Felix Jaehn

Felix Jaehn is the Hamburg-born DJ and producer who basically wrote the rulebook for tropical house back in the mid-2010s. Born in 1994, Jaehn (who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns professionally) started dropping tracks like “Sommer am Meer” and “Shine” before blowing up in a massive way with their 2015 remix of Omi’s “Cheerleader.” That remix — released as “Ain’t Nobody (Loves Me Better)” featuring Jasmine Thompson — didn’t just do well, it went absolutely everywhere, hitting number one in the US, UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, France, and a dozen other countries. It’s one of those tracks that even people who don’t listen to dance music somehow know.

Jaehn’s whole thing is taking that warm, breezy, festival-ready sound and pairing it with pop hooks that stick in your head for days. After the “Cheerleader” remix turned them into a name producers and labels wanted to work with, Jaehn kept building — teaming up with Mike Williams for “Feel Good,” linking with NOTD on “So Close,” and even starting a side project called Eff with singer Mark Forster that gave them the hit “Stimme.” In 2018 they dropped their debut album, “I,” which pulled in features from Marc E. Bassy and Gucci Mane, showing off a range that goes well past the tropical house lane they got famous in.

Jaehn hasn’t slowed down since. Recent years have brought new collaborations like “Without You” with longtime collaborator Jasmine Thompson and the “PRIDE” anthem alongside JHart, both keeping that melodic, feel-good production style front and center while pushing into new emotional territory. Live, Jaehn’s sets are still built around that same idea that made them a star in the first place: take dance music, strip away the ego, and make something that feels good to everyone in the room, whether you know who’s behind the decks or not.

Nearly a decade after “Cheerleader” took over radio and clubs worldwide, Felix Jaehn remains one of the most reliable names in melodic dance music — an artist who helped define an entire sub-genre and is still finding new ways to make people move.