Musician Spotlight: Calvin Harris

Who is Calvin Harris?

Adam Richard Wiles, who goes by Calvin Harris or Love Regenerator’s stage name, is a Scottish-based DJ, singer, record producer, and songwriter. Born in 1984, Harris is well known for his hit songs such as This is What You Came For, Summer, Feel So Close, Outside, We Found Love, among others.

Harris is the last born son to his parents David Wiles and Pamela Wiles. He was born in Dumfries, where he attended his primary and secondary school. Harris is not married but has had romantic relationships with renowned public figures such as Rita Ora, Taylor Swift, and Aarika Wolf.

Harris’s love for music could be termed as inborn. Immediately after finishing high school Harris worked in supermarkets and processing fish factories to buy D.J. gear.

He began recording in his teen years and released two songs, Da Bongos and Brighter days, at 18. During this time, Harris also tried to move to London, searching for greener pasture but returned home when things didn’t work out.

It was after getting back home that his breakthrough came, through his page, Myspace. Moreover, Mark Gillespie made Calvin Harris the signee of Global Gathering because of his social media presence.

This social media page also gave him contracts with Six Zero Group, EMI, and Sony BMG in 2006.

Music Genre

In his fifth album, Harris uses the funk music genre. He has also used other music genres such as electronic dance music, electro house, electro-pop, dance-pop, and nu-disco in his earlier albums. His EDM style music can be heard in this live performance:

Major Accomplishments

Harris began his career in the music industry in 2002, and his most significant breakthrough was after the hit song “We Found Love,” in which he had collaborated with Rihanna. It was this song that gave Calvin his number one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

He has also managed to break Michael Jackson’s record for the most U.K. Top Ten singles from one album. The song, I’m Not Alone, took Harris to greater heights after it became his first song to top the U.K. Singles Chart.

His third album, 18 Months, took him to international levels in 2012. The album topped in the U.K. Album Charts and the U.S. Billboard 200.

Harris has made a name in different brands such as Spotify, where he was the first solo artist from British to reach more than one billion streams in 2014. In the Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Songs chart, Harris was the first artist to place three songs simultaneously on the top 10.

To date, Calvin Harris has managed to win 32 awards and 118 nominations in different categories. He is the holder of the British producer of the year of 2019 and Best Music Video 2013. Moreover, Harris holds the Ivor Novello Award in songwriter of the year awarded by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors.

Harris also made an appearance of the most influential people in the United Kingdom in Debrett’s 2017 list. He is also 2015’s Billboard Music Awards top Dance/electronic artist and was Forbes’s highest-paid D.J.s from 2013 to 2018. Harris runs a record label known as the “Fly Eye Records.”

Music Instruments

Calvin Harris uses a piano, keyboards, synthesizer, guitar, sampler, sequencer, and bass guitar. Learn more about the music and upcoming shows here.