Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
I don’t often choose to feature DJs here, even when they have a massive hit on their hands, because they’re typically quite anonymous and often one hit wonders. However, I’m featuring France’s Kungs (real name Valentin Brunel) for a couple of reasons. Firstly, he’s only 19, and secondly, he actually appears in his new music video. Clearly he doesn’t just want to be behind the scenes, but has a drive to be famous in the same way as celebrity DJs like Calvin Harris and David Guetta, the latter being his recent tourmate and mentor. This drive is what gives him the potential to have a long career with many more hits, because being recognisable does a lot for a DJ. It gets them better gigs, invites to celebrity events, perhaps even a pop star girlfriend, and as such there’s more interest in their next single. Maybe he’ll even make the unusual (for a DJ) move of releasing an album. Kungs was first known for his remixes, and released his first original single last year, To Describe You, randomly featuring UK Eurovision entrant Molly Smitten-Downes. But it’s This Girl, his remix of an obscure track by an Aussie organ trio, which was his breakthrough hit. It even came close to knocking Drake off no.1 last week. It has, however, topped the charts in France, Germany, Belgium and Hungary, and made the top 10 in 13 countries in total.