No. 1 spot. Romero then took on a collaboration with Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, "S.O.T.U.", that he released on Steve Angello's Size Records. Amid his 2013 releases, he performed as a resident at The Light Las Vegas and he also played numerous major festivals including Ultra Music Festival, Coachella, Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas and Puerto Rico, Sensation White, and Tomorrowland, amongst others. One of his most notable gigs was at TomorrowWorld where he was one of the first music acts to present an interactive performance experience using Google Glass.

In October 2013, Romero ranked at number 7 on DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJs annual fan poll. He helms his own weekly radio show, Protocol Radio and his own record label, Protocol Recordings.

2014–present: Upcoming debut studio album

Romero keeps entering all lists with his music and label, and after many hours in his studio, he finally released a song called 'Feet On The Ground' with vocals by the Dutch singer Anouk. He is also working on his first studio album.

Beside his music, he is up for different kinds of charity projects, as '10.000 Hours – People Planet Party' which is made to help renovate playgrounds for disadvantaged kids.

Legacy was used as the backing track by Australian television network Channel Seven in on-air promotions for the 2014 season return of hit show Revenge. After the advertisement's high rotation during the high rating 2014 Australian Open, the song charted in Australia at number 50.

In August 2014, Nicky partnered with EDM lifestyle brand Electric Family to produce a collaboration bracelet for which 100% of the proceeds are donated to Fuck Cancer.

Other productions

In addition to all "Nicky Romero" singles, he also co-produced the track "Right Now" (featuring David Guetta) from Rihanna's seventh studio album Unapologetic, which was released on 19 November 2012. Before his performance at Tomorrowland, he mentioned in an interview with MTV that he was also working on a new project with Rihanna. He co-wrote and produced "It Should Be Easy" by Britney Spears for her eighth studio album Britney Jean.

Romero also co-produced "Bang My Head" (featuring Sia Furler) and "No Money No Love" from David Guetta's 2014 album titled Listen. Furthermore, he co-produced "Dragon Night" from Sekai no Owari's second studio album Tree.

Public Ridicule and Controversy

As Romero's public imagine has become more popular, he has become the target of public ridicule from underground music producers and underground music satire web articles. Thus there has arisen controversy about his real abilities and contribution to the electronic music canon. Comments from cirtical people have targeted his style, appearance and his music production abilities. Such ridicule describes elements of Romero's technical abilities as brief and insufficient. Romero has since rebuffed such ridicule as minor.

Protocol Recordings

Romero is the founder and owner of Protocol Recordings, a label company that helps new upcoming DJs and producers release their tracks with the guidance of Romero.

Romero also hosts a podcast show called Protocol Radio. It is an hour-long podcast released every Saturday, recorded by Romero himself, which features new tracks and a 'Weekly Top 3' from Protocol Recordings.

A new effort from the label is the 'Protocol Reboot' party, which is a concert performed only by Protocol-signed artists. The first one was in Miami during the Miami Music Week 2014. The second edition called "Protocol 305" is set to take place during Miami Music Week 2015 and will feature Deniz Koyu, Ansolo (Ansel Elgort), Arno Cost and more.

Filmography

Romero appeared in the 2015 film We Are Your Friends, starring Zac Efron.

Remixes