Zedd

Anton Zaslavski (Антон Заславский; born 2 September 1989), known professionally as Zedd, is a German record producer.

Zedd grew up and began his musical journey in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

His stage name, Zedd, was derived from zed, the English pronunciation, barring American English, for the first letter of his surname, Z.

Anton Zaslavski was born on 2 September 1989 in Saratov, Soviet Russia, to a Jewish family.

He grew up in Dansenberg, Kaiserslautern, Germany, after his family moved there when Anton was three years old.

He reportedly is a classically trained musician, the son of two musicians.

His father, Igor Zaslavski, is a guitarist and schoolteacher, and his mother is a piano teacher.

He began playing the piano at the age of four and drums at twelve years old.

He has an older brother, Arkadi, and a younger half-brother, Daniel.

In 2002, Zaslavski began playing for the German deathcore band Dioramic, signed by Lifeforce Records.

Zaslavski's interest in producing electronic music was piqued after hearing Cross by the French electronic duo Justice.

After leaving Dioramic in 2010, Zedd won two Beatport remix contests in 2010; his first original release, "The Anthem", entered the Beatport Electro house chart in the top 20.

He also remixed Skrillex's "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites".

He has since produced remixes of well-known artists, including Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, the Black-Eyed Peas, Enhypen, Twice, Madeon, Porter Robinson, Krewella, Galantis, Deadmau5, Blackpink, Periphery and others.

Zaslavski creates his music using the Cubase suite of music production applications, and uses plug-ins such as the Sylenth1, Nexus, SynthMaster 2.6, and Omnisphere synthesizers, and the Kontakt sampler.

Zedd's remix of Lady Gaga's track "Born This Way" appeared on the special edition of her third studio album, Born This Way (2011).

In 2011, his single "Shave It Up" (then known as "Shave It") became Zedd's first release on Owsla.

In 2012, he released "Clarity" (featuring Foxes), which propelled him to mainstream success, reaching the 8th position on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning him a Grammy for Best Dance Recording at the 56th Grammy Awards.

Later in 2012, he released his debut studio album, Clarity, with hit single "Stay the Night" (featuring Hayley Williams) appearing on the 2013 deluxe edition of the album.

In 2012, Zedd signed with Interscope Records and released his debut single from the label, "Spectrum", with lyrics and vocals by Matthew Koma.

It shot to the top of Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs.

He then produced the Eva Simons song, "I Don't Like You", which was also released on Interscope.

He also produced and co-wrote the third single "Beauty and a Beat" with Max Martin for Justin Bieber's third studio album, Believe.

On 12 October 2012, Zedd released his debut studio album, Clarity, with "Shave It" as the album's first single and "Spectrum" as its second single.

Zedd went on to release "Slam the Door" and "Shotgun" with OWSLA before departing to release his debut album in 2013.

"Clarity", featuring British singer-songwriter Foxes, was released on 1 February 2013 as the album's third single.

It charted in the top 10 of Billboard Hot 100, sold 2,238,000 copies, and was certified platinum, making it Zedd's most successful single to date.

The song also became the #1 most played on American radio on 10 September 2013.

Zedd concluded 2013 with his first worldwide tour, selling out venues across 5 continents.

Zedd worked with Japanese singer Namie Amuro and produced her promotional single, "Heaven" for her album Feel.

"Stay the Night", featuring Hayley Williams, was released as a single on 10 September 2013, as part of the deluxe version of Zedd's album.

The song met similar success, although it was criticized for its lack of uniqueness and less powerful lyrics compared to "Clarity".

It ranked in Billboard Hot 100's top 20, and certified platinum as well.

In 2013, Zedd produced "Aura", "G.U.Y.", and "Donatella" on Lady Gaga's 2013 album, Artpop.

On 26 January 2014, he released the single "Find You" featuring Matthew Koma and Miriam Bryant, which is included on the soundtrack for the film Divergent.

On 3 July 2014, Ariana Grande released a song with Zedd entitled "Break Free", which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at No. 1 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs.

The song was nominated at the Teen Choice Awards in the category of "Break-Up Song".

In 2015, his second studio album, True Colors, was released, supported by its lead single, "I Want You to Know", featuring Selena Gomez.

Subsequent well-known songs include "Stay" with Alessia Cara, peaking at number 7; "The Middle" with Maren Morris and Grey; and, as a featured artist, "Break Free" with Ariana Grande, peaking at number 4 in the US.

Zedd would later work with her again in 2015 for her album, genic, although none of his songs were actually featured on the album.