Article · Interview

Read: The Jonas Blue Hï Ibiza Interview

October 22, 2026

Get to know the award-winning DJ and Hï Ibiza resident Jonas Blue

In this interview, Jonas Blue charts his journey from learning to DJ when he was in school, to the stories behind his chart-topping hits “Perfect Strangers”, “Madan” and “Edge of Desire”.

Blue talks candidly about his first DJ bookings, his love of Daft Punk and Bob Sinclar, his collaborations with Sabrina Carpenter and Raye, and the power of radio.

Jonas Blue Presents SENSES ran every Wednesday from 5 August to 30 September 2026, in the Hï Ibiza Club Room.

This interview is part of our Road To Now series, where we ask our world-class resident DJs to give the definitive account of the artistic journey that brought them to a residency at Hï Ibiza. The video version of this interview is out now.

Hi Jonas. So, where did you grow up?

I grew up in the UK. I'm from a county called Essex and lived there pretty much all my life up until the age of 35, 36. Where I grew out was a big part of my musical journey.

How did you get into DJing?

I was around 11 years old. My first ever experience really seeing a DJ was on a TV programme in the UK. I remember seeing Carl Cox on the TV for the first time ever. I saw all these people having a really good time in this place and Carl was DJing. I thought that whatever that is, that is my calling in life and I have to do that.

How did you start?

I had a mobile disco company [laughs]. So that was like my weekly job. I would have school from Monday to Friday, then on the weekends I would DJ at friends’ birthday parties and bar mitzvahs and weddings and everything else. That was a good time.

Do you remember your first ever gig?

It was for my best friend at the time, it was her birthday party and it was on Halloween. It taught me a lesson that night because my whole DJ system broke [laughs].

Were there any important tracks for you at the time?

There was a couple of defining tracks for me when I was younger that, still to this day, whenever I hear them, they make me feel a certain way because sonically they did so much. So the first one would be Daft Punk "Around the World". When I heard that song for the very first time, the robotic talkbox vocal and the Chic style bassline, and then the music video, I was like, “Wow, what's this?”

The second song would be Michael Jackson, "Billie Jean". Very early on it taught me that if you have a very unique sounding drum you could start a record like that. When "Billie Jean" comes on it instantly grabs you and then the bassline comes in. So those are two records that very much inspired me and how I make music today.

So the third song is slightly different but there’s an electronic artist called Jean-Michel Jarre who had this incredible Oxygene album. My dad showed me that album and when I heard the pads and the electronic drums, as something from the ‘70s, I was like, wow. That was a big influence on my sonic palette and career.

Did your dad introduce you to a lot of music?

My dad was massively into music, but he wasn't a musician. So he just loved music and just gave me every bit of good music. He had a big vinyl collection and yeah, amazing times.

Are there any clubs that were important to your early career?

The first club that really inspired me musically and also booked me to DJ was Ministry of Sound in London. For me, it's home. It's where I started. The first show I ever did there was for Defected and it was in the courtyard where they make the burgers and everything. It was a very cool DJ setup in the courtyard.

Which DJs were you taking inspiration from at that time?

My biggest inspiration when I was younger were two artists. The first one being Daft Punk, the Homework album is my inspiration still to this day. But the very first DJ I wanted to be like was Bob Sinclar. I loved his music and the way he did his DJ sets. I saw him so many times live. French House was my thing. I loved all the old disco samples and soul and the vocals.

Can you remember the first music you made?

It was when I was 15 years old. I used to produce very soulful, jazzy underground house music, that's where I started. I went under my real name Guy Robin. It was a very interesting time for me. I was trying to understand arrangements and how music should be.

How did you start building from there?

When I was younger, there was no streaming. Wow, I sound ancient! [laughs]. So basically you had to get your music to DJs on the radio. My manager today was actually a DJ on the radio. He played for BBC Radio 1Xtra in the UK. If he played your music, you knew you was doing something right. When I was younger I used to make bootlegs of R&B vocals and I'd make them into underground soulful house records. And he used to play them every week. And that's when I knew people like what I'm doing now. For a long time, I didn't release any music until I knew the quality was high enough. So then when he started to accept my demos and started to play them on the radio that's when I knew we have something here.

Since then, you’ve collaborated with some of the biggest artists in the world. What do you enjoy about collaboration?

I've been very fortunate to collaborate with some incredible artists. Some of those being Raye, Sabrina Carpenter, Craig David, you know, a bunch of different people. The greatest thing for me when collaborating, whether it's with amazing artists or DJs, is you're able to step into their world. You're able to collaborate in a way where you're stepping into their sounds, their territory, their influences. That's always very important. It always broadens your inspirations of what you need to make in the studio and how you need to perform. I love collaborating, it always opens up a new world for me.

One of your most loved songs is “Perfect Strangers” from 2016. Can you tell me the story of how that came about?

"Perfect Strangers" was a really incredible time for me. I just had a really big hit with a cover of a song, "Fast Car", and when it was time to work on my next single, a lot of people said to me, “Why don't you make something similar to “Fast Car””? But as an artist you don't want to copy what you've done previously and you want to do something different, so I decided to take a completely different route. With “Perfect Strangers”, when I was working on the production I was very much inspired by Bob Sinclar and the Africanism [album] sound that he was doing back then. I wanted to try and combine writing pop with an Afro beat, like an early Afro house record. That was the inspiration back then that I had. First I made the instrumental and there was no vocals. I knew I had something when I put the pianos down and then when it got to the drop, I had this very different, big brass sound. It was very different from music at the time.

Now if we fast forward to 2025, “Edge of Desire” was a big track for you. What’s the story behind that?

It’s one of my favourite records I've ever made. It was a combination of all of my influences since I started making music. “Edge of Desire” is everything that I wanted in a song. It had the funk, it had the soul, it had the energy, it had the percussion, and then it had this amazing vocal. For me, vocals are so important. I love songwriting and I love producing, so to create a song which had so much impact over last summer was quite a moment for me. That will always be a special song for me.

We have to talk about “Madan” from this year. How did that come about?

I remember being 12 years old in London going into the record shops and I remember seeing on the wall this record label called Mixture. It was Martin Solveig's label and he had put this remix out of “Madan”. I'd never heard of this song at the time and I don't think I'd really heard of Martin at the time, to be honest. I remember putting it on the turntable and listening and I was like, wow. This song changed how I thought about music and house music. Years later, I was asked to make my own version of “Madan”. It was very difficult, but it was such an amazing pleasure. I got to go back through the original session that Salif Keita did, it was just incredible to find some musical parts and vocals that weren't used in Martin's version, which were used in my version. I was very happy with that.

Looking back on your career so far, what are your proudest moments?

The thing that I'm most proud of is when I receive messages from people saying, “Your music helped me, it got me through a very tough time”. Or some people tell me they walked down the aisle listening to “Perfect Strangers” or “By Your Side”. When I was younger, I never thought that my music would be able to reach so many people and have such an impact. So when I receive messages from people saying they got married to my songs or my songs got me through a time. That, for me, is the real pinnacle of making music.

Amazing. Do you have any goals left in music?

I've managed to achieve so much in my career so far, I think I've got to a point where I just love making music and I just want to keep doing what I'm doing now forever. Just to be able to play around the world, DJ, meet people and just keep making music from the heart. I’m already doing what I set out to do, and I'm so grateful.

And finally, why do you DJ?

I love the craft, I love finding new music and playing it to people. I still buy vinyl today and I have such a passion for finding music and DJing. Travelling the world, meeting people. Music is a universal language, so people might not be able to speak your language, but then when they hear the music you will connect. That's why I still do it.

Jonas Blue Presents SENSES ran every Wednesday from 5 August to 30 September 2026, in the Hï Ibiza Club Room.