Fadil El Ghoul (April 2, 1986) is a DJ and producer of Moroccan descent, professionally known as R3HAB. He grew up in the city of Breda, the Netherlands and displayed huge amounts of drive, discipline and passion from an early age. His result-driven attitude always took center stage, both with games and more serious matters. In StarCraft, an online video game focused on cooperative gameplay, El Ghoul unlocked his inner strategist. His in-game nickname, ‘Mr. Outland3r’, hinted to his unique way of thinking, and the remarkable ‘3’ later found its way back into his artist name: R3HAB.
Whilst diving deep into Breda’s vibrant nightlife scene, El Ghoul first saw how DJs conquered the dance floor with their spot-on track selection and mixing skills. He bought his first DJ set several months later and put countless hours into mastering the craft, eventually deciding to transition into music production as well. He chose Cubase as his go-to digital audio workstation, sunk his teeth into the program and devoted all of his spare time to becoming a music producer.
In 2007, El Ghoul juggled his final year of college with hosting various dance events in Breda and Etten-Leur. Inspired by those experiences, he decided to fully commit to a career in music after graduation and adopted his moniker R3HAB. As fate would have it, Dutch DJ and producer Hardwell lived only a few blocks away, and they had always been on good terms with one another. Their collab, a track called ‘Mrkrsft’, was R3HAB’s first breakthrough in 2008; the record caught the ear of the industry’s most illustrious DJs and was eventually remixed by another acquaintance: Afrojack. R3HAB would later join Afrojack on tour and release a range of records on his label.
Around the same time, R3HAB remixed Afrojack, Pitbull and Ne-Yo’s ‘Give Me Everything’, a song that stole the show by becoming the first Dutch #1 record in the U.S. in a long time. R3HAB’s remix got championed by the scene’s true tastemakers and led to a surge of remix requests from the likes of Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Tiësto. R3HAB has since delivered official remixes for music icons such as Taylor Swift, Madonna, Rihanna, Drake, P!nk, Coldplay, Calvin Harris, Maroon 5, The Chainsmokers, Bruno Mars and many more. His growing success paved the way for international tours, and in 2015 he became the first EDM artist to sell out 15 consecutive shows on their first tour of China.
When R3HAB parted ways with Spinnin’ Records in 2016, he decided to release all of his music on his own label, CYB3RPVNK. Within a year – and without the help of any major record label – he launched his debut album ‘Trouble’, which has racked up over 500 million streams to date. In 2018, his second album ‘The Wave’ followed suit by collecting more than 350 million streams in its first year, and was supported by the sold-out “The Wave Tour”.
In the spring of 2019, R3HAB unleashed a remake of ‘All Around The World (La La La)’. The track, originally released in 2000 by German pop group A Touch Of Class, recaptured its global hit status exactly 19 years after its initial release. The remake became R3HAB’s first official global radio smash. The track gained over 200 million streams on all platforms, sold certified gold and platinum in almost a dozen countries, and launched the sold-out “All Around The World Tour”.
His next career highlight arrived shortly after. Together with former One Direction frontman ZAYN and U.K. DJ/producer Jungleboi, R3HAB dropped ‘Flames’. The record hit the 6 million stream mark within a week, became trending on Twitter and secured a spot in 600 Spotify playlists with a combined following of over 30 million dance music enthusiasts. ‘Flames’ has remained a dance music staple, having collected 90 million streams to date.
In 2020, R3HAB and GATTÜSO debuted their cover of Radiohead’s iconic record “Creep” as Spotify’s first ever ‘mint’ single. This exclusive release collected 15 million streams during its exclusive time on Spotify and has now doubled streams across platforms. This year has also presented R3HAB with multiple opportunities to reach new music markets. In March, R3HAB and Russian pop star Elena Temnikova released “Where You Wanna Be”, and in June R3HAB partnered with Latin music superstars Reik and TINI on “Bésame”. The rest of the year is slated with many more songs with a powerful lineup of collaborators.
R3HAB’s intense drive and dedication to his craft have made him Spotify’s most discovered artist and the most streamed Dutch artist abroad. His songs have collected two billion streams on Spotify alone, so it’s easy to see R3HAB has secured his rank in the platform’s ranking of Top 100 most streamed artists. R3HAB is showing no signs of slowing down and will continue to hone his craft, never resting on his laurels.