50 Facts About Calvin Harris

Calvin Harris's actual name is Adam Richard Wiles. Learn other 49 things about Harris.

1. Adam Richard Wiles, better known by his stage name Calvin Harris, is a Scottish singer, songwriter, record producer, remixer and DJ.

2. His debut album, I Created Disco, was released in 2007 and was the precursor to his top-ten singles "Acceptable in the 80s" and "The Girls".

3. In 2009, Harris released his second studio album, Ready for the Weekend, which debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and earned a gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry within two months of release.

4. Calvin Harris rose to widespread international prominence in 2012 with the release of his third studio album, 18 Months.

5. All eight of the album's singles; "Bounce", "Let's Go", "We'll Be Coming Back", "Sweet Nothing", "Drinking from the Bottle", "I Need Your Love", "Thinking About You" and "Feel So Close", along with "We Found Love" reached the top ten of the UK Singles Chart, making it the first album in history to have nine top-ten singles.

6. Calvin Harris has collaborated with numerous other recording artists, including Kylie Minogue, Rita Ora, LMFAO, Florence Welch, Ellie Goulding, Ne-Yo, Cheryl Cole and Gwen Stefani.

7. His collaboration with Rihanna led to two singles, "Where Have You Been" and "We Found Love".

8. In 2015, the song was included in Billboard's top 10 dance-pop collaborations of all time.

9. Calvin Harris released his fourth studio album, Motion, on 3 November 2014. It debuted at at number two in the UK and number five in the US, and became Harris's second consecutive number-one album on the Dance/Electronic Albums chart.

10. Calvin Harris holds the record for the most top ten hits from one studio album on the UK Singles Chart with nine hits, surpassing Michael Jackson.

11. In October 2014, he became the first artist to place three songs simultaneously on the top 10 of Billboard's Dance/Electronic Songs chart.

12. According to Forbes, Harris was the highest-paid DJ of 2013 and 2014, as well as the 17th highest-paid celebrity of 2015.

13. Calvin Harris has received seven Brit Award nominations-two for Best British Male, and four Grammy nominations, winning a Grammy for Best Music Video in 2013.

14. Calvin Harris received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year in 2013 and at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards was named Top Dance/Electronic Artist.

15. Calvin Harris was born on 17 January 1984 in Dumfries, Scotland.

16. His father David Wiles is a biochemist and his mother Pamela is a homemaker.

17. Calvin Harris has an older sister and brother.

18. Calvin Harris attended Dumfries High School, and after leaving school he stacked shelves in supermarkets and worked in a local fish processing factory in order to buy DJ gear.

19. Calvin Harris was first attracted to electronic music in his teens and was recording bedroom demos by 1999.

20. When Harris was 18 he released two songs "Da Bongos" and "Brighter Days". Both were released as 12" club singles and CD-EPs by the label Prima Facie in early 2002 under the name "Stouffer". With these singles to his credit, Harris moved from Scotland to London, hoping to learn from the local music scene.

21. With the lack of opportunities and money, and unable to find a job to pay the rent, Harris returned home to Dumfries and began posting homemade solo recordings to his MySpace page.

22. Calvin Harris signed contracts with Three Six Zero Group (management), EMI (publishing) and Sony BMG (recording) in 2006 after he had been discovered on the social networking website Myspace.

23. Later in 2006, Harris produced a remix of All Saints' hit single "Rock Steady".

24. Harris' first album, I Created Disco, was released in June 2007. The album contains uptempo electroclash songs that were influenced by music from the 1980s.

25. To promote I Created Disco, Harris embarked on a tour of the UK, supporting Faithless and Groove Armada. I Created Disco was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales of 100,000 copies in the UK, where it reached number eight on the UK Albums Chart.

26. Calvin Harris caught the attention of Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue after his recordings had been passed on to her by another record producer. This led to him co-writing and producing two songs on her 2007 album X-"Heart Beat Rock" and "In My Arms", the latter a top ten hit in the UK.

27. On 18 October 2008, Harris was featured on BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix with a two-hour set.

28. In 2007, Harris contributed the song "Off & On" to Róisín Murphy's album Overpowered, but it was cut from the album; Harris would later give the song to Sophie Ellis-Bextor to record for her 2011 album Make a Scene.

29. Calvin Harris also produced a remix of Dragonette's debut single "I Get Around" that was rejected by the band.

30. In 2008, Harris collaborated with rapper Dizzee Rascal on his single "Dance wiv Me", producing the track and singing the hook.

31. In April 2008, Harris stated that the only existing copy of his then-upcoming album, which he had been working on for seven months, was lost when the bag containing his laptop was misplaced during the baggage handling problems at the opening of London Heathrow Terminal 5. In an interview with Popjustice in April 2009, Harris admitted that while he did lose his bags at Heathrow, he lied about the laptop being in his luggage in order to buy himself some more time to finish recording the album, adding that the idea was concocted by him and his sound engineer.

32. The album, Ready for the Weekend, was released in August 2009 and debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, eventually being certified gold by the BPI within two months of release.

33. Calvin Harris toured around the UK, Ireland, France, the Netherlands and the US promoting the album. In June 2009, Harris appeared at the Summertime Ball at the Emirates Stadium in London, home of Arsenal F.C., and in August, he made an appearance on the first Soccer AM show of the season on Sky Sports.

34. During promotion of the album, Harris hosted a series of videos on YouTube titled JAM TV, in which musicians such as Florence Welch, Goldie and Katy Perry tried to open pots of jam.

35. At the 2010 Brit Awards, Harris received a nomination for Best British Male.

36. Also in 2009, Harris made a guest appearance on Tiësto's song "Century" on the Dutch producer's album Kaleidoscope.

37. On 14 November, Harris invaded the stage of the UK's The X Factor during a performance by Irish duo Jedward, holding a pineapple on his head and bending over to point at his buttocks. He was subsequently escorted from the studio by the security team and ejected from the ITV2 programme The Xtra Factor, where he was due to appear as a guest the same night. He later apologised on Twitter. The same week, Harris spoke to The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 and revealed that he had been "inspired to make a mockery of the show", adding, "If you look at music it's a frightening stranglehold that Simon Cowell has got over the entire music chart in the UK at the moment."

38. Calvin Harris played at the 2010 Big Day Out, a music festival which takes place in several major cities in Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.

39. In May 2010, he performed at Evolution Festival in Newcastle upon Tyne, and in July he played at Splendour in Nottingham and headlined at the Stockton International Riverside Festival in Stockton-on-Tees.

40. In July 2010, Harris released a mix, titled L.E.D. Festival (short for L.E.D. Festival Presents... Calvin Harris).

41. Harris appeared at the tenth birthday of Our:House in Auckland, New Zealand, in November 2010, alongside Afrojack, and performed an hour-long DJ set at Australia's Steresonic Festival alongside Tiësto, Carl Cox, Afrojack, and Major Lazer in November and December 2010, in several major Australian cities including Sydney and Melbourne.

42. In 2011, Harris toured with Rihanna as a support act on the European leg of her Loud Tour; Rihanna was quoted to say that "Calvin is the perfect fit for the Loud tour.

43. Calvin Harris headlined Limelite at Metropolis Fremantle in Western Australia in March 2011 in celebration of the event's fourth birthday, where he played small samples of his new track, "Awooga", which was subsequently uploaded onto YouTube via his channel.

44. Calvin Harris performed at the 2011 Jingle Bell Ball concert, and was announced as one of the headline acts at a number of Southern Hemisphere 2011/2012 new year music festivals, including Shore Thing and Field Day in Sydney, as well as Rhythm and Vines in New Zealand.

45. On 7 October 2013, Harris and Swedish DJ Alesso released a collaborative single with synthpop duo Hurts called "Under Control" as the first single from his fourth album. The song debuted at number one in the UK.

46. In 2009, Harris tied up with Coca Cola for their 'Open Happiness' advertising campaign in the UK. Harris wrote and produced an exclusive track for the brand called 'Yeah Yeah Yeah, La La La' which was featured on TV, digital, outdoor and on-pack promotional activity and was offered on 'Coke Zone' website for free download.

47. The same year, Harris's song "Colours" was featured in Kia Motors's hamster television advertisement for the Kia Soul EV.

48. In 2008, he supported Shelter's campaign "Hometime Scotland" which pledges to end homelessness and bad housing in Scotland.

49. In 2010, Harris performed live in The War Child's post-Brit Awards show (alongside La Roux and Kasabian) which took place at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, London. The event raised funds and public awareness on children effected by violence in war zones.

50. In March 2015, Harris started dating singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

Source: Wikipedia.org