TORONTO – The Red Bull Thre3style DJ competition finished in Toronto Saturday night. DJ Shintaro from Japan took the World Championship.
Toronto played host to the largest DJ competition on Earth this week as the Red Bull Thre3style World Finals hit the city for the first time. From November 4-9, the 17 top DJs from around the globe gathered to showcase their talent for roaring crowds of thousands and a judging panel of DJ heavyweights, including DJ Jazzy Jeff, Kid Koala, Skratch Bastid, Grandtheft and Jess Jubilee. After five nights of heated competition and wall-shaking performances in sold-out venues across the city, it was DJ Shintaro of Japan, a wildcard selection on the competition’s final day, who reigned supreme as this year’s Red Bull Thre3Style 2013 World Champion.
Grows my career Shintaro
“This win means so much,” Shintaro reflects, “I think it will help to grow my DJ career and will allow me to really show the world what Japanese DJ culture is all about”.
This week featured daily and nightly events fit to satisfy all musical tastes, including panel conferences led by some of the most influential faces in the music industry and nightly DJ competitions and headliner performances in some of the city’s hottest venues. All came down to the final World Championship competition on Saturday, November 9, where Trentino (USA), Byte (Chile), Eskei83 (Germany) and Marquinhos Espinosa (Brazil), plus two Wildcard competitors Bazooka (Switzerland) and Shintaro (Japan), battled it out for ultimate sonic supremacy. As with every night this week, each competitor was given a precious 15 minutes to perform a set mixing at least three genres of music. Untouchable and forward thinking with a truly unique sound, it was Shintaro of Japan who clinched the win in his unexpected return to the battle.
DJ Shintaro RED BULL THRE3STYLE 2013 World Champion
24 year-old Shintaro hails from Akita, Japan. Both a veteran of the competition and the youngest-ever Red Bull Thre3Style World Champion, Shintaro has already strived for the title of World Champion three times. Throwing months of preparation into his home country’s competition as well as this week’s events, Shintaro heads home with an enormous Red Bull Thre3Style world finals trophy, original record control vinyl pressing Serato plates, a copper plated Rane 62 mixer and Sennheiser studio monitor headphones.
Highlights from the World Championships
Monday, November 4:
The 17 international Red Bull Thre3Style competitors gathered for a draft-style draw, where each selected their date and time slot to compete this week. Shortly thereafter, competitors were joined by hundreds at The Drake Hotel for ‘welcome night’, where surprise performer DJ Jazzy Jeff rounded out the official kick-off of the most incredible musical week Toronto has ever seen.
Tuesday, November 5:
Canadian music journalist Denise Benson led an afternoon panel to discuss the vibrant history of Toronto’s music scene before Red Bull Thre3Style personalities including Hedspin, Skratch Bastid, Four Color Zack and DJ Jazzy Jeff took over the Miami Heat vs. Toronto Raptors halftime show with a special live performance. That night, at the first official round of this week’s competition, Byte (Chile) dominated against Lukas Canaves (Argentina), Ray Ray (Taiwan) and Twist (Azerbaijan). With mesmerizing performances by one-of-a-kind talent Kid Koala as well as Turnstylez and Shortkut, surprise unannounced guest and American chart-topping rapper, Macklemore even came by to catch the show.
Wednesday, November 6:
DJ Jazzy Jeff gave a retrospective afternoon discussion on the evolution of DJ gear to a room packed with mesmerized admirers and media. Then, just under a thousand fans packed the Virgin Mobile Mod Club to watch Undoo (Romania), Oli Dobolli (Croatia), Shintaro (Japan) and the night’s winner Eskei83 (Germany) compete. Closing out Wednesday’s event were headliners DJ Starting from Scratch, Hedspin, Four Color Zack and duo of the night, Skratch Bastid and DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Thursday, November 7:
Canadian DJ powerhouse A-Trak greeted another full room of fascinated fans and media to discuss his meteoric rise to fame, Fool’s Gold projects and the future of the recording industry. He then hit The Hoxton to headline the once-again sold-out third round of this week’s competition, where Trentino (USA) reigned supreme over Inferno (Jamaica), hometown hero Adam Doubleyou (Canada) and Acorn (South Korea). Underground club tastemakers Torro Torro and Calgary’s finest Smalltown DJs opened one of the busiest nights of the week, as over 700 fans lit up the dance floor.
Friday, November 8:
At the fourth consecutive sold-out Red Bull Thre3Style competition, more than a thousand people piled into the Danforth Music Hall to see Marquinhos Espinosa (Brazil) win against Bazooka (Switzerland), Vicky (Albania), Laese (Spain) and Madfingaz (Belgium). The crowd was also treated to performances by some of the world’s most iconic hip-hop moguls, including Maseo (De La Soul) vs. Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Cosmo Baker, with special surprise performances by De La Soul rapper Posdnuos and Greg Nice of Nice N Smooth.
Saturday, November 9:
Shintaro made music history in front of over two thousand concert-goers inside Kool Haus, as the first-ever Red Bull Thre3Style World Champion residing outside of the competition’s host country. Opening and closing World Finals night were also weeklong judge Grandtheft, Thugli, AutoErotique and native Canadian icons A Tribe Called Red.
OFFICIAL RED BULL THRE3STYLE 2013 WORLD FINALS RESULTS
First place: Shintaro (Japan)
Second place: Byte (Chile)
Third place: Eskei 83 (Germany)
THE CANADIAN ROAD TO WORLD FINALS
This past September, regional Qualifier events were held in eight different cities across Canada, with each Qualifier winner heading to Calgary, AB to compete in the National Final on October 6. Quebec’s Adam Doubleyou was crowned the Canadian winner of the National Final in Calgary, moving on to represent Canada at the Red Bull Thre3style World Finals. A whopping 460 DJs from around the world competed in their own respective Red Bull Thre3Style competitions this year, each vying for a space in Toronto’s World Final competition this week, with a lucky seventeen finalists earning themselves a coveted spot in this year’s World Finals competition.
THE HISTORY OF RED BULL THRE3STYLE
Red Bull Thre3Style began as an underground experiment six years ago in Western Canada. In 2010, the event went global for the first time, effectively changing the face of modern DJ battles by pitting ten countries’ top DJs against each other. Since then, in three short years, Red Bull Thre3Style has grown to what is now the largest DJ competition on Earth.
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