Baauer
Baauer is the recording and DJ name of Harry Bauer Rodrigues, born in Philadelphia and raised between Germany, London and Connecticut before returning to the US, where he discovered hip-hop and began building toward a DJ career after watching World DJ Championship videos on YouTube. He played his first gig at the Toquet Hall Teen Center in Westport, Connecticut, before studying audio technology in New York and eventually settling in Brooklyn, where his club-facing production work took shape. Performing early on under the name Captain Harry, he rebuilt his identity as Baauer and released "Harlem Shake" as a free SoundCloud giveaway on Mad Decent's Jeffrees imprint in May 2012, a track first championed by Rustie during his BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix. The song's 2013 viral dance-meme explosion pushed it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 after the chart's methodology began counting YouTube streams, and it later won Dance Song of the Year and EDM Song of the Year at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards. Baauer has since produced for artists including Just Blaze, Pusha T and G-Dragon, and released two studio albums, "Aa" in 2016 and the Grammy-nominated "Planet's Mad" in 2020, while continuing to perform as a touring DJ and producer.