David Guetta at Longitude 2025: Looking ahead to the dance legend's first Irish performance in 13 years

“I started DJing in clubs at 17-years old, before house music even existed. I was playing eight-hour sets, six days a week – a journey through disco, funk, soul and new wave on turntables, and that’s how I learned.

“It felt so good to see people really dancing again, dressed up and all glittery.”

That was Paris dance legend David Guetta talking this week about his dancefloor adventures which started in earnest forty years ago.

In 1988, he experienced a musical epiphany when he heard an Isaac Hayes-sampling Chicago dance anthem on the radio.

“It was Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk’s record ‘Love Can’t Turn Around’,” he recalls. “I became obsessed with the sound of it. The music had a message of love, being open, and bringing people together that inspired me to start my first house music night in Paris.

“Later when I was running a club called Queen, I would invite DJs like Frankie Knuckles, David Morales and DJ Pierre. Trying to learn from those pioneers as I also wanted to share this amazing feeling too. House music was born from people like Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk and Frankie Knuckles. The legacy of the genre and those artists are so important to me. Those people paved the way for myself and other artists to have careers and be able to do what we are doing today.

“For me, it is all about love and bringing people together to celebrate life.”

Guetta’s own recording career started in 1990 when he collaborated with hip hop star Sidney Duteil on ‘Nation Rap’, which also included Afrika Bambaataa and Public Enemy in its DNA.

We had to wait until June 2002 for the release of his debut album, Just A Little More Love, which courtesy of the title-track and follow up singles ‘Love Don’t Let Me Go’, ‘People Come People Go’ and ‘Give Me Something’ sold 300,000 copies worldwide.

At around the same time, his Fuck Me I’m Famous club night became one of the hottest tickets in Ibiza with his ‘Just One For One Day (Heroes)’ remix the soundtrack to many a Balearic blowout.

While 2004’s Guetta Blaster also sold well in Europe, it was ‘07’s Pop Life which broke through to the mainstream with its flagship single, ‘Love Is Gone’, going top 10 in the UK and also denting the US Billboard Hot 100.

As something of a victory lap, he invited DJ pals Tiesto, Carl Cox, Joachim Garraud and Martin Solveig to join him for the UNIGHTED dance party, which packed 40,000 people into the Stade de France.

In 2009, he came third in DJ Magazine’s Top 100 DJs poll, started his own radio show and released his fourth studio album, One Love, which featured guest turns from the A-List likes of Kelly Rowland, Akon, will.i.am, Ne-Yo, Estelle, Kid Cudi, Chris Willie, Afrojack, Fergie and LMFAO and went on to sell a whopping 5.5 million copies.

Floodgates well and truly opened, Guetta produced The Black Eyed Peas’ global ‘I Gotta Feeling’ smash which topped the charts in seventeen countries; worked with the aforementioned Kelly Rowland, Kelis and Flo Rida on their respective new albums; and generally became one of the most successful musical entities on the planet.

Since then, it’s almost easier to list who Guetta hasn’t worked with Nicki Minaj, Taio Cruz, Ludacris, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Snoop Dogg, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Avicii, Ryan Tedder, The Script, Fetty Wap, Zara Larsson, Lil Wayne, Ellie Goulding, Charli XCX, Sean Paul, Aloe Blacc, Becky Hill, Lenny Kravitz, Ayra Starr, Ed Sheeran, Jessie J, OneRepublic and Sia all coming under his spell.

The latter became a global superstar herself in 2011 after supplying the vocals for Nothing But The Beat album standout ‘Titanium’.

“It’s probably my favourite all-time track I have ever created and the one I love playing live,” Guetta has since said. “Listening to seas of people singing so loudly together in unison at my shows around the world feels so surreal. I also love working with Sia so much. She is such an incredibly talented singer and songwriter with a phenomenally unique voice. It made me so happy over ten years ago when she accepted to keep her vocals on the track.

“I still feel it would not have been the same without her. We have always worked so well together and that’s why I find myself going back to her over and over to collaborate throughout the years.

‘Titanium’ transcends across the globe and touches so many lives. I am so proud of this track and truly believe that this song forever changed my career.”

David and Sia hooked up again this year on ‘Beautiful People’, which has added to the 35 platinum discs, eight billion streams, five billion video views and six million single sales their previous collaborations have garnered.

In all, Guetta has enjoyed a record-breaking seventeen chart-toppers on US dance radio – a tally that one suspects will never be bettered.

Someone who has firsthand experience of working with Guetta is Cork-born, LA- domiciled alt. popper Lenii.

“David Guetta lived up to my expectations!” she enthused to Hot Press. “He was insanely nice. I have this habit where I can’t mask my emotions at all, so if I’m a fan of someone, I’ll tell them. At the end of the session, I put the song we made on his hard-drive, and was like, ‘I have to tell you that I’m a huge fan!’ and he just turned and hugged me. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m hugging David Guetta!’ My 15-year-old self was dying right then!

Guetta’s benevolence extends to his United At Homes series of events, which launched during Covid and has raised millions for good causes.

“In these difficult times, we hope to bring comfort, joy, and support through the power of music and emotions,” he notes. “We have supported many charities and helped make a real difference in people’s lives during the pandemic. We continue in this direction today, benefiting UNICEF and Dubai Cares.”

After a thirteen year absence from these shores – Hot Press still remembers his seriously euphoric Marlay Park show in 2012 – Guetta will be whipping the Saturday night masses into a frenzy at Longitude.

Expect him to be in top performing form having just launched Galactic Circus, his most ambitious residency yet which finds upwards of 8,000 people packing in to (UNVRS) Ibiza every Friday night.

Described as “a gateway to the unknown where the spirit of adventure and the pulse of the dancefloor become one”, it’s yet more proof that no one works a crowd quite like David Guetta!

Read the full Longitude Special in the current issue of Hot Press, out now: