The weather may be freezing but the party scene in Shanghai has never been so hot. After Sasha, Armin van Buuren and Deep Dish rocked Shanghai over the past couple of weeks, the Smirnoff Experience party tonight will bring two more of the world's top DJs to the city.
Paul van Dyk from Germany and Nick Warren from Britain will ensure another sleepless night for Shanghai's party animals.
It will be the Chinese launch party for the Smirnoff Experience - a program that organizes dance music events in more than 20 countries - so the night out will take place at the grand Shanghai International Convention Center in Pudong. It will start amazingly early at 7pm, with UK's most popular DJs, Warren, warming up the scene.
At around 10pm, van Dyk - ranked No. 1 DJ in the world by DJ Magazine 2005 - will arrive. It's an early start but a late end as the party will run throughout the night.
The after-parties will move to Puxi to some of Shanghai's most fancy night spots, including the VIP Room (DJ Wally Lopez), Park 97 (DJ Max Graham) and Baidu (DJ Chris Fortier).
More than 2,000 people are expected to attend the spectacular party. However, note that sometimes money can't buy anything. The party is "invitation only" and to get on the limited invitation list you should send SMS "SMIRNOFF" to 9160-1600.
There will also be professional party performers and dancers from Europe in bizarre dresses performing on site.
International DJ and producer van Dyk was voted as "America's Favorite DJ" for 2004 by BPM Magazine and was the big winner at the 2004 Dancestar Awards, taking home three prizes: Best International DJ, Best Event and Best Music in a Commercial. He also won the Mexican Oscar for his soundtrack in the film "Zurdo" in March 2004.
Previously, van Dyk was voted Best Music Maker by DJ Magazine, ahead of DJ legends Fatboy Slim and Paul Oakenfold. He then went on to receive the Best International DJ Award at the 1999 Music Awards in London. The Ministry of Sound Magazine elected him as the Best International DJ and the Muzik Magazine once named him as "Leader of the Trance Nation."
Born in Eisenhuettenstadt, Germany, van Dyk grew up in what was then East Berlin where a true club culture didn't exist. Young van Dyk learned about the music world via cross-border airwaves and discovered the music of artists such as The Smiths and New Order.
Electronic artist
Later, when dance music culture spread quickly through Berlin, van Dyk, with two old turntables, created the first remix sounds from his own musical ideas.
In 1997, the release of his second album, "Seven Ways," firmly established him as one of the world's truly great electronic artists. "Seven Ways" unleashed a frenzy of national and international interviews and van Dyk was catapulted into the world's top 100 DJ list.
Singles such as "Beautiful Place," "Forbidden Fruit" and "Words," featuring remixes of Salt Tank, Quattara and Curve, fully secured him a place as a major player in the European dancecharts.
The music that the Berlin-based DJ creates captures one's emotions and is said to make people cry. A pioneer of electronic music, he always breaks down genres and technological boundaries to entertain and unite audiences all over the world.
Highly acclaimed for his signature progressive trance style, van Dyk, however, would rather call his music "electronic dance music."
"I think a good DJ combines the elements of electronic music and creates something unique, and this is what I'm trying to do," he said in a previous interview. "My productions as well as my DJ sets consist of things that people call techno as much as of things that people call House, Breakbeat or even Trance. My music grows with the reactions of the listeners."
Joining van Dyk tonight is one of the UK's most in-demand DJs, Warren, who has been spreading his unique funky Trance sound up and down the British Isles and around the globe.
The Bristol-born DJ has developed into one of the world's most consistent performance artists. The music emanating from the man has the perfect club mix of driving percussion and soaring musicality, soaking everyone in melody and drenching them in sound. He knows how to take a crowd high and then higher again.
Date: December 9, 7pm till late
Address: 2727 Riverside Ave, Pudong
Send short message "SMIRNOFF" to 9160-1600 before the party to acquire tickets.
(Shanghai Daily December 9, 2005)
