Fisher wins top honour at 2024 DJ Awards as ceremony returns to Ibiza in style

Culture • Oct 2, 2024, 11:49 PM

11 min de lecture

After a four year hiatus, the DJ Awards returned to Ibiza. The “Oscars of dance music” took place at Club Chinois, a first for the awards after spending the last two decades at Pacha. Fisher, Camelphat, Chase & Status took home genre awards, while local legends like Luciano won from a selection of new industry awards.

Hosted by presenters Katie Knight and Jaguar, it was a glitzy show that used Chinois’ impressive audio-visual space to bring the awards back in style.

Winning in the DJ Awards’ top category, Best International DJ was Fisher. The Australian DJ rose to mainstream prominence with his Grammy Award-winning single ‘Losing It’ in 2018 and this was his first DJ Awards win.

Bounding up to the stage in his typical exuberant style, Fisher’s acceptance speech brought together two other winners of the night as he recalled being inspired to start DJing while watching Luciano at a Sven Väth night in Amnesia.

“I remember watching Luciano and I went ‘that guy is controlling this crowd like no other and I want to do that,” Fisher said.

It was the final award of a night where Luciano took home the Ibiza Icon award, announced last month as one of seven industry awards, recognising the Chilean-Swiss DJ’s “profound impact on the scene in Ibiza”.

Sven Väth took home his fourth DJ Awards win in the Techno category. The techno stalwart has spent nearly 40 years bringing his intense techno beats to clubs all over the world and used his acceptance speech to celebrate the “island people who love the real dance and the good vibes without phones in their hands.”

“I know we’re in challenging hard times at the moment in the world, but my strong belief is that the music, our music, has the power and we can do something to change,” Väth said.

Keinemusik co-founder Rampa, who picked up the What's Hot Global Award for their label’s dramatic assent in the last few years, as well as picking up the award for Ibiza Track Of The Summer on behalf of label-mate Adam Port for his song with Stryv, ‘Move Feat. Malachiii’ referenced Kanye West’s iconic Grammy’s moment in his acceptance speech: “Everybody wants to know what would happen if Keinemusik didn't win this award… I guess you’ll never know.”

In a largely male-dominated field, three women took home awards. Sam Divine won in House. She thanked DJ Simon Dunmore for signing her as the first female DJ to Defected. “Leaving the door open for all the aspiring female DJs coming through, it’s so important.” Irish singer, songwriter and producer Róisín Murphy won for best Live Act and Miss Monique took home the award for Best Breakthrough artist.

One of the most moving moments came when Michael Bibi came up to accept the Play It Back Award for his One Life Campaign, the initiative that has raised £124,832 (€148,283) for Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, following the DJ’s recent fight with central nervous system lymphoma.

“It’s an honour to be here and I feel very blessed and lucky to be here in general,” Bibi said. “It was the love and the support from the community, from everyone in this room here and everyone around the world. It really showed me the power of the scene we have here.”

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Javier Anadon. Known for his legendary venue Café Mambo, Anadon has been in Ibiza since the 70s.

Other winners included Armin Van Buuren who took home his 13th DJ Award for Best Trance DJ, alongside Vintage Culture, Chase and Status, WhoMadeWho, and Camelphat. Other industry award winners were Defected Croatia, Gospel Club NYC and David Guetta - F**K Me Im Famous / Futurerave.