Calvin Harris: 66 fun facts about the singer! (List)

1. Adam Richard Wiles was born on 17 January 1984.

2. He is known professionally as Calvin Harris, is a Scottish DJ, singer, songwriter, record producer, recording artist and remixer.

3. His debut album, I Created Disco, was released in 2007 and was the precursor to his top-10 singles “Acceptable in the 80s” and “The Girls”.

4.  In 2009, Harris released his second studio album, Ready for the Weekend, which debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and earned a gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry within two months of release.

5. Its lead single, “I’m Not Alone”, became his first number one on the UK Singles Chart.

6. Harris rose to international prominence in 2012 with the release of his third studio album, 18 Months. Topping the UK charts, the album became his first to chart on the Billboard 200 in the US, reaching number 19.

7. All eight of the album’s singles; “Bounce”, “Let’s Go”, “We’ll Be Coming Back”, “Sweet Nothing”, “Drinking from the Bottle”, “I Need Your Love”, “Thinking About You” and “Feel So Close”, along with “We Found Love” reached the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart.

8. Harris has collaborated with numerous other recording artists, including Kylie Minogue, Rita Ora, John Newman, Florence Welch, Ellie Goulding, Ne-Yo, Cheryl Cole and Gwen Stefani.

9. His collaboration with Rihanna led to two singles, “Where Have You Been” and “We Found Love”.

10. The latter became an international success, giving Harris his first US number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100.

11. Harris released his fourth studio album, Motion, in November 2014.

12. It debuted at at number two in the UK and number five in the US, and became Harris’s second consecutive number-one album on the Dance/Electronic Albums chart.

13. The album’s first three singles—”Under Control”, “Summer” and “Blame”—all topped the UK chart.

14. Harris holds the record for the most top 10 songs from one studio album on the UK Singles Chart with nine top 10 entries, surpassing Michael Jackson.

15. In October 2014, he became the first artist to place three songs simultaneously on the top 10 of Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Songs chart.

16. He also became the first British solo artist to reach more than one billion streams on Spotify.

17. Harris has received ten Brit Award nominations—three for Best British Male, and four Grammy nominations, winning a Grammy for Best Music Video in 2013.

18. He received the British Academy’s Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year in 2013 and at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards was named Top Dance/Electronic Artist. Additionally, Harris topped Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-paid DJs for three consecutive years from 2013 to 2015.

19. Harris also runs his own recordFly Eye Records.

20. Adam Richard Wiles was born on 17 January 1984 in Dumfries, Scotland.

21. His English parents, David Wiles, a biochemist, and Pamela, a homemaker, married in Oxford before moving to the Dumfries suburb Georgetown.

22. He has an older sister, Sophie, and an older brother, Edward.

23. He attended Dumfries High School, and after leaving school he stacked shelves in supermarkets and worked in a local fish processing factory in order to buy DJ gear.

24. He was first attracted to electronic music in his teens and was recording bedroom demos by 1999.

25. When Harris was 18 he released two songs “Da Bongos” and “Brighter Days”.

26. Both were released as 12-inch club singles and CD-EPs by thePrima Facie in early 2002 under the name “Stouffer”.

27. With these singles to his credit, Harris moved from Scotland to London, hoping to learn from the local music scene.

28. Only one of his songs was released during his time in London, “Let Me Know” with vocalist Ayah Marar on the Unabombers’ 2004 live-mix CD Electric Soul, Vol. 2.

29. With the lack of job opportunities and money, Harris returned home to Dumfries and began posting homemade solo recordings to his MySpace page.

30. Harris’ popularity on the social media website created Internet attention that prompted Mark Gillespie, a talent booker for the dance-festival firm Global Gathering, who had recently founded his own management firm, to make Harris the company’s first signing.

31. In 2009, Harris teamed up with Coca Cola for their ‘Open Happiness’ advertising campaign in the UK.

32. Harris wrote and produced an exclusive track for the brand called ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah, La La La’ which was featured on TV, digital, outdoor and on-pack promotional activity and was offered on ‘Coke Zone’ website for free download.

33. The same year, Harris’s song “Colours” was featured in Kia Motors’s hamster television advertisement for the Kia Soul EV.

34. In 2012, Harris was featured in the Pepsi Max commercial for their Football campaign. Titled “crowd surfing”, the advert showed Harris on the DJ deck playing his single “Let’s Go” to the crowd of partygoers alongside star footballers Lionel Messi, Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres, Frank Lampard, Sergio Agüero and Jack Wilshere.

35. In 2013, Harris teamed up with Sol Republic to create their first studio tuned professional-calibre headphones. The partnership involved designing a customised look for the headphones and redesigning its drivers to Harris’ specifications.

36. On 17 December 2014, Harris was announced as the new face of Giorgio Armani for its men’s underwear line for the Spring/Summer 2015 season.

37. He was also named the worldwide testimonial of the Emporio Armani eyewear and watch collection.

38. The black and white campaign was shot in Los Angeles by photographer Boo George. Harris returned as the face of the brand underwear line, eyewear and watch line for their Emporio Armani Fall/Winter 2015/2016 campaign. The images, shot by Lachlan Bailey, were released on July of the same year.

39. In March 2010, Harris launched his own vanity label, Fly Eye Records. Most of the label’s releases belong to the EDM genre.

40. In 2014, theformed a partnership with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Later that year, Harris was appointed as the head of the A&R team at the dance label Deconstruction Records.

41. In early 2012, Harris signed an exclusive DJ residency deal with Wynn Las Vegas which included gigs at three of the luxury resort’s avenues: Encore Beach Club, Surrender and XS Nightclub. In February 2013, Harris signed as the first exclusive resident DJ with the Abu Dhabi-owned hospitality company Hakkasan Group in Las Vegas. The 20-month residency saw him playing 46 dates at MGM Grand’s Hakkasan nightclub, as well as 22 additional gigs at the MGM Grand’s Wet Republic. In January 2015, he extended his partnership with the Hakkasan group for three more years, which includes residencies at three of the group’s Las Vegas venues (Hakkasan nightclub, Wet Republic and Omnia Nightclub at Caesars Palace). Harris also serves as the Group’s music consultant for its restaurants, nightclubs and hotels, globally.

42. On 30 March 2015, Harris was announced as a co-owner, along with various other music artists, in the music streaming service Tidal. The service specialises in lossless audio and high definition music videos. Rapper Jay Z acquired the parent company of Tidal, Aspiro, in the first quarter of 2015. Including Beyoncé and Jay Z, 16 artist stakeholders (such as Kanye West, Beyoncé, Madonna, Chris Martin, Nicki Minaj and more) co-own Tidal, with the majority owning a 3% equity stake. The idea of having an all artist owned streaming service was created by those involved to adapt to the increased demand for streaming within the current music industry, and to rival other streaming services such as Spotify, which have been criticised for their low payout of royalties.

43. In September 2007, Harris performed in the charity event “Wasted Youth” in aid of the Campaign Against Living Miserably at KOKO nightclub in Camden Town, London.

44. The event aimed to draw attention to the issue of youth suicide among men in the UK and to raise awareness and money for the charity.

45. In 2008, he supported Shelter’s campaign “Hometime Scotland” which pledges to end homelessness and bad housing in Scotland.

46. In 2010, Harris performed live in The War Child’s post-Brit Awards show (alongside La Roux and Kasabian) which took place at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London.

47. The event raised funds and public awareness on children affected by violence in war zones.

48. In February 2012, Harris teamed up with several other artists (including Rihanna and Coldplay) to perform at a charity concert with all proceeds from the show going to the Children’s Orthopaedic Center at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

49. In November 2012, Harris contributed several songs to Tiësto’s compilation album Dance (RED) Save Lives in collaboration with anti-AIDS charity Product Red which was aimed at creating awareness on the fight for an AIDS Free Generation.

50. Harris participated in a global live stream of the Stereosonic music festival in Melbourne, Australia which took place on World AIDS Day on 1 December 2012. The proceeds from both the album and the event were donated for the cause.

51. Forbes began reporting on Harris’s earnings in 2013, calculating that he earned $46 million between May 2012 and May 2013, for his music, tour and his residency in Las Vegas which placed him as the highest-paid DJ of the year.

52. In 2014, Harris came in at number one on the list again for the second consecutive year with a total of $66 million in annual earnings.

53. In 2015, Harris topped the highest-paid DJs list for a third consecutive year, having earned $66 million over the previous 12 months.

54. On The Sunday Times Rich List published in April 2015, Harris was ranked the 30th richest British millionaire in music, with a personal fortune of £70 million ($105 million).

55. Harris began dating British singer Rita Ora in May 2013. The two collaborated on her single “I Will Never Let You Down”. They broke up in June 2014.

56. In March 2015, Harris started dating American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

57. By June 2015, the duo was ranked as the highest-paid celebrity couple in music over the past year by Forbes with combined earnings of more than $146 million.

58. Harris is a teetotaler. He has abstained from drinking alcohol since he was 24, stating that “I wasn’t an alcoholic or anything like that, but it was clearly affecting what I do.”

59. In 1999, Calvin started recording music demos in his bedroom.

60. Past jobs before making it big included working at a fish factory an a supermarket.

61. After hearing Chris Brown’s single “Yeah 3x”, he claimed it plagiarised his own single “I’m Not Alone” – he was later credited on Brown’s track.

62. Despite working with loads of stars, he turned down the opportunity to work with Lady Gaga in 2008 because he didn’t know who she was!

63. He was also supposed to support Katy Perry in 2011, but pulled out, blaming her team.

64. Before going into music, Calvin wanted to be a footballer.

65. Calvin once lied, claiming his laptop went missing at an airport, containing the only copy of his new album – really, he was just giving himself more time to get it ready!

66. Calvin was the highest paid DJ of 2013, making over $46 million!