Lost Frequencies, 2018

Lost Frequencies

Photo: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images

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Miami Music Week 2018: 5 Parties You Should Have Been To

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Couldn't make it to Miami this year? We've got you covered with access to five of the weekend's best parties
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Mar 25, 2018 - 12:47 pm

There were many reasons to come to Miami in late March this year: Ultra Music Festival's 20th Anniversary, the resurgence of Winter Music Conference, and of course, Miami Music Week.

Mar 27, 2018 – 12:57 pm

Go Inside Miami Music Week's Hottest Parties

Now in its seventh year, MMW is host to over a thousand artists across 300-plus events at more than 85 venues day and night, making the diversity and quality of their parties and shows dance music's ultimate destination. This year, we were on the ground in Miami to check out a small slice of what they had to offer. We hit industry mixers, daytime beach bashes and the hottest afterparties capturing the Ultra crowds late into the evening. Check out these five parties from Miami Music Week you wish you'd been there to see for yourself.

1. Drinks & Bites, Big Beat Industry Mixer 

It's not just dance music fans that flock to Miami Music Week, industry players also take advantage of the opportunity to network, swap contacts and make deals. Atlantic subsidiary Big Beat Records offered the weekend's best industry party, hands down, on March 22 at Basement in the Miami Beach Edition Hotel. With swanky décor, a full-blown bowling alley and an attached ice skating rink (!), the scene provided a surreal backdrop for connecting and reconnecting with colleagues the world over. 

Big Beat Records Industry Mixer

“There’s an open bar at every Miami Music Week party so our Big Beat team decided to take it to the next level to get down and have fun," says Jordan Danielle Frazes, head of publicity for Big Beat and senior director of PR for Atlantic Records. "Watching artist managers, media and artists ice skate and go bowling all in the same hour was a personal highlight of the week for me.”

2. Tiësto, Uber Throw A Secret Show

Imagine seeing one of the world's most famous and influential DJs at a secret show in an intimate club. For 300 Uber users, this dream came true on March 22. Starting at 6 p.m., fans had the opportunity to request a "Tiësto" ride through the Uber app, which could lead them to a free ride to the secret show. 

"It was really cool," Tiësto told us about the show afterward. "You got into an Uber and it says on your Uber app, 'Hey do you want to go to a Tiësto party right now?' And then people just showed up! So it was a really cool, spontaneous thing."

3. Above & Beyond: Common Ground At RC Cola Plant

For those who return to Miami Music Week each year, there's no part of town more noticeably different than the hip community of Wynwood. The RC Cola Plant played host to several afterparties this weekend, including Dim Mak's Friday night blowout with Dada Life, Desiigner and label boss Steve Aoki. But Thursday night's Above & Beyond performance of their new album, Common Ground, stood out as transformative. The stark, industrial backdrop of Wynwood and carnival-like surroundings provided a hard-edged juxtaposition to the trio's euphoric soundscapes and uplifting message.

"Miami, for us, has been almost like a marker in the year," Above & Beyond's Paavo Siljamäki told us the day after the party. "We've been coming to for Miami Music Week for so many years. The first shows were really, really small through the years, every year it's been a little bit bigger and crazier and madder. Now, just last night, it was an honor to be able to, first of all have so many people turn up there, but also have a lineup like we had with such talented people. One of the other things that makes it special for us as well is that we have an amazing team in our office in London, and they don't normally get to go to the shows, but I think we had something like 14 people over from our London office here in Miami partying. So it makes it into a real family affair, it was great!"

4. LIV Miami Kicks It Off

Each year, Miami's LIV holds a series of late-night shows that rival the best in town. This year's lineup was no exception, boasting Hardwell, Tiësto, and David Guetta as the Thursday-through-Saturday headliners. But the party truly began on Wednesday night of Miami Music Week, with a double-headline show with GRAMMY winner Cedric Gervais and Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano kicking things off.

"It's my label party that I do yearly [for] Delecta Records, [my] label with Armada Music. And every year, it's been five years now, we do a Wednesday opening," Gervais told us from backstage at Ultra. "It's always an incredible party because everybody shows up —Hardwell, Benny Benassi, Diplo were back to back again with us. It's just a fun party."

5. No Sugar Added Hits The Beach

A trip to Miami would not be complete without a party on the beach. Enter No Sugar Added, the annual pool party bash for those who just can't get enough dancing. As Ultra celebrated its 20th anniversary across town, N.S.A. celebrated its biggest beach bash to date at the 1 Hotel on South Beach, featuring performances from Dada Life, Sam Feldt, Lost Frequencies, and more from noon on into the hot Miami night. 

"I'm really happy to play at No Sugar Added tonight. They asked me to come here, and when I saw the whole lineup I could not say no," headliner Lost Frequencies told us from the pool deck overlooking the party just before his set. "It's always cool to play here at the 1 Hotel. ... The stage looks really nice and there's a really big line outside, so I'm really excited to play my music here and see how the people react."

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The Recording Academy @ ULTRA 2018

Photos: WireImage.com

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Ultra, Miami Music Week With David Guetta, Tiësto, MusiCares & More

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The dance music community gathered in Miami for the year's biggest shows, parties, panels and premieres —here is your all-access pass
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Mar 26, 2018 - 4:33 pm

Monday, March 26

  • Each year, the dance music artists, professionals, and enthusiasts from the whole world over make the pilgrimage to Miami Music Week. This year, we stopped by some of the week's hottest parties and most exclusive events to rub elbows with the world's finest DJs, including up-and-comers like Lost Frequencies, worldwide sensations such as Above & Beyond and genre pioneers like David Guetta.

    Mar 27, 2018 – 12:57 pm

    Go Inside Miami Music Week's Hottest Parties

  • As we all return home this Monday, head back to work and try to find our way back to reality, take a bleary-eyed look back at seven DJ sets from Ultra that stuck to the inside of our brains and beat hard on the walls of our hearts.

Sunday, March 25

  • Just before his sunset set at Ultra, we caught up with Dutch DJ/producer Tiësto to discuss "Boom" with Gucci Mane, music's power to heal and the motto that has informed his successful 20-plus-year career. Check out our exclusive chat with the GRAMMY winner.

  • Weren't in Miami this week? Live vicariously through our roundup of the hottest industry mixers, daytime beach bashes and exclusive afterparties from Miami Music Week. 

Saturday, March 24

  • For artists, crew members and music fans alike, there are few things more important than protecing your hearing. MusiCares, the Recording Academy's health and human services charity, was on the ground in Miami, providing hearing protection for artists and crew. Get the lowdown on what some of the clients had to say with our full report.

    MusiCares hearing clinic backstage at Ultra
  • On Thursday, David Guetta and Sia revealed their latest collaboration,"Flames." Just a day later, we sat down for an exclusive with Guetta for the full story on their fiery new single, his chemistry with Sia and how he's prepping for his headling set at Ultra.
     
    David Guetta photographed in 2018

Friday, March 23

  • Deep house DJ Nora En Pure's exotic moniker reflects her work: mysterious, unique and authentic. She capped off the resurgence of Winter Music Conference on March 22 with an intimate conversation covering her creative process, thoughts on the current state of dance music, and her deepest inspirations and dreams.

  • Despite the huge number of notable music documentaries captivating the stories behind the artists, albums, and movements we love, dance music has had disproportionately fewer shining moments on the silver screen, especially considering the genre's massive and ever-growing popularity and influence. Now, a new film changes all that — What We Started premiered at Miami Music Week on Mach. 22. Learn about the film with our report from the premiere.

Thursday, March 22

From South Beach to Wynwood, to Downtown and back, Miami is pulsing with the world's biggest DJs and most passionate dance music fans this week. The reason? There are several. Ultra Music Festival, Miami Music Week, and Winter Music Conference all coincide, making Miami the place to for all things dance music.

May 15, 2017 – 1:50 am

Inside Miami Music Week with top DJs

Whether you on the scene and unable to be everywhere at once, or you can't quite make it South Florida, the Recording Academy has you covered. We'll be bringing you inside access to all the hottest performances, parties and panels from on the ground in Miami.

Ultra Music Festival

Ultra Music Festival returns to its picturesque downtown Miami home this year for the festival's 20th-anniversary edition. While the annual lineup is always solid, 2018's docket is particularly strong with headlining sets on the way from a collection of GRAMMY winners and nominees including Afrojack, the Chainsmokers, David Guetta, DJ Snake, Kaskade, Steve Aoki, Tiësto, and many more.

Arcadia The Spider stage (by Arcadia Spectacular) at Ultra 2017
Photo courtesy Arcadia Spectacular

To mix things up at Ultra, the RESISTANCE Stages return with an incredible mix of underground dance music. This year the Carl Cox Megastructure, hosted as always by legendary DJ Carl Cox himself, features a stacked string of performances by Dubfire, Nicole Moudaber, and Paco Osuna. Meanwhile, the unforgettable Arcadia The Spider stage installation is back, and will will be led by dark techno visionary and Drumcode label boss Adam Beyer, along with sets from J.E.S.u.S. (Jackmaster, Eats Everything, Skream, and Seth Troxler) and Better Lost Than Stupid (Davide Squillace, Matthias Tanzman, and Martin Buttrich). This diverse mix of headliners and RESISTANCE stage acts ensure there will be something for everyone at this year's sold-out Ultra.

Miami Music Week

Miami Music Week coincides with Ultra each year, and brings countless parties and club shows to South Beach, making sure industry players and fans alike have no shortage of music to enjoy. We'll be tracking some of the wildest and most exclusive parties and hippest premieres throughout the week.

Winter Music Conference

Winter Music Conference is also enjoying a vital last-minute resurgence in 2018. After a long history of unofficially overlapping to make Miami the place to be in late March, Ultra and Winter Music Conference are now finally under the same roof, with Ultra's announcement earlier this week that it had officially acquired WMC. With these two powerhouses now in step to provide more programming and entertainment, the sky is the limit. We'll be following some of the can't-miss programs from WMC, bringing you the inside scoop on what's what in today's thriving dance music industry.

Many of the world's DJs who make the pilgrimage to Miami feel that Ultra and Miami Music Week mark the start of the New Year for dance music, an opportunity to show off the new stage sets they've been working on through the winter. Make sure you check back at GRAMMY.com all this weekend to see what surprises are in store.

Getting The Latest Music News Just Got Easier. Introducing: GRAMMY Bot. Find it On KIK and Facebook Messenger

Tiësto photographed in 2018

Tiësto

Photo: Steven Lawton/Getty Images

Feature

Exclusive: Tiësto On Ultra, Working With Gucci Mane & The "Magic Hour"

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Just before his sunset set at Ultra, we caught up with the GRAMMY-winning DJ/producer to discuss "Boom" with Gucci Mane, music's power to heal and why it's good to be Tiësto
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Mar 25, 2018 - 4:47 pm

One of the greatest DJs to come out of the Netherlands, Tiësto is at the point in his career where he can pick and choose exactly when he wants to play during the biggest dance music festivals in the world. His choice for this year's 20th-anniversary installment of Ultra Music Festival? Sunset on Saturday night, of course. 

"I think it's the magic hour. I love it when the sun goes down — you get into the darkness of the night and you have the best of both worlds you play a day party and a night party at the same time," Tiësto told us backstage at the festival just before his set. "The colors in the air are always so beautiful. I used to always close Ultra Fest on Friday night, and then the first time they said, 'Let's try something different,' I played the sunset set and since then I've played it every year because I really love it."

In fact, in the illustrious two decades of Ultra's history, the superstar DJ/producer has only missed the festival once. According to Tiësto, the reasons are clear why he and his peers make the pilgrimage year after year to Miami. 

"Here in Miami, the dance music family comes together every year. You have to be here," he says. "It's a must. You see all your old friends. You see new DJs. You hear new sounds. You see new trends. … Miami is a beautiful place to be."

This year, Tiësto mixed things up by kicking off Miami Music Week with a secret show at an exclusive Uber party on March 22 for just 300 fans, a rare occurrence for one of the world's biggest DJs. The "Sweet Nothing" remixer told us how thrilled he was to present something special this year when we were interrupted by a voice passing by in the hallway.

"I heard Tiësto didn't prepare his set," Afrojack boomed from the other side of the pressroom curtain, feigning his friend wasn't in earshot. The joke interrupted our interview momentarily before the two exchanged gregarious "hellos."

"He's a good friend. He's a good guy." Tiësto says, smiling warmly. 

Before long, you get the sense the only thing more important than music to Tiësto is people. Specifically, connecting with his fans, supporting his peers, entertaining people, and serving as a positive influence to all those who have followed the trail he's blazed.

"I always say that my biggest achievement in my life is that I inspired other people," he says. "Guys like [Martin] Garrix and all the other young DJs, they have a career because they saw me perform. That's just the best feeling you can have." 

In the recent documentary What We Started, which premiered during Miami Music Week, Garrix credits Tiësto's 2004 Summer Olympics performance as igniting the spark in him to become a DJ and bring joy to audiences through his own music. Tiësto's message of positivity and hope has touched countless lives at this point in his 20-plus-year career. When asked about his impact on the landscape of dance music, the superstar is quick to shift the focus.

"When people are not healthy and they listen to my music and it gives them positive energy and they get better," he says. "I have cancer survivors who listen to my music daily and it gives them positive energy. I think that's the beauty about music and that's why I'm doing this."

All these years into building his legacy, Tiësto is still finding new ways to bring his fans pleasure. Earlier this year, his latest collaboration with rapper Gucci Mane on the track "Boom" showed that the crossover appeal between dance and hip-hop is only beginning, with Gucci's smooth verses staccato hook chopping on the beat right before the drop.

"I liked how it was originally an instrumental, and it was doing very well in the clubs and was going viral everywhere, and then Gucci Mane gave it another life with his vocal on top. It gives something extra," Tiësto says. "It's just a cool thing that started in the clubs and built and built, and with a famous rapper like him on it, it goes to another level."

Tiësto is accustomed to taking tracks to another level. 

His 2014 driving remix of John Legend's soulful modern classic "All Of Me" earned him Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical at the 57th GRAMMY Awards. As inventive as Tiësto's treatment of the love ballad was, transforming it into a dance-floor anthem, what he did with the actual GRAMMY Award he received for his efforts was just as creative.

"After I won the GRAMMY I had it traveling around for a year, a bit like the Stanley Cup idea, because a lot of people were involved in me winning the GRAMMY, supporting me my whole life," he says. "So, I sent it to my mom first and it was there for a couple weeks, and to all my friends and all the people at the studio. ... After a year it came back to my place and it's in New York standing there on a nice desk."

All of his success aside, the 49-year-old seems immune to the pressures of creating more hits, opting to go with what feels natural in music and in life. 

"I just go with the flow, live in the present. I take everything one step at a time. I really enjoy my life, I enjoy what I do."

Getting The Latest Music News Just Got Easier. Introducing: GRAMMY Bot. Find it On KIK and Facebook Messenger

Rezz

Rezz

Photo: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

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Ultra 2019: The Chainsmokers, Marshmello & More To Perform

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Additional DJs include Deadmau5, Martin Garrix, David Guetta and many more
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Dec 20, 2018 - 4:07 pm

On Dec. 20, the Ultra Music Festival announced the first phase of its lineup for the bigger-than-ever Ultra 2019, relocating to the historic Virginia Key Beach Park And Miami Maritime Stadium for the first time ever on March 29–31, 2019.

DJs including Martin Garrix, Marshmello and many more will break in the expanded venue grounds during Miami Music Week following the Winter Music Conference for an epic series of electronica events.

GRAMMY winners performing at Ultra 2019 include Afrojack, the Chainsmokers, Dubfire, David Guetta, Tiësto, and Zedd. Previously nominated artists appearing include Alesso, Armin Van Buuren, Deadmau5, Galantis, and Odesza.

Less well-established DJs and artists are part of the upbeat dance excitement Ultra festivalgoers count on catching. The 2019 Phase 1 lineup includes Adam Beyer, Carl Cox, GRiZ, Illenium, Jamie Jones, Joseph Capriati, Loco Dice, Louis The Child, Maceo Plex, the Martinez Brothers, Nicole Moudaber, Paco Osuna, Rezz, Richie Hawtin, Sasha & John Digweed, Tale Of Us, and Testpilot.

Tickets are available at the Ultra website, including special packages.

Rae Sremmurd, Tyga, Ashe, More Added To MTV's SnowGlobe Festival

Cedric Gervais

Cedric Gervais

Photo: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images

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Cedric Gervais On Ultra Miami, "One Night" & House Music

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The GRAMMY-winning producer/DJ talks about the rich diversity of Miami's music culture and discusses why he's going back to his house music roots
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 2, 2018 - 5:28 pm

Ultra Music Festival in Miami is one of the hottest tickets in the dance music world, and GRAMMY winner Cedric Gervais has been there from the beginning.

Jul 2, 2018 – 5:27 pm

Cedric Gervais Talks Ultra Miami & "One Night"

We sat down with the French-born, Miami-bred producer/DJ backstage at this year's Ultra to discuss how the rich culture and history of Miami has created a supportive environment for dance music, and how his latest work, including the single "One Night," demonstrates a return to his love for house music.

Go 'On Location' In Miami With Amara La Negra, Trina & More