January 17: Scottish singer, songwriter, and record producer Calvin Harris - is 30-years-old today.

-----

Calvin Harris was born Adam Richard Wiles on 17 January 1984 in Dumfries, Scotland. He was first attracted to electronic music in his teens and was recording bedroom demos by 1999.

 His earliest success was when he was twenty-one: the songs "Da Bongos" and "Brighter Days" were released as a 12" club single and CD-EP by the Prima Facie label in early 2002 under the name Stouffer.

He released one song in 2004, "Let Me Know," with artist Ayah Marar. The song appears on The Unabombers' Electric Soul 2. His gold-selling debut album, I Created Disco, was released in 2007 and contained the top-ten singles "Acceptable in the 80s" and "The Girls."

His second studio album released in 2009, Ready for the Weekend, reached number one on the UK Album Chart and includes the chart-topper "I'm Not Alone," the UK top-five hit "Ready for the Weekend," and the singles "Flashback" and "You Used to Hold Me."

A remix album titled L.E.D. Festival was released in July 2010 as a free album in the August issue of Mixmag. Harris released his third studio album, 18 Months in October 2012, which contained the singles "Bounce," "Feel So Close," "Let's Go," "We'll Be Coming Back," "Sweet Nothing," "Drinking from the Bottle," "I Need Your Love" and "Thinking About You."

Calvin has written and produced records for other recording artists including Kylie Minogue, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Dizzee Rascal, Cheryl Cole, Example and Rihanna. Harris produced "We Found Love" and "Where Have You Been" for Rihanna. The former is the lead single from her sixth studio album, Talk That Talk, and was premiered in September 2011. It has reached number one in countries such as the UK and the United States, becoming Harris's first charting appearance on the Billboard Hot 100.

He co-wrote and co-produced the bonus track "One Life" for R&B singer Mary J. Blige's album My Life II... The Journey Continues (Act 1) in 2011. He produced another popular- and some say controversial song with Ayah Marar - "Thinking About You." (Follow link to Ayah post to view video.)

Harris worked with American pop band Scissor Sisters on the single "Only the Horses" from their fourth studio album, Magic Hour. He also wrote and produced Cheryl Cole's single "Call My Name", the lead single from her third album A Million Lights.

Harris won an Ivor Novello Award for "Songwriter of the Year" in 2013. He also holds the record for the most UK top 10 hits from a studio album with eight top 10 hits.

 

                                                   -----

 

For more about Calvin, visit his Website at –

http://www.calvinharris.co.uk/gb/home#2013-07

####