Jonas Blue on Rebranding, Activating Your SENSES & the ‘Absolutely Horrendous’ State of AI
Categoria: Musica
After falling out of love with music, the hit-maker dropped his label, picked up an instrument and called up some old friends to make music that fights against the “New World Age.”
Por Billboard | 25/06/2026
Most DJs aspire to ascend to the level of commercial success Jonas Blue has reached. With 22 hits on Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. But commercial success doesn’t necessarily equate to happiness. In 2024, he felt lost in his corner of the music industry. After a decade of club banger after club banger, he wasn’t connecting with the pop sound he’d been churning out to since 2015, when he dropped a cover of Tracy Chapman ’s “Fast Car” which landed him on the Billboard Hot 100 . That summer in Ibiza changed everything. While on the dance floor, rather than in the DJ booth, he heard house tracks that inspired him to make music in the first place, leading to a record deal with Defected Records at 18 years old. Once again inspired by those same songs, Jonas dropped everything – major record label included – to return to his roots and Defected Records. Since then, he’s rebranded and released “Edge of Desire” and his latest track, “Girl.” The former, has hundreds of millions of streams and the latter already pacing to be just as successful. Billboard caught up with Jonas over Zoom as he started his day in Tokyo, before he had to catch a train to Nagoya; The location of the first of four shows in Japan. He told us about his love for country, how he plans to activate your sense of smell in Ibiza this summer and how he finds the state of AI “absolutely horrendous.” Okay, let’s start by talking about your tour. This entire summer is jam-packed. Europe, Asia and North America. For you, what does tour-life look like? What are your favorite parts and what are the hardest parts? Being able to obviously tour the world, meet all different people, fans from around the world, and being able to connect, hear stories of how over the years, my music has been able to be the soundtrack to people’s lives and really special moments. That’s a really incredible thing to be able to have from touring. The worst thing from touring is the traveling. Constantly, I’ve got no idea what time it is. My body clock is all over the place. There’s no real stability in anything when you’re touring. You’re in Tokyo, currently, about to head to another show. How did you gain this connection with Japan specifically and how’s the mutual love between you and the Japanese audience grown over the years? I think it initially came from my second single, which was ‘Perfect Strangers.’ I think somehow that song had such an impact on the Asian market, especially in Japan. I think so many of the Asian audience were just able to connect with my music. Melodically, the way my songs are, with a lot of the hooky melodies and the simplicity in the songwriting, I think it’s very easy for the Asian audience to understand. From a very early point in my career, I just had a very, very strong Asian fanbase and we put a lot of time into touring here. When a market really appreciates your music, you have to tour it. I’ve been touring Asia since 20