Armand Van Helden (born 1970 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a record producer and remixer whose biggest commercial successes came from his remixes of the 1996 Tori Amos song "Professional Widow", which reached the top of the UK Singles Chart, and his own track "U Don't Know Me" which was Number 1 in the United Kingdom in January 1999.
Van Helden was born in Boston in 1970 to an Indo (Dutch/Indonesian) father and a French-Lebanese mother, but travelled around the world as a child spending time in the Netherlands, Latvia, Turkey and Italy, as his father was a member of the U.S. Air Force.
At the age of thirteen, he bought a drum machine and started DJing two years later.
He returned to Boston in 1988 but also moonlighted as a DJ in Boston clubs. He attended college in Boston. He quit his legal review job in 1991 to work as a remixer under the management of Neil Petricone and X-MIX. He took up a DJ residency at The Loft, a top Boston nightclub at the time. He released his first official single, a mix of Deep Creed's "Stay On My Mind" through Nervous Records.
He released "Move It To the Left" (credited to Sultans of Swing) in 1992 on the Strictly Rhythm label, which became a moderate club hit. His first track to make the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart was "Witch Doktor" which made the top 5 in 1994.
The success of "Witch Doktor" led to opportunities to remix acts such as New Order, Deep Forest, Jimmy Somerville, Deee-Lite and Faithless.
However, it was the "Professional Widow" remix that established him and became a dance hit around the world as well as a number one hit in the UK. Unfortunately, Van Helden did not receive a penny for this mix as he presented it uncommissioned, and thus was not entitled to compensation. However, it led to work remixing The Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and Puff Daddy as well as Daft Punk and Sneaker Pimps, adding to his reputation as one of the world's top house musicians.
"Cha Cha" was another top ten dance hit from his first album Old School Junkies released in 1996, along with "The Funk Phenomena". A greatest hits album appeared the next year followed by a breakbeat album later in 1997. "U Don't Know Me" was a number two hit on the Billboard dance chart, a Number one in the UK and a top 20 single on the pop charts in Australia and Canada.
The song was the breakout track from his 2Future4U album, which was released stateside on Armand's own label Armed Records.
Van Helden released the Killing Puritans album in 2000 (also on Armed Records) which contained the dance hit, "Koochy". His single "Why Can't You Free Some Time" made number 34 in the UK in 2001. His New York: A Mix Odyssey album released in 2004 produced two hits, "Hear My Name", a collaboration with Spalding Rockwell which reached number 7 on the Billboard dance chart, number 34 in the UK, and the top 40 in Australia; and "My My My", which reached number 4 on the world internet charts, number 5 in the Belgian and Dutch charts, number 6 in Australia, number 15 in the UK and top 30 in the world dance charts.
In 2005 he released the album Nympho, featuring the singles "Into Your Eyes", "My My My", "Hear My Name" and "When the Lights Go Down". The album reached the top 30 in Australia, and number 48 in the UK.
Van Helden was the featured DJ in the Southern Fried tent at Get Loaded in the Park at Clapham Common on the August bank holiday in 2005. He treated concertgoers with an incredible mash up set, which is still spoken about today about being one of his best performances.
In 2007, Armand Van Helden released his new album, Ghettoblaster, from which he released the singles "NYC Beat", reaching #22 in the UK chart, and "I Want Your Soul", #19.
In 2008, Van Helden gained enormous commercial success by remixing INSPIRE, a #1-hit song by Japanese popstar Ayumi Hamasaki. This remix was released on the album Ayu-mi-x 6 -GOLD-.
Other facts
Two of Armand Van Helden's songs, "My My My" (featuring sample from Gary Wright's "Comin' Apart") and the Dark Garage Mix of Sneaker Pimps' "Spin Spin Sugar", are featured in Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME 2. He has also edited music for Deee-Lite. Helden's remix of CJ Bolland's "Sugar Is Sweeter" marked the birth of the short lived subgenre, speed garage, in 1997. Speed garage was soon later reinvented as UK garage (or 2 step), which has since seen a renaissance of sorts under the moniker of 'niche'/'4x4 garage' or 'bassline house'
