Esteemed Dutch artist and producer, Hardwell, is officially closing out Ultra Music Festival Miami this weekend. Billboard first reported the news over the weekend. After the pressures of touring, he took an “indefinite” hiatus back in 2018. Now, this is quite some good news we’ve been hoping for since the year started. The Dutchman is rumored to close out the three-day event as a special guest Main Stage at 9 pm EST on Sunday, March 27th.
We’ve truly missed Robbert van de Corput, better known as his stage name Hardwell. He rose to fame and his career skyrocketed from 2012 to 2018. Appearing at the biggest events in the world like Ultra and Tomorrowland, he even held Las Vegas residencies. His big room progressive house hits dominated the stages, streams, and dance floors everywhere. Everyone had ‘Spaceman’, ‘Apollo’, ‘Countdown’, and more on repeat, for the peak hype of raving came from him. For all the guesses in the world, I think Ultra is happy to have Hardwell back.
How did this come to be? Well, the question marks appeared between “G” and “I” on the lineup and he already had discussions with Ultra about playing. Secondly, Billboard reports that Kura and Timmy Trumpet teased a possible comeback from him on Twitter. In addition, they’ve had releases on Revealed Recordings to back their presumptions. What’s more, is he is rumored to play new music during this closing set with a new sound that is an evolution of his old work.
At 30, Robert announced his hiatus to spend more time with friends and family. Mentor Tiesto and good friend Laidback Luke could see the effects of touring and music obligations taking a toll on him. What happened with Avicii took a toll on everyone in the industry and so taking breaks became a priority. Hardwell even started a DJ support group with Armin van Buuren that met twice monthly on Zoom. Members included Laidback Luke, Don Diablo, Dave Dresden, and Alok.
We don’t know what his plans consist of after Ultra. But we’ll celebrate this weekend in the best way possible.
