One of the biggest lineups I've ever had the opportunity to experience in what will be my 10th Groove Cruise and 7th time performing as Trance Jesus launched last week and broke the internet!
Groove Cruise has adopted several exciting brands to represent popular genres, with Abyss and Embark celebrating over a decade since their inception in 2011, Siren's Echo and Taking Back Emo seeing their brands being created during the pandemic, and Rising Tides being introduced on Miami 2023
It's exciting to compare last year's line to see there are 54 artists retrning from the #GCMIA24 with several of them moving to the main lineup (shoutout to our friend 22 Weeks along with talented ladies like my lovely wife Jen Blackburn, Brookie, and Kyliente).
For #GCMIA25 we're seeing 48 new names on the lineup - such as the LONG sought and most requested Eric Prydz and the technical genius James Hype - and return artists who haven't graced the roster is several years, such as Dada Life and Ørjan Nilsen. Plus we see the return of the fan favorite "not so EDM" brands of Old School Hip Hop - with the residents Scooter, Bryan Lubliner, Buck Rogers, and debut of DJ Ruckus - and the return of Taking Back Emo, with residents Luci and Nikita Page.
Plus Groove Cruise Managing Director John Anthony Porrata (aka "Skeeter") and the talent buying team at Whet Travel are never without surprises: watch for Whet Travel team member Dubyes on Groove Cruise and for our Vanderpump Rules friends (yes, guilty pleasure) maybe we'll see some of the cast alongside James Kennedy make their debut.... (check out the comments on Instagram)
This year's lineup has probably seen some of the biggest shift in a fundamental argument as old as the genres themselves: the battle between Trance & Techno. Over the last few years we've seen the harder, techy sounds start to eclipse the #mainstage sound, but not without some chart toppers that have had more melodic hints.
I've had some "charged discussions" (no, they're not arguments) about how this has come to take over the dominant sound across Electronic Dance Music, and I've been first on my stand of the origins being on the outset of the COVID lockdown when Ultra Music Festival 2022 launched the global festival season again. Hardwell debuted his "Rebels Never Die" album in it's techno glory and it fundamentally shifted mainstream by storm ever since. See for yourself....
https://www.beatport.com/genre/mainstage/96/top-100
That said.... let's get the Groove Cruise 2025 artists breakdown and their brands / genre compared to last year with the 2024 lineup announcement:
- Rising Tides (House): 54 (40 last year)
- Abyss (Techno): 27 (23 last year)
- Siren's Echo (Dub): 13 (12 last year)
- Embark (Trance): 13 (20 last year 😲)
- Old School Hip Hop: 4 (3 year year)
- Taking Back Emo: 2 (2 last year)
- ????: 1 (😵)
Just to reemphasize in my earlier comment, Groove Cruise loves surprises so be on the lookout at we near closer to January for additional artists to appear (possibly even a few to be announced)
If you want the full breakdown of artists in a more spreadsheet view along with links to their Soundcloud to enjoy their music, check out my annual artist list:
View online via this link (OneDrive)
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