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DJ Snake. Photo by Guess Agency.

Top 10 Fascinating Facts about DJ Snake

DJ Snake, as known by his stage name is a French record producer, songwriter, and DJ. His born name is William Sami Etienne. He was born on 13 June 1986 in Â鶹APP.

His father is French while his mother is Algerian. DJ Snake grew up in the Ermont district outside Â鶹APP.

He has worked with internationally recognized music artists, including Lady Gaga.

His most notable works include ‘Lean on’ (with Major Lazer), ‘Let me love you’ (Justin Bieber), and ‘Taki Taki’ (Cardi B).

 He has won several awards for his achievements such as the Billboard Music Awards. He has been nominated twice for the Grammy Awards.

Besides production, he has released his single records. DJ Snake is also part of the Pardon My French team, comprised of four French DJs.

He has achieved international recognition and is one of the most well-known names in the music production industry.

Here are the top 10 fascinating facts about DJ Snake.

1. He started working as a DJ at 14 years

Image by Okan Caliskan from

He was born in Â鶹APP and grew up in a suburb district of Ermont. He describes it as the ghetto, a popular slang for less developed living areas. 

From an early age, music was a great influence. Some of his early influences were hip hop artists KRS-One, an American rapper, and American hip hop group, Cypress Hill.

He also cites a scene from a French film, La Heine, with the character DJ Cutkiller as an inspiration to become a DJ.

At 14, he had started work as a DJ at local clubs in Â鶹APP and friends’ house parties.

He dropped out of school at 15 to work in a record store in Â鶹APP, where he met some of well-known recording musicians.

2. His stage name has an interesting origin

William acquired the name ‘Snake’ as an interesting moniker in his young years. As a child, he was fond of painting the city walls with graffiti.

His speed and sneaky ability to avoid being caught by the police earned him the nickname ‘snake’ from his friends.

Consequently, when he began deejaying, his friends would refer to him as ‘DJ Snake.’ The name stuck.

3. DJ Snake produced for Lady Gaga’s album ‘Born this Way’

Lady Gaga performing at Airbnb Open Spotlight. Photo by Justin Higuchi.

He met Lady Gaga’s on-the-road DJ, Paul Blair, and got his first big break. He wrote 5 of the songs to be mixed with a track from Lady Gaga’s album, Born this Way.

The track, Government Hooker was voted the best song on the album. DJ Snake co-produced it. The album won him a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year in 2012.

Working with Paul Blair, he produced three songs on Lady Gaga’s Album ‘Artpop’ in 2013.

4. He achieved international recognition in 2013

DJ Snake on stage. Photo by Swimfinfan.

In 2013, DJ Snake made his international debut with two singles. These were ‘Turn Down for What’ and ‘Bird Machine’.

The former featured Lil Jon and was released on Columbia Records. In January 2014, the song entered the top 5 on the dance electronic chart and reached no.38 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It was certified gold in February and Platinum in March. It was nominated for MTV Video Music Awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, and the MTV Clubland Award.

Bird Machine was a collaboration with a French musician, Alesia. It was produced by a Los Angeles-based record label run by Diplo, Mad Decent.

5. Some of his single releases have been used in film and TV

2013 single, ‘Turn Down for What’ featured on the Furious 7 motion picture soundtrack.

It is the album soundtrack for the American action film, Fast & Furious 7, the 7^th installment of the Fast & Furious series.

In 2014, DJ Snake in collaboration with Dillon Francis released a single ‘Get Low’. It is also featured in the Furious 7 soundtrack.

The exposure helped DJ Snake re-enter the Billboard Artist 100. The song also featured in commercials for Taco Bell and Dodge.

6. DJ Snake has done numerous collaborations

Diplo and DJ Walshy Fire of the musical trio Major Lazer. Photo by Kim Metso.

DJ Snake has had a series of collaborations with great artists. From Lil Jon, Dillon Francis, Major Lazer, and Alesia, the list is long.

One of the most popular collaborative works is perhaps with Major Lazer and Mo, on the single ‘Lean On’.

It was the lead single on Major Lazer’s album ‘Peace is the Mission’. It was released on Diplo’s Mad Decent record label.

The track gained wide popularity and made it to several top music charts.

 These include Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40, Dance Club Songs, Latin Pop Songs, and Adult Top 40 charts.

It was no.4 on Billboard Hot 100. Time Magazine named it one of the Best Songs of 2015′. In September, Lean On was named Spotify’s global song of the summer.

DJ Snake has also collaborated with artists such as Selena Gomez and Cardi B on the song ‘Taki Taki.’ It was released in 2018.

7. DJ Snake made the Forbes list in 2016

DJ Snake. Photo by Antiopy.

After his big break in producing for Lady Gaga’s album in 2011, DJ Snake’s career achievements  in music and production had only just begun.

He got nominated for the Grammys in 2012.

He remixed tracks by several famous artists including Kanye West’s ‘New Slaves’, Aluna George’s ‘You know you like it’, and Major Lazer’s ‘Bubble Butt’.

His remix of Aluna’s track and Major Lazer’s ‘lean on’ made the top 10 Shazamed songs from Coachella 2015.

In January 2016, Forbes named him one of their ’30 Under 30 in Music’ for the year.

8. He owns the ‘Pardon My French’ trademark

Pardon My French is a group of four French DJs including DJ Snake, Mercer, Malaa, and Tchami.

It was created in 2015 to promote French electronic music. The four have known each other since their teenage years.

The team goes on tours and in 2016, they had the Pardon My French Tour in the United States.

9. He established his record label in 2018

In March 2018, DJ Snake established his record label. He named it Premiere Classe. The label has released several tracks since.

These include ‘Out with the old’ by Gammer featuring Sam King, ‘Try me’ by DJ Snake, and Plastic Toy and ‘Never’ by Chace.

10. He is a recipient of numerous awards and nominations

Image by Samuel Ramos from

DJ Snake has won a series of awards and nominations for his musical and production skills. He has been nominated for the Grammy Awards twice.

In 2021, he was nominated for ‘Album of Year‘ as the producer for Lady Gaga’s album ‘Born This Way’.

In 2015, DJ Snake’s collaborative track with Lil Jon ‘Turn Down for What’ earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video.

He won the Denmark GAFFA Awards in 2015 for Best Foreign Song, Lean On. The song also won him the Top Dance Artist on the Billboard Music Awards in 2016.

Turn Down For What  won him the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Direction. In 2018, he won Best French DJ at the NRJ Music Awards.

DJ Snake has made the DJ Magazine Top 100 DJs from 2014 to 2021.