Charlotte de Witte has retained the No.1 spot in DJ Mag’s Alternative Top 100 DJs 2021, powered by Beatport. The victory marks the first time a Belgian DJ and producer has won back-to-back No. 1 positions.
This is the fourth year that DJ Mag has collaborated with Beatport to present the Alternative Top 100 DJs list. The results are derived from a combination of votes from the global Top 100 DJs poll and a genre filter based on Beatport insights and data.
Charlotte de Witte is one of the most well-known techno DJs in the world, performing hundreds of shows each year in normal circumstances. Rather than reveling 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. As part of her unspoken mission to diversify techno, she briefly opened up the label for demo submissions.
After winning a DJ competition 11 years ago, aged just 16, life has been pretty much non-stop for the Ghent-born artist. She went from being featured on the cover of DJ Mag in 2017 to winning the Alternative Top 100 DJs poll for the second year in a row.
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
Charlotte de Witte commemorated her Alternative Top 100 DJs win with an exclusive sunset performance from an abandoned shipyard in Lisbon, Portugal. On the DJ Mag and Beatport channels, you can watch the set right now.
The Alternative Top 100 DJs was created to honor the contributions of house and techno DJs, but in 2021, the genre filter was expanded to include a number of high-Beatport-selling genres, such as house, techno, drum & bass, and other derivatives that had previously been underrepresented in the main Top 100 DJs poll.
In a sign of increased gender balance in less commercial genres, 50 percent 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, according to this poll.
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. Nora En Pure, a deep house aficionado, is a non-mover at No.10.
The top 13 DJs from the Alternative Top 100 DJs poll received enough votes to be included in the main Top 100 DJs poll as well. Black Coffee, Maya Jane Coles, Honey Dijon, and Nicole Moudaber have all risen several places in the top 25, with Dutch-born techno prodigy Reinier Zonneveld coming in at No.26. 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.
Andy C, a main poll veteran who was included in the Alternative 100 this time thanks to the criteria being expanded to include drum & bass DJ/producers, is just behind Reinier at No.27. Dubfire, Nastia, The Blessed Madonna, and Enrico Sanguiliano have all climbed significantly in the top 40, with Bicep from Northern Ireland being the Highest Climber, climbing 46 places to No.33.
In total, there are 18 new entries in the Alternative Top 100 DJs chart, including Russia-born, Italy-based DJ Anfisa Letyago, Sub Focus, Paul Woolford, Jayda G, Sama’ Abdulhadi, John Summit, SHERELLE, Robert Hood, and Octo Octa, as well as two re-entries in the form of DJ Koze and Alan Fitzpatrick.
The full chart is available via the DJ Mag website.
