Charlotte de Witte has retained the No.1 spot in DJ Mag’s Alternative Top 100 DJs 2021, powered by Beatport. The historic win means the Belgian DJ and producer has now won back-to-back No.1 spots.
This is the fourth year that DJ Mag has presented the Alternative Top 100 DJs list in association with Beatport. The results are calculated by combining votes from the global Top 100 DJs poll with a genre filter based on insights and data from Beatport.
Charlotte de Witte is one of the world’s most recognisable techno DJs, and in ordinary times plays hundreds of gigs a year. Rather than revelling in time off during the pandemic, though, she kept on working to expand and evolve her KNTXT empire.
This year alone there have been two new solo EPs on the KNTXT label, a chart-topping remix of ‘The Age Of Love’ with Enrico Sangiuliano, a historic live stream from the Italian Formula 1 race track Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello, various themed playlist hook-ups with Apple Music, and even a boutique clothing range in collaboration with Belgian activewear brand 42I54. She also briefly opened up the label for demo submissions as part of her unspoken mission to diversify techno.
After winning a DJ competition 11 years ago, aged just 16, life has been pretty much non-stop for the Ghent-born artist. She has gone from being a DJ Mag cover star in 2017 to now winning the Alternative Top 100 DJs poll for the second year in a row.
Charlotte de Witte Said: “Last year clearly hasn’t been the easiest for the event and nightlife community so I’m beyond excited to win this award for another year. It’s a massive pat on the back and it gives me an enormous amount of renewed energy towards the future. I can not wait to reconnect with people from all over the world and celebrate life again. From the bottom of my heart, thanks to everyone who voted. It means a lot!”
Charlotte de Witte commemorated her Alternative Top 100 DJs win with an exclusive sunset performance from an abandoned shipyard in Lisbon, Portugal. The set is available to watch now on DJ Mag and Beatport channels.
The Alternative Top 100 DJs was originally formulated to recognise the contribution of house and techno artists, but in 2021 the genre filter was widened to include a number of high-Beatport-selling genres, including house, techno, drum & bass and other derivatives that have recently been underrepresented in the main Top 100 DJs poll.
In a sign of increased gender balance in the less commercial genres that are reflected by this poll, 50% of the top 20 artists in the Alternative Top 100 DJs — including de Witte at No. 1, Peggy Gou at No. 5, Amelie Lens at No. 6 and Nina Kraviz at No. 8 — are women.
Although the top 10 contains the same DJs as the 2020 list, Jamie Jones and Boris Brejcha are marginally up and Amelie Lens, Nina Kraviz and Adam Beyer marginally down. Deep house aficionado Nora En Pure is a non-mover at No.10.
The top 13 DJs in the Alternative Top 100 DJs list all amassed enough votes to appear in the main Top 100 DJs poll too. The likes of Black Coffee, Maya Jane Coles, Honey Dijon and Nicole Moudaber are all up several places in the top 25, and the Highest New Entry — in at No.26 — is Dutch-born techno prodigy Reinier Zonneveld. He has released on Carl Cox‘s Intec and Richie Hawtin‘s Minus when not putting out music on his own Filth On Acid imprint.
Just behind Reinier at No.27 is Andy C, a veteran of the main poll but included in the Alternative 100 this time thanks to the widening of the criteria to include drum & bass DJ/producers. Dubfire, Nastia, The Blessed Madonna and Enrico Sanguiliano are also up a significant number of places in the top 40, while Northern Irish duo Bicep are the Highest Climber, up 46 places to No.33.
There are 18 new entries in the Alternative Top 100 DJs chart overall — including Russia-raised, Italy-based DJ Anfisa Letyago, Sub Focus, Paul Woolford, Jayda G, Sama’ Abdulhadi, John Summit, SHERELLE, Robert Hood and Octo Octa — and two re-entries in the form of DJ Koze and Alan Fitzpatrick.
Check out the full Alternative Top 100 DJs results here.
