Ed Sheeran
Oliver Heldens (real name Olivier J. L. Heldens; born 1 February 1995 in Rotterdam, Netherlands) is a Dutch DJ and music producer who played a major role in the international popularisation of future house in the mid-2010s. Alongside the music released under his own name, Heldens also develops the more techno-focused project HI-LO and runs his own network of labels, including Heldeep Records, OH2 Records and HILOMATIK.
From a home studio to Spinnin’ Records
Oliver Heldens developed an interest in electronic music long before the beginning of his professional career. According to the producer himself, he began making music and learning to DJ at around the age of 12. Rotterdam’s club culture and the growth of Dutch EDM in the late 2000s provided a natural backdrop for his first experiments with electronic music.
By the age of seventeen, Heldens was already sending his own productions to professional record labels. He was noticed by Spinnin’ Records, one of the central companies in the Dutch dance industry at the time. His early releases Stinger and Thumper, the latter produced together with Jacob van Hage, appeared in 2013. This marked the beginning of his professional discography.
Heldens’ early productions differed noticeably from the festival EDM that dominated the scene at the time with its massive big room drops. His music instead centred on elastic basslines, compact house grooves, minimalist melodies and elements of deep and tech house. This approach soon made him one of the most distinctive young producers on the Dutch scene.
Gecko — the track that changed his career
The major breakthrough came with Gecko. Heldens completed the track in 2013, and it attracted the attention of Tiësto, who released it through his own Musical Freedom label. Heldens would later describe Gecko as a turning point: a track created in his home studio that almost immediately propelled him onto the international stage.
In 2014, a vocal version titled Gecko (Overdrive), featuring British singer Becky Hill, was released. The single debuted at No. 1 on the main UK Official Singles Chart, becoming the first UK chart-topper for both Heldens and Hill. According to the Official Charts Company, around 79,000 sales and equivalent units were registered during its first week; the track also became the final UK No. 1 before streaming was incorporated into the methodology of the main chart.
The success of Gecko coincided with the emergence of what soon became widely known as future house. It would be inaccurate to call Heldens the sole creator of the genre, as other European producers were developing similar ideas at the same time. However, the distinctive low-end groove of Gecko, Koala and his subsequent releases became one of the defining reference points of early future house and played a significant role in taking the sound from clubs to major festival stages.
Koala and a run of international hits
Following the success of Gecko, Heldens proved that he was not a one-track artist. In 2014 he released Koala, while its vocal version, Last All Night (Koala) featuring KStewart, became another notable UK hit.
The following years brought a series of releases that further expanded his audience. Among the most notable tracks from this period were Melody, Shades of Grey with Shaun Frank and Delaney Jane, Waiting with Throttle, The Right Song with Tiësto and Natalie La Rose, and later Fire in My Soul with Shungudzo.
At the same time, Heldens gradually moved away from the strict formula of his early future house sound. His productions began incorporating more classic house, disco, electro, bass house and elements of pop music.
One particularly successful example of this approach was the single Turn Me On, released in 2019 with Riton and featuring vocalist Vula. The track reached No. 12 on the UK Official Singles Chart and remained on the chart for 19 weeks.
Rather than following a traditional album-driven model, Oliver Heldens has built most of his career around singles, collaborations, remixes and club releases. This format has allowed him to change his sound relatively quickly in line with his own musical interests without being tied to the aesthetic of a single full-length album.
Heldeep: from radio show to record label
The name Heldeep appeared before the launch of the record label itself. In 2014, Heldens began publishing his own mixes, which eventually developed into Heldeep Radio. By May 2016, the show had reached episode 104 and was celebrating its second anniversary, placing the beginning of the project in 2014.
Over time, Heldeep Radio developed into a regular weekly show in which Heldens combines house, techno and new club releases. By August 2026, the programme had passed 630 episodes.
Heldeep Records was launched in 2015. The label’s early period was closely connected with Heldens’ new HI-LO alias and the release of Renegade Mastah. Its catalogue later expanded well beyond the founder’s own music, featuring house, tech house, bass house and other forms of contemporary club-oriented electronic music.
By Heldeep’s tenth anniversary in 2025, the project had developed from a single record label into several distinct branches with different musical purposes.
OH2 Records and the separation of musical directions
In 2020, Heldens launched a second label, OH2 Records. While Heldeep is primarily focused on club-oriented house music, OH2 was created for more melodic, accessible and radio-friendly dance releases.
This separation allowed Heldens to avoid placing fundamentally different types of music under the same banner. As of 2026, the official Heldeep structure consists of three main divisions: Heldeep Records, OH2 Records and the techno label HILOMATIK.
HI-LO — more than simply “dark Oliver Heldens”
Heldens revealed the HI-LO alias in 2015, at the same time as the launch of Heldeep Records. The name is derived from a rearrangement of the shortened form “Oli H”. The first key release under the project was Renegade Mastah.
Initially, HI-LO could not be described unequivocally as a techno project. The early releases retained clear links to house and bass house, but gave Heldens an outlet for heavier and less radio-oriented music without blending it into the rapidly developing and increasingly recognisable Oliver Heldens sound.
A much more pronounced transformation came later. During the 2020s, HI-LO moved increasingly towards peak-time and driving techno, acid-influenced sounds and a harder club aesthetic. This period brought collaborations with Reinier Zonneveld, Space 92, Eli Brown, T78, Green Velvet and other prominent figures from the contemporary techno scene.
HI-LO releases began appearing regularly not only within Heldens’ own label infrastructure but also on specialised techno imprints including Drumcode and Filth On Acid. In this way, HI-LO gradually evolved from a side alias of a well-known EDM producer into an independent and substantial part of Heldens’ career.
HILOMATIK and a full move into the techno scene
In 2023, Heldens took the next step by launching a dedicated techno label, HILOMATIK. This effectively formalised the separation between the two principal sides of his creative output: the broader house and dance catalogue of Oliver Heldens and the club-focused techno direction of HI-LO.
HILOMATIK does not release music exclusively by HI-LO. Its catalogue has included tracks by Space 92, KAS:ST, The YellowHeads, Marie Vaunt, Belocca and other producers, while the label’s musical range spans several branches of contemporary techno — from melodic and peak-time to acid and harder-edged styles.
For Heldens, the project also became an important way to separate techno releases from Heldeep, allowing each brand to maintain its own audience and musical identity.
Two careers at the same time
By the mid-2020s, the distinction between Oliver Heldens and HI-LO had become especially clear at festivals and in clubs.
Sets performed under the Oliver Heldens name remain stylistically broad. They can move between house, tech house, garage, trance influences, reworked classic dance tracks and Heldens’ own hits.
HI-LO performances, by contrast, are built around techno and are designed around a denser, more focused club narrative. The ability to operate fully within two distinct musical spaces has become one of the defining features of the mature stage of Heldens’ career.
At the same time, Heldens does not attempt to keep the two projects completely separate. His own tracks, remixes and mashups regularly cross between the two formats, while some compositions exist in alternative Oliver Heldens and HI-LO versions.
2024–2026
By the mid-2020s, Heldens’ music had become even less dependent on the original future house sound. His releases increasingly incorporated elements of trance, garage, classic house and melodic dance, while HI-LO continued to develop in a techno direction.
Notable releases from this period include Chills (Feel My Love), created by Oliver Heldens with FAST BOY, Charlotte Haining and David Guetta, as well as Ruins with Julia Church. In 2025, he also revisited the heritage of classic dance music with his own interpretation of Modjo’s Lady (Hear Me Tonight).
In February 2026, Heldens released the single Run, blending house with a noticeable UK garage and rave influence. The release continued a trend that had become increasingly evident in recent years: rather than trying to recreate the sound of Gecko, Heldens was actively drawing on the musical vocabulary of several generations of electronic music.
Summer 2026 brought Satisfy with Sam Harper and AEIOU, created with Kryder and The Young Punx. At the same time, HI-LO released Rhythm of Life and Do Not Disturb, a collaboration with Saint Joshua.
By 2026, Heldens was therefore effectively operating in three areas at once: the more commercially accessible Oliver Heldens project, the techno-focused HI-LO alias and the development of his own label catalogues.
Festival career
Following the success of Gecko, Heldens quickly moved from the European club circuit into the international festival scene. Over the following decade, he performed at Tomorrowland, Ultra Music Festival, EDC Las Vegas, Creamfields, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Electric Zoo, Amsterdam Dance Event and many other major electronic music events.
One of the defining characteristics of his festival sets is their stylistic breadth. Heldens can move from his own future house catalogue into tech house, techno, trance, disco and reworked dance classics from previous decades. HI-LO, meanwhile, receives separate festival and club slots aimed specifically at techno audiences.
DJ Mag Top 100 DJs
Oliver Heldens first entered the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs ranking in 2014, shortly after the international breakthrough of Gecko. His highest position was No. 7 in 2019, and he has reached the Top 10 several times over the course of his career.
The claim that Heldens has remained continuously in the Top 10 since 2015 is incorrect. His positions changed considerably in subsequent years: for example, he ranked No. 19 in 2023, No. 29 in 2024 and rose to No. 26 in 2025.
The ranking itself is based on an open public vote and is therefore more accurately viewed as an indicator of an artist’s international popularity rather than an objective professional classification of DJs.
Musical style
The most recognisable feature of early Oliver Heldens productions was his distinctive approach to basslines. Instead of the huge synthesiser drops that characterised much of early-2010s EDM, he used short, elastic bass patterns, house rhythms and comparatively minimalist arrangements. This formula became one of the defining elements of early future house.
Heldens’ musical language later expanded considerably. His catalogue incorporates elements of deep house, tech house, electro house, disco, funk, UK garage and trance, while techno has become the main territory of his HI-LO project.
For this reason, describing Oliver Heldens solely as a future house DJ today reflects primarily the early stage of his career rather than the full scope of his catalogue.
Selected discography
- Gecko — 2013
- Gecko (Overdrive) — 2014
- Koala — 2014
- Melody — 2015
- Shades of Grey — 2015
- The Right Song — 2016
- Fire in My Soul — 2018
- Turn Me On — 2019
- I Was Made for Lovin’ You — 2022
- 10 Out of 10 — 2023
- Chills (Feel My Love) — 2024
- Ruins — 2025
- Lady (Hear Me Tonight) — 2025
- Run — 2026
- Satisfy — 2026
- AEIOU — 2026
Oliver Heldens’ impact on electronic music
Heldens’ most important place in dance music history is closely linked to the mid-2010s, when house began returning to major festival stages after several years dominated by big room EDM. Gecko was one of the tracks that clearly demonstrated that a more minimalist house groove could work not only in clubs but also in front of tens of thousands of festivalgoers.
His subsequent career, however, proved more significant than a single genre breakthrough. Instead of endlessly reproducing the formula of early future house, Heldens gradually built his own musical ecosystem: Oliver Heldens for the broader house and dance scene, HI-LO for techno, Heldeep Records for club music, OH2 for more accessible dance releases and HILOMATIK for contemporary techno.
By 2026, Oliver Heldens could no longer be viewed simply as the young producer behind Gecko. More than a decade after his breakthrough, he remains an active producer and touring DJ, releases music under two separate names and continues to develop his own record labels. It is precisely his ability to evolve his musical language without abandoning his house roots that has allowed him to move far beyond the future house wave that first brought him international recognition.
