Rui da Silva

Rui da Silva is a Portuguese producer and DJ, whose single "Touch Me" topped the UK Chart in 2001. At the time, he was the only Portuguese musician to have a UK hit and hence was the first to score a UK number one.

Rui da Silva started producing house music in 1992, just as club culture was getting established in Lisbon. Noticing the lack of dance music labels in Portugal, Rui teamed up with DJ Vibe to form Kaos Records, the first label in Portugal specialized in house and electronic music.

His first major hit (and Kaos' first release) was "Não", a track that sampled vocals from a Xutos & Pontapés track, released under the alias Doctor J. With DJ Vibe, he also formed the Underground Sound of Lisbon project, in 1993. A year later, their track "So Get Up" (which featured spoken word vocals by rapper Darin Pappas) achieved worldwide fame after getting picked by the Tribal America label and support from Danny Tenaglia. Tenaglia also remixed the track.

During his years at Kaos, Silva also worked with other artists, namely Luís Leite (under the guise of LL Project, creating the African tribal anthem "Khine #3") and Alex S (with whom he released the garage house track "The Sax Theme").

In 1999, he left Lisbon for London, in order to move from producing to DJing, and also to start working under his own name. Silva left Kaos Records, and produced his final collaborative effort as Underground Sound of Lisbon in 2001. In the UK, he founded Kismet Records, where he began producing a more progressive sound. He has released a number of tracks under his own name, as well as collaborative efforts with Chris Coco and Moshic.

Rui has achieved some fame as a remixer, creating his own versions of Jennifer Lopez's "Play", Lighthouse Family's "Happy" and Yoko Ono's "Walking On Thin Ice".

Discography: