Jan Wayne belongs to one of the few artists who really scooped the music market during the last years! Within less a year he developed to one of the most successful Dance Producers and hottest DJs in Europe. The unbelievable amount of national and international chart successes in such a short time (i.a. Top 1 and 'Gold' with 'Because The Night' in the Netherlands) quite impressively emphasizes the reputation as one of the most successful dance producers and DJs. Appearances in well-known TV-Shows like 'The Dome', 'Top Of The Pops', 'Club Rotation' as well as DJ-sets in whole Europe, South- and North America are 'business as usual” nowadays.
Born in January 1974, he already had a very strong interest in music during his childhood. Inspired by the record collection of his elder brother, he began to collect a quite considerable number of vinyls. Parties with his classmates provided the first opportunities for 'performances'. After finishing school and parallel to his apprenticeship as bank clerk, he tried to get into closer contact with nearby clubs. He was allowed to perform short sets during the breaks of resident DJs. First proper bookings followed very quickly.
In 1992 Jan joined a booking agency. Within a short time, his sphere of activity spread and covered lastly the complete Northern German area. The ability of playing the greatest Techno and Trance–tunes besides cool Vocal-House-sounds, hot R&B-music and the best classics of the 70s and 80s, helped him to become resident DJ in various clubs. Besides his work as DJ, he got a job as a promoter, which provides him an insight into the business of music industry.
In 2001 a long expected dream came true. Jan produced his first track: a cover version of 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart'. He re-arranged Bonnie Tyler’s classic hit, which actually belongs to one of his personal favorites, with hot beats and hands-up-tunes.
This was the time, when the success story of DJ Jan Wayne began: 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart' didn’t only cause overcrowded dance floors, it also became Top 13 in German single charts. The sensational success was easily outshone by the follow-up single 'Because The Night'. The title became directly Top 4 during the first week and stayed in the Top 10 for nine weeks. Apart from that, both titles are amongst the ten most successful German dance titles of the first half of 2002.
But Jan Wayne was far from resting on his laurels. Within the same year, he published another single hit ('Only You') as well as his debut album 'Back Again!'. The album started on position 16 in the German album charts already in the first week. Sort of casually, he mixed the power-rave-CD 'Jan Wayne Presents The Ultimate Rave', contributed a mix to the successful compilation 'Kontor – Top Of The Clubs' and participated in the beneficiary project 'Dance United', where the total revenue was given to the victims of the flood disaster. 'More Than A Feeling' was released in the end of 2002 and again a single of Jan Wayne reached the top of charts.
2003 started with the nomination for the German 'Echo'-award in the category 'Best National Dance Act' and was even crowned in The Netherlands with the treasured TMF-Award 'Best Dance Act International'. Besides two further Hit-Singles 'Love Is A Soldier' and '1,2,3 (Keep The Spirit Alive)', his second album 'Gonna Move Ya!' shot successfully into the German hit lists. He mixed one more compilation 'Kontor – Top Of The Clubs' and created the dance-act 'Belushi'. The debut single 'Put Your Hands In The Air (Uhh Ooh!)' earned a success d'estime in the sales charts and developed to a massive hit in the European Clubs and DJ-Charts.
In 2004 Jan published 'Send Me An Angel', a furthermore chart hit. Already the 7th in a row!! He also had some cooperation’s with other famous producers of dance music, like Christophe Chantzis and Eric Vanspauwen (Ian van Dahl), Bart Wierzbicki (D.H.T.), DJ Gollum (Neo Cortex), Hayo Lewerentz (U96, Boytronic) and Helmut Hoinkis (U96, Chocolate, Raccoon).
Simultaneous he started planning on his first own music production studio, which was completed in 2005. The first fruit of his new 'home' followed soon: 'Mad World'! While the single developed to a dance floor-filler, too, Jan Wayne takes delight in the award of the 'DJ Meeting 2005 – Best Website'. In the end of 2005 the 9th single 'Time 2 Fly' was released, which included itself to the good company of the other hit singles.
Besides working on different new projects in 2006, Jan founded his own record label 'Deutsche Dance Records' together with his new partners Helmut Hoinkis and Ralf Oliver Müller. One of the first releases was his single No.10: 'Piece Of My Heart', a remake of the legendary 90’s hit from Intermission. In the end of the year Jan hooked up with Cuepoint Records. Nowadays the company runs six own record labels and does the administration work for four other labels as well.
For 2007 a totally new chapter was on the agenda. Together with the former Rednex singer Julie Anne Tulley a.k.a. 'Scarlet', he works on a couple of new singles and also the 3rd album is in progress. The first common release came out in May: Jan Wayne & Scarlet – 'I Touch Myself' and became an international club hit. Their next strike was released in the end of the year: 'Time Stood Still', a cover of the Bad English classic tune that also could win the favor of the dance music fans. In 2008 chapter III of this thrilling new cooperation was in the offing. In honor of Scarlet’s old home, the new smasher was a cover version from Rednex’s ’95 world hit 'Wish You Were Here'. Once again Jan Wayne demonstrated his ability for creating prime time hands up tools and caused a lot of furore in Europe’s dance charts.
In the end of the year another exciting collaboration in the story of Jan Wayne took place. Together with the auspicious newcomer 'RainDropz!', Jan released a cover version of 'Numb' from the US superstars Linkin Park in November. The results were once gain awesome: Number 1 in the most popular German download store Musicload and top ten rankings in every important dance chart. “Numb” also was the first JW Single, which was released as single in the United States. Parallel to the US release of 'Numb', Jan already came up with the next single in Europe. 'Wherever You Will Go' from 'The Calling' provided the basis for the next cover smasher and which gained international chart success as well. Short before the end of the year 2009, the cover of the Shakespears Sister hit 'Hello' cared for furor. Once more a Jan Wayne single in the highest regions of the DJ and download-charts.
In 2010 Jan decided to focus more on his label and his private life. Early 2012 he celebrated his 20th anniversary on stage.
Wist je dat...