Willy Fauade William (born 14 April 1981) is a French DJ, record producer and singer, famous for his club remixes and vocal collaborations with a number of dance music artists. He is most famous for his French hit " Ego" and his Latin hit " Mi Gente", the latter with

J Balvin José Álvaro Osorio Balvín (born 7 May 1985), known professionally as J Balvin, is a Colombian singer and songwriter. He has been referred to as the " Prince of Reggaeton" (from Spanish: "Príncipe del Reggaetón"), and is one of the best-sell ...

Early life

Born to an Ethiopian mother and a French Guadeloupean father in 1981, in

Fréjus Fréjus (; ) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 54,458. It neighbours Saint-Raphaël, effectively forming one urban agglomeration. The north ...

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (; or , ; commonly shortened to PACA; en, Provence-Alps-French Riviera, italic=yes; also branded as Région Sud) is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, the far southeastern on the mainland. Its pre ...

, France, he was brought up in the small town of Champagné, Pays de la Loire, in northwestern France.

Career

He came to prominence in 2003 with his work with DJ Flex in the dancefloor hit "B Boyz Shake da Body" and in 2004 as producer of "Tragedie" using the pseudonym "Lord William". He later joined the French music collective

Collectif Métissé Collectif Métissé is a French musical group with influences ranging from zouk to ragga. They became famous with "Laisse-toi aller bébé" that reached number two in the summer of 2009, becoming a big summer hit. Members *Soma Riba, DJ and singer ...

, also continuing to produce his own materials. He collaborated with a great number of artists producing their songs and taking part in vocals as featured artists. He charted with collaborative songs with

DJ Assad Adam Ashadally (born 14 December 1982), better known by his stage name DJ Assad, is a Mauritian-French DJ and record producer. He is best known for his ''Royal Mix'' radioshow on NRJ. The album ''Playground'' was released on June 7th 2010. Caree ...

with "Li tourner",

Les Jumo Les Jumo (a phonetic way of writing ''Les Jumeaux'' in French, , meaning ''The Twins'') is a French singing and dancing duo with strong African influences formed in 2008 by the twin brothers known as Docta Lova La Friandiz and Linho de Gaucho L ...

with "C Show" and "L'Italienne", and with

Keen'V Kevin Bonnet (; born 31 January 1983), better known as Keen'V, earlier Keen V, is a French ragga musician. He made his breakthrough with the single "J'aimerais trop" during 2011, peaking at number 3 on the French Singles Chart French (french: f ...

in "On s'endort?",

Ridsa Maxence Boitez (; born 16 October 1990 in Orléans), better known by his artistic name Ridsa (stylized as RIDSA), is a French rapper and singer of Spanish descent. Biography After practicing soccer in his youth, he started rapping in 2010 putt ...

in "Je n'ai pas eu le temps" that also featured Ryan Stevenson on drums and many others. In 2016, Willy got his major French hit with "Ego" which was produced and sung by himself. It was the main single from his 2016 album ''Une seule vie'' and his biggest French hit as a solo artist. "Ego" charted in France, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Poland amongst many others. In 2017, he became an international sensation after the release of " Mi Gente" a collaboration with the superstar Colombian artist

. The huge international success of the song led to a version that also featured

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...

in a new remix. The song received a Latin Billboard Music Award and the music video amassed over 2 billion views and received in 2018 an

MTV Video Music Award The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video categor ...

for Best Latin Video, maintained #1 Spotify Global for 12 consecutive weeks, while topping charts across the world as #1 in a great number of countries. In 2018, Willy produced and released a dance track called "La La La" and he appeared on " Goodbye", a

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

and

Jason Derulo Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989), known professionally as Jason Derulo (; formerly stylized as Derülo), is an American singer and songwriter.

song that featured William and

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos and accents ...

. Willy William is a "Latin Grammy" nominated DJ / Producer mainly for "Mi Gente". His song "Ego" made him the #1 most Shazamed French Artist.

Discography

Albums

Singles

As lead artist

Notes *

Note 1: Uses combined chart entries for "Mi Gente" and "Mi Gente (remix)"¹ *Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Ultratip charts.
**Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Tipparade charts.

Featured in

Internationally Francophone markets *Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Ultratip charts.
**Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Tipparade charts.

Other songs

*Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Ultratip charts.
**Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Tipparade charts.

References

Notes

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:William, Willy Living people French DJs French electronic musicians French record producers French people of Mauritian descent Black French musicians 1981 births Electronic dance music DJs 21st-century French singers 21st-century French male singers