German DJ, producer, and remixer Tino Piontek's Purple Disco Machine alias regularly achieves club and radio success with its infectious, groove-heavy blend of house, disco, funk, and synth pop. First making an impact on the club world with underground hits like 2013's "My House," Purple Disco Machine released the collaboration-heavy full-length Soulmatic in 2017. He hit the mainstream with the 2020 European chart smash "Hypnotized" (with Sophie and the Giants), in addition to remixes for stars like Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, Elton John, and many others. 2021's Exotica was another star-studded event, with artists like the Knocks, Elderbrook, Eyelar, and Francesca Lombardo joining Piontek for another dancefloor-filling set. Further collaborations with Kungs and Sophie and the Giants followed.

Piontek was born in Dresden in 1980 and started making music and frequenting clubs as a teenager. In 2005, he started releasing tech-house and electro-house tracks as Stereofreak and the more prolific alias Stereofunk, then established the Purple Disco Machine project in 2009. Incorporating more disco elements than his earlier work, the project released singles on labels like Klang Gymnastik and Gris Musique before 2013's OFF Recordings-issued "My House" became a club hit. Singles and EPs followed on Nurvous Records, Defected, Kittball, and Spinnin' Deep, as Piontek collaborated with producers like Boris Dlugosch, Aeroplane, and Robosonic, with Aloe Blacc guesting on 2016's "Counting on Me." Following the 2017 singles "Body Funk" and "Devil in Me" (featuring Joe Killington and Duane Harden), Purple Disco Machine's debut album, Soulmatic, was released by Sweat It Out! in 2017, sporting guest appearances by Faithless, Kool Keith, CeeLo Green, and others. "Dished (Male Stripper)," an update of a 1986 Hi-NRG single by Man 2 Man and Man Parrish, was released in 2018. Mixed compilation Discotheque appeared on Glitterbox in April 2019.

Purple Disco Machine's profile rose when Positiva issued singles such as 2019's "Body Funk" and 2020's "In My Arms," and the producer released well-received remixes for Fatboy Slim, Mark Ronson, Kylie Minogue, and others. "Hypnotized," a collaboration with Sophie and the Giants, became his first major hit, topping the singles chart in Poland and going triple platinum in Italy, where it reached number two. "Exotica" (with Mind Enterprises), built around a sample of the Italo-disco classic "Void Vision" by Cyber People, followed later in the year, and appeared on the 2021 LP of the same name. Several singles reached the charts across Europe, and the remix album Club Exotica arrived, as well as a deluxe edition of Exotica. Purple Disco Machine released remixes of Diana Ross' "I Still Believe" and Lizzo's "About Damn Time" in 2022, as well as "Wake Up!," a collaboration with Bosq and Kaleta. "Substitution," a collaboration with Kungs and Julian Perretta, appeared in 2023 and became another international chart hit. It was followed by a solo single, "Bad Company," and another song with Sophie and the Giants, "Paradise." ~ Paul Simpson

Swedish singer and songwriter Benjamin Ingrosso incorporates touches of dance music and soul into his highly melodic pop songs. A near-lifelong performer who released his first single at the age of nine, he went on to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in his late teens and had a number two hit in Sweden with his competition song, "Dance You Off."

Benjamin Daniele Wahlgren Ingrosso was born just north of Stockholm in Danderyd to singer/actress Pernilla Wahlgren and onetime dancer/songwriter Emilio Ingrosso. He is related to several other actors and musicians, including actress Christina Schollin (his grandmother) and Swedish House Mafia's Sébastian Ingrosso (his cousin). Winning roles in stage musicals from a young age, he performed across Sweden as a child and won a national junior songwriting competition when he was nine. Also at nine, he released the single "Jag Är en Astronaut" as Benjamin Wahlgren. By his mid-teens, he was considering focusing on songwriting instead of performing as a career path, but he won the TV dance competition Let's Dance 2014, and after spending some time on his own in the recording studio, he signed with TEN Music Group. They released "Fall in Love" in 2015, and it spent a week at number 58 on Sweden's singles chart. "Good Lovin'" followed in 2017 and reached the Top Ten.

In May 2018, at the age of 19, Ingrosso represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, placing seventh overall with his song "Dance You Off." It peaked at number two in his home country and also charted in France. The same month, he hit the Top Ten with "Tror Du Att Han Bryr Sig," a duet with Felix Sandman. Ingrosso followed a few months later with the Top 40 solo single "I Wouldn't Know." In September, he released his debut full-length, Identification, which quickly reached number one on the Swedish album charts and earned gold certification before the year was out. In 2019, he issued singles including "Costa Rica," a cover of Lionel Richie's "All Night Long (All Night)," and another Sandman collaboration, "Happy Thoughts." ~ Marcy Donelson

Nile Rodgers' contribution to popular music has been extremely significant, so much more than the signature "chucking" style he developed as a brilliant rhythm guitarist. The musician penned some of the most progressive and popular songs of the disco era with Chic, who topped the Billboard Hot 100 with "Le Freak" and the hip-hop catalyst "Good Times," and released platinum albums such as C'est Chic (1978) and Risqué (1979). He has since produced dozens of hits, over several decades, for a wide variety of other artists, including Diana Ross' "Upside Down," David Bowie's "Let's Dance," Madonna's "Like a Virgin," and Daft Punk's "Get Lucky," and has remained an inspiration for aspiring musicians born long after disco's supposed death. Rodgers continued to lead Chic 40 years after the band's debut, even after he and partner Bernard Edwards became Songwriters Hall of Fame members. Revitalized in the late 2010s as the main attraction at festivals as diverse as Essence and Glastonbury, Chic returned to the studio for It's About Time (2018).

Born September 19, 1952 in New York, New York, Rodgers clearly possessed exceptional musical talent early on, and by the age of 19, he was playing guitar as part of the house band for the world-famous Apollo Theatre (alongside the likes of Aretha Franklin and Funkadelic). He was probably the lone member of the Sesame Street house band with a prior Black Panther Party affiliation. Rodgers soon grew tired of his status as a backup musician, however, and sought to put together a band of his own. He found a like-minded musician in another New York City resident, bassist Bernard Edwards, during the early '70s. For the next few years, Rodgers and Edwards collaborated while playing in such obscure bands as the jazz fusion-based Big Apple Band, and the new wave-based Allah & the Knife Wielding Punks. But the duo's love remained in dance music, and their next musical project, Chic, put them on the map. With drummer Tony Thompson and singers Norma Jean Wright and Alfa Anderson rounding out the lineup, Chic quickly grabbed a record deal with Atlantic.

Almost immediately, Chic became the kings and queens of the dance/disco domain, scoring such hit albums as 1977's Chic, 1978's C'est Chic, and 1979's Risqué, the latter two of which went platinum. The band's uptempo, infectious hit singles became dancefloor standards, including "Dance Dance Dance (Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah)," and especially a pair of chart-toppers, "Le Freak" and "Good Times." With the dawn of the '80s came the disco backlash. Chic's albums sold less and less, resulting in the group's split in 1983, but Rodgers' music career was just beginning. Toward the end of his tenure in Chic, he and Edwards had begun producing and writing for other artists, including hits for Sister Sledge ("We Are Family") and Diana Ross ("I'm Coming Out"). So with Chic no longer occupying most of his time, Rodgers was free to focus solely on working with others. What followed was a string of the post-disco era's biggest albums and singles. First up was Let's Dance, one of David Bowie's all-time best-selling albums. From there, offers from others flooded in, as Rodgers scored further hits -- INXS' "Original Sin," Duran Duran's "The Reflex" and "Notorious," Madonna's "Like a Virgin," Mick Jagger's "She's the Boss," Jeff Beck's "Flash," the B-52's' "Cosmic Thing," and the Vaughan Brothers' "Family Style," among many others.

Additionally, Rodgers found time during this hectic period to issue a pair of solo albums, 1983's Adventures in the Land of the Good Groove and 1985's B-Movie Matinee, and scored films such as Coming to America, Earth Girls Are Easy, and Beverly Hills Cop III. Rodgers and Edwards put together a reunited version of Chic in the early '90s (with an all-new supporting cast), which toured and even issued an album, 1992's Chic-Ism. Rodgers was saluted with his own tribute show in Japan on April 18, 1996 that found him joined on-stage by his old pal Edwards, as well as Sister Sledge, Steve Winwood, Simon LeBon, and Slash. After the celebration, Edwards tragically passed away from pneumonia. Rodgers continued to be active, founding the We Are Family Foundation, and produced Duran Duran's Astronaut. Rodgers also operated a national music distribution company, Sumthing Distribution, which specialized in video game soundtracks.

Rodgers was as active as ever during the 2010s. At the beginning of the decade, he and Rhino France compiled the excellent four-disc box set The Chic Organization Box Set, Vol. 1: Savoir Faire. Despite being diagnosed with prostate cancer the same year, Rodgers kept moving as much as he could. He published the ceaselessly entertaining memoir Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny, continued touring, and worked with Daft Punk on the Grammy-winning Random Access Memories, including "Get Lucky," a number one pop hit in dozens of territories. Shortly after the song's release, he announced that his doctor had given him a secondary "all clear" regarding cancer. Rodgers subsequently worked with Disclosure, Duran Duran, and Laura Mvula, and continued to perform with Chic, including a headlining spot at the 2014 Essence Festival. In 2016, while a new Chic album was in the works, Rodgers and Edwards were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Chic headlined the Pyramid Stage of the 2017 Glastonbury Festival. It's About Time, the ninth Chic album, arrived the following year. ~ Andy Kellman & Greg Prato

Songwriter/vocalist Shenseea blurs the line between dancehall and pop, creating tracks with uniquely effervescent energy and collaborating with well-known names from reggae, rap, and R&B circles. Along with multi-million-streaming tracks like her high-energy, Tyga-featuring 2019 single "Blessed," Shenseea also released softer material such as 2020's "Sure Sure," and more tracks that leaned into a more traditional dancehall influence like 2021's "Run Run." She released her debut album, Alpha, in 2022, and followed it with singles like 2023's "Curious."

Shenseea was born Chinsea Lee in Kingston, Jamaica in 1996. She began making music early on, issuing some of her earliest singles when she was still a teen, including "Tell Me," a 2013 collaboration with Jahmiel. Her fan base grew as the years went on and she gained exposure from constant performing, some product endorsement deals, and several high-profile collaborations. Two such big-name collaborations came in 2017 in the form of the single "Loodi," which featured Vybz Kartel, and "Rolling," which boasted Sean Paul as a guest star. Shenseea joined Sean Paul for part of his European tour that same year.

Always pushing messages of hard work and positivity with a down-to-earth demeanor, Shenseea inspired her fans and admirers with her ability to tap into commonplace struggles while still making celebratory, fun-loving music. She stayed busy throughout 2018. She was featured on "Right Moves" from Christina Aguilera's Liberation album and released her own singles "Body Good" and "I Can" (the latter featured a guest spot from Dani Alo). Early in 2019, Shenseea signed to Interscope's Head Concussion label and began work on her debut album, a collaboration with producer Tarik "Rvssian" Johnston (Bad Bunny, Shaggy, Juice WRLD). In May of that year, she issued the single "Blessed" featuring Tyga. The song was one of her biggest breakthroughs up until that point, and would go on to be streamed tens of millions of times. This led to further success in 2020, as Shenseea appeared on Rvssian's "IDKW" alongside Young Thug and Swae Lee, contributed to Masego's "Silver Tongue Devil," and released singles of her own like "Wasabi," "Upset," and "Bad Alone." That year also saw the release of "Lighter," a smooth single that incorporated elements of electronic production into a dancehall instrumental and included contributions from Rvssian and Tarrus Riley. In 2021, Shenseea released the songs "No Limit" and "Run Run" and appeared on one of many remixes of SpotemGottem's signature single "Beat Box." She teamed up with Megan Thee Stallion in early 2022 for the single "Lick," which appeared on her first full-length effort, Alpha, later that March. "Rain" (with Skillibeng) and "Hallelujah" followed later in the year, and "Curious" appeared in 2023. ~ Fred Thomas