The DMC World DJ Championships is an annual DJ competition founded by the Disco Mix Club (DMC) which began in 1985. It has been described as a "pre-eminent competitive DJ event".

History

Competitors are each given 6 minutes to perform, with winners selected at the end. Championships were sponsored internationally by Technics, but in 2010 Technics was replaced by

Serato Serato (stylized in all lowercase; ) is a music software company founded in 1998 in Auckland, New Zealand by Steve West and AJ Bertenshaw. History West and Bertenshaw met in computer science class at the University of Auckland. When West created ...

and

Rane Rane may refer to: People * Rane (surname), a list of people * Rane (given name), a list of people with the given name or nickname Companies * The Rane Group of Companies, an Indian industrial conglomerate ** Rane (Madras), involved in the manufa ...

. Since 2011, the

vinyl emulation software A close-up of a time-coded vinyl record Vinyl emulation allows a DJ to physically manipulate the playback of digital audio files on a computer using turntables as an interface, thus preserving the hands-on control and feel of DJing with vinyl. ...

Serato Scratch Live can be used during the competition in addition to traditional vinyl. The first championship, held in the

London Hippodrome The Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Cranbourn Street and Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, London. The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few survi ...

in 1985, was won by Londoner Roger Johnson. From 1992 to 1994 American

DJ Qbert Richard Quitevis (born October 7, 1969) known by his stage name DJ Qbert or Qbert, is a Filipino American turntablist and composer who has heavily influenced the History of DJing. He was awarded America's Best DJ in 2010, was DMC USA Champio ...

dominated the competition, until being asked to step down in order to "level the playing field". In 2017 the Bronx-born Puerto Rican DJ Perly became the first woman to win the DMC United States finals. She went on to earn fourth place in the world finals in London later that year, the highest-placing female to that date. In 2020 and 2021, the tournament was held online due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The 2021 event also attracted media attention due to one of the competitors being a 9-year-old girl from Dubai. Kalib Strickland from New Zealand, under the name DJ K-Swizz, won both the 2022 and the 2023 world events. Strickland, who had previously at age 14 won both the DMC Battle for World Supremacy and the 2017 IDA Technical to become the youngest person to win a world championship, was the first winner from the Southern hemisphere. He also won the 2018 DMC Battle for Global Supremacy, which he failed to defend in 2019 when he was beaten by DJ Matsunaga in what

Mixmag ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was printe ...

has described as one of the "best DJ scratch battles".

Disco Mix Club

The competition was founded in 1985 by the Disco Mix Club. The club was founded by

Tony Prince Tony Prince (born Thomas Whitehead; 9 May 1944) is a British radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). ...

in 1983 as a DJ remix label which targeted professional

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

s and enthusiasts instead of the mass market. It resold

megamix A megamix is a remix containing multiple songs in rapid succession. It often features various artists. There may be only one verse or even just a brief chorus of each song used, sometimes in addition to samples of the same or other songs. It i ...

es and

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

es, and published a weekly magazine. The company also began the magazine ''

'' before it was sold to the British media group EMAP in January 1997. The club founded the world championship event "for DJs to test their skills against their peers". Musicians who contributed megamixes to the company included Alan Coulthard, Les Adams (who was a judge on some of the earlier DMC championships), Chad Jackson,

Dave Seaman Dave Seaman (born 29 April 1968) is a British DJ and record producer. He was formerly a member of the DMC Publishing, and editor of music magazine ''Mixmag''. Biography He formed Brothers in Rhythm with Steve Anderson and they were later ...

, Steve Anderson, Peter Slaghuis, Paul Dakeyne, and

Ben Liebrand Ben Liebrand (; born 27 September 1960) is a Dutch dance music disc jockey, DJ and remixer. He has record producer, produced for artists such as Forrest (singer), Forrest and MC Miker G & DJ Sven and remixed tracks by artists such as Alexander O ...

. The Disco Mix Club itself went into voluntary liquidation in April 2023.

Champions

*1985 - Roger Johnson aka RJ Scratch (UK) *1986 - DJ Cheese (USA) *1987 - Chad Jackson (UK) *1988 - DJ Cash Money (USA) *1989 - Cutmaster Swift (UK) *1990 - DJ David (Germany) *1991 - DJ David (Germany) *1992 - The Rocksteady DJs (USA) *1993 & 1994 - The Dream Team (USA) *1995 - DJ Rock Raida (USA) *1996 - DJ Noize (Denmark) *1997 - A-Trak (Canada) *1998 - DJ Craze (USA) *1999 - DJ Craze (USA) *2000 - DJ Craze (USA) *2001 - DJ Plus One (UK) *2002 - DJ Kentaro (Japan) *2003 - DJ Dopey (Canada) *2004 - ie.Merg (USA) *2005 - ie.Merg (USA) *2006 - DJ Netik (France) *2007 - DJ Rafik (Germany) *2008 - DJ Fly (France) *2009 - DJ Shiftee (USA) *2010 - DJ LigOne (France) *2011 - Chris Karns aka DJ Vajra (USA) *2012 - DJ Izoh (Japan) *2013 - DJ Fly (France) *2014 - Mr. Switch (UK) *2015 - DJ Vekked (Canada) *2016 - DJ Yuto (Japan) *2017 - DJ Rena (Japan) *2018 - DJ Skillz (France) *2019 - DJ Skillz (France) *2020 - DJ Skillz (France) *2021 - JFB (UK) *2022 - DJ K-Swizz (New Zealand) *2023 - DJ K-Swizz (New Zealand) *2024 - DJ Fly (France)

References

External links

DMC History - DMC World DJ Championships
(official championship history) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dmc World Dj Championships Music festivals established in 1985 DJing British music awards Electronic music festivals in Greece Hip-hop awards Dance music awards Music competitions International music awards Turntablism

History

Disco Mix Club

Champions

See also

References

External links