Ben Hemsley

Ben Hemsley (born 1996) is an electronic dance music disc jockey and record producer from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He won the DJ Mag Best Producer award in 2023, and has performed at events such as Creamfields and for the BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix show.

Career
Hemsley grew up in North Shields, near Newcastle upon Tyne, where he had an interest in music from the age of 12. By the age of 14 he was performing DJ sets at under-18 events. He initially achieved wider attention with his single release on the Repopulate Mars label, "Caress Me", which made number 15 in the Beatport chart and was played by Radio 1 DJ Danny Howard. Hemsley was considered a "local DJ" until he came to prominence in 2021 when, due to the restrictions on travel from the COVID-19 pandemic meaning European artists could not perform, he was booked to perform in front of 8,000 people at Creamfields. His set was well received, and he went on to play the same festival the following year to a much larger crowd.

In October 2022 he performed a 2-hour Essential Mix on the Pete Tong show for BBC Radio 1. Also in 2022, Hemsley started a new record label, bebé, with the first release being his own extended player, "EP1". In 2023 Hemsley won the Best Producer category in the DJ Mag Best of British awards, which was voted for by the public. He has toured across the UK, and in the summer of 2023 had a residency at Ibiza Rocks in San Antonio. In April 2024 it was announced that Hemsley was going to join the BBC Radio 1 Residency series. He hosted his first show, dedicated to Ibiza, the same day as his birthday on 6 June 2024.

Hemsley's sound has been described in the music press as "nostalgic rave" that cannot be easily categorised, but with trance lying at the "very heart of his current production".

Discography

 * "Caress Me" (2019, Repopulate Mars)
 * "Through 2 You" (2021, Ministry of Sound)
 * "Love, Peace & Harmony" (2021, Ministry of Sound)
 * "Erase Me" (2022, Armada)
 * "EP1" (2022, bebé)
 * "Every Little Thing" (2023, Ministry of Sound)
 * "IBIZA" (2023, bebé)
 * "Benirràs" (2023, bebé)
 * "Closer" (2024, Ministry of Sound) featuring Chenai Zinyuku