Charlotte de Witte: Barrier Breaker

In an industry dominated by male Djs and producers, Charlotte de Witte realized right from her beginnings, that in order to be appreciated as new DJ, producer and songwriter, the name would be essential and critical to her gaining recognition as an artist. So she came up with an alias, Raving George. Displaying that imagination, savviness, and knowledge of the inner workings of how the industry is predominately biased, some would say, based on looks, marketability, and if I dare to say, sex, were all obstacles that she would avoid up to the point when her popularity garnered respect of industry power players.

Charlotte is one artist that is known not to shy away from challenges, having a clear vision of where she wants to take her music and career, and championing the music coming out of her homeland of Belgium. Europe has long embraced her with open arms as is proven with her steady work schedule to showcase her aggressive techno sets on the big stage to underground events and having toured Asia, The U.S. and Canada and will soon be hitting the road bringing her music to fans in Australia, New Zealand, South and Central America. Citing The Bloody Beetroots, Brodinski and Crookers as early influences, pointing her in a direction of producing high-grade electro and electro-house music, which in turn led to broadening her genre scope to include Techno, and Underground compositions, which just happens to be her Charlotte released her first EP in 2013 with “Obverse”—a 5 track EP with two original compositions and 3 remixes followed by 2 more EPs —“Slaves/Alternate” and “Weltschmerz” in 2015. The latter of which proved to be a breakout moment with wide spread international support. This period in her career and identity development is when she put aside the moniker of Raving George and started releasing her music under her proper name. Since then, her discography has grown to 9 EPs. Acknowledging her talents, “My Feeling,” a track from her 2016 debut Turbo Records release, “Sehnsucht” went on to be named as Mixmag’s Track of 2016, recipient of Red Bull Elektopedia’s Award for Best Producer (Belgium), Trax Magazine’s “New Hope for Belguim Techno” and high praise from Tsugi calling her “a revelation for 2017.”

Repeat high profile gigs include main stage performances at Tomorrowland, I Love Techno, and Pukkelpop further demonstrates that her talents are being widely embraced as she enters the next phases of her budding musical career. Now, one can argue that Charlotte’s break-though came via 2016’s activity by delivering strong releases as well as performances, which makes her one the most in-demand talents on the scene today.

—CATHERINE STRICKLAND

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