Headstrong
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]EDM Artists >> Headstrong
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Headstrong was one of UK trance’s most reliable hitmakers for the better part of two decades, built on the strength of soaring vocal trance productions and a genuine ear for melody. The name behind the alias was Don Jackson, a producer and mastering engineer from York, England, who spent more than 40 years working in music before passing away in May 2023 at age 58, following complications from cancer treatment.
Jackson’s Headstrong project broke through in the mid-2000s with tracks like “Close Your Eyes” (2005), “Silver Shadow” (2006), and “Show Me The Love” (2006), records that earned support from some of the biggest names in trance — Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Paul van Dyk, and Paul Oakenfold all championed his work on air and in their sets. That kind of backing from trance’s A-list is hard to come by, and it cemented Headstrong as a name serious fans of the genre knew well.
He built a close creative partnership with fellow producer Matt Darey, releasing music through Darey’s Darey Products label, and worked with a rotating cast of the genre’s best vocalists, including Kirsty Hawkshaw, Andrea Britton, and Tiff Lacey. That vocal-forward approach became something of a signature — Headstrong tracks were built to be sung along to, not just mixed into a DJ set.
In 2010, he released the full album Timeless (Part 1), a 24-track collection that pulled together years of his vocal trance output, and his music continued to appear on compilations like Nightmusic Volume 2. Tracks including “Tears” featuring Stine Grove, “Here in The Dark” featuring Shelley Harland, and “Love Until It Hurts” featuring Stine Grove kept his catalog growing well into the 2010s, each one leaning on that same formula of big melodies and emotional vocal performances.
Headstrong’s music still turns up on shows like Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance, a testament to how well his productions have held up. For a certain generation of trance fans, the name Headstrong is inseparable from that mid-2000s golden era when vocal trance ruled the main stages, and Don Jackson’s catalog remains a genuine, lasting piece of that history.
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