5 Facts You Didn’t Know About Hardwell

1. He voiced The Flying Dutchman in Spongebob Squarepants

Most kids over in the Netherlands will have been blissfully unaware of this, but in the stop-motion special ‘Spongebob Squarepants: The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom’ the voice behind The Flying Dutchman was from one of the biggest DJs in the world. Hardwell’s voice for the character is excellent and actually isn’t his first venture into voice acting as he did the voice for Mel the Pug in the Dutch version of ‘The Secret Life Of Pets.’

2. His favourite artist is Eminem

Hardwell has always been a big fan of hip hop with Eminem being the artist that stands above the rest for him. His love for this genre was more apparent in his early productions before he became Hardwell as hip hop was the primary genre he made. He has said that making a song with Eminem is his dream collaboration, but the closest we’ve got to this so far is his epic bootleg of ‘Without Me’ from Tomorrowland 2018.

3. ‘Zero 76’ is dedicated to his hometown

‘Zero 76’ was one of his big breakthrough tracks and was a dream collaboration for him as he got to work alongside Tiesto who was one of his biggest idols. Both Tiesto and Hardwell come from Breda which is a city in the Netherlands and the tracks title is a nod to that with 076 being the area code for the city.

4. His dad came up with the Hardwell pseudonym

Hardwell’s real name is Robbert van de Corput and it’s his last name that brought to life the Hardwell pseudonym. His father translated the “Cor” half from Latin to English to mean “heart”, and the “Put” half from Dutch to English to mean “Well.” “Heart” was changed to “Hard” and so Hardwell was born.

5. He used to have alternate aliases

Before he became Hardwell, he released music under various aliases so he could try different styles and genres till he found his sound. Since becoming Hardwell, he has released all of his music under that pseudonym ranging from the beautiful progressive house track ‘Summer Air’ to the big room techno of his ‘Rebels Never Die’ album.

Bonus facts:

• His favourite food is garlic shrimps
• In 2012 he named Justin Bieber’s music as a guilty pleasure of his
• He is an avid gamer with his favourite games being Fifa and Call of Duty
• He’s a big fan of The Prodigy and has expressed interest in collaborating with them
• As a teenager he was a skilled Judo fighter