Diva Divo - Dance Magazine

"Sometimes it's crazy to me," says David Guetta of his meteoric rise to club world fame. Phoning in from his bed in Paris (how glam can you get?), even Guetta himself is amazed at the level of notoriety he has achieved since his debut album dropped just five years ago. "I say to myself, ‘wow, I'm going to wake up one day. This is all just a dream!'"

Without doubt, Guetta's story – that of a French DJ who started spinning for a hobby and wound up a modern legend – is the stuff dreams are made of. But with his latest release, Pop Life, David is realizing a fantasy that manages to elude some of biggest names in the business: American acceptance. Under the guiding hand of Ultra Records, Pop Life achieves a first for Guetta (and a huge accomplishment in the music world) by being a DJ artist album to receive stateside release at the same time it drops on the other, more dance-friendly side of the pond.

Indeed, no matter how packed the clubs get, America remains one of the few countries in the world where dance music is a tough commercial sell. The rest of the world reveres DJs and dance artists as iconic superstars of the highest Top 40 order, but America tends to treat them like the black sheep of the music industry.

"Finally! Thank God!" exclaims Guetta over the simultaneous American release. "When I began to write music, people in your country didn't believe in it too much. They didn't believe in dance music in general. But I have to say, it's better. I think the music is becoming stronger and stronger, even in America."

Guetta has a point. Though pop-dance singles from European artists were huge in the 90s (Amber, anyone? La Bouche?), America has not been hospitable to dance music in recent years. But finally, it seems, the tide is turning. "All the hip hop guys have been sampling and using our sounds [for years]," says Guetta. "So there's obviously an interest in dance music."

Indeed, Guetta's last album, Guetta Blaster, was released in America three years after it first debuted smash singles throughout the rest of the world (so much for claims that America invents the modern entertainment industry, huh?). But when Blaster hit, it hit big; club thumpers like "Love Don't Let Me Go," "The World is Mine," and "Just a Little More Love," found massive success stateside. That paved the road for American label Ultra Records to release 2007's Pop Life in the US just three months (not three years) after its European debut. The first American single, "Love is Gone," has already hit #1 on the US charts. The follow-up, "Baby When the Light," looks poised to do the same.

"It's similar," says Guetta, comparing the overall sound of Pop Life to his previous work. "I always do a dark and twisted instrumental, but most of the songs are really pop on this album. Which makes it somewhat different." It's a progression that Guetta fans will likely appreciate, as the producer has already established himself as one of the premier names in the cross-pollination of House and pop. "It's an album that will make people dance, but that you can also listen to in your car or home. These are real melodies, not just tracks."

Guetta's approach, synthesizing club sensibility with radio friendly material, is a major asset as he extends his musical empire into the red, white and blue. Judging by his ascension to the ranks of the uber-cool, he's on the right track. "I used to take the subway to work every morning," he says. "Now I take a plane every morning!" And that's not even counting when French airline Vueling, in a promotional move to appeal to young fliers, hired Guetta to perform the first ever DJ set on board a commercial flight. En route from Paris to the international party capital of Ibiza, David redefined the concept of the "mile high club": "It was crazy!" he laughs. "It was a lot of work for them to make it safe, but we had a big dance floor in the plane. I had two go-go dancers… the two hostesses!"