Darude - Sandstorm (Radio Edit) (1999)

"Sandstorm" is a trance instrumental by Finnish DJ and record producer Darude. It was released as the lead single from his debut studio album Before the Storm. Ville Virtanen was born on July 17, 1975 in the Finnish village of Hinnerjoki in Eura. Virtanen started his career as a musician while studying at Turku Polytechnic, making music using his PC's tracker software. As his interest in music production rapidly grew, he moved on to more serious production techniques. While at a classmate's party, Virtanen played the song "Rude Boy" (written by Swedish artist Leila K) several times in a row. This earned him the nickname "Rude Boy," which gradually morphed into "Da Rude" and then "Darude". Active in the Finnish music trance and house scene since 1995, Virtanen continued producing music into the 1990s. He began occasionally releasing demos to radio stations beginning in 1997, and offering his music for download on MP3.com, making him an early adopter of online file sharing for music promotion. In 1999, he gave a demo for the track "Sandstorm" to his producer, JS16 (Jaakko Salovaara). Virtanen signed on with JS16's 16 Inch Records label, and shortly thereafter, "Sandstorm" was released as a single. "Sandstorm" was a hit internationally, selling platinum and holding the No. 1 spot on the Finnish Dance Chart for seventeen consecutive weeks. After becoming the No. 3 single in the United Kingdom (becoming the first record by a Finnish artist to do so), "Sandstorm" eventually sold 2 million units worldwide, and was the world's biggest selling 12-inch single in 2000. The song went on to be widely featured in the media, particularly at sporting events and on soundtracks for video games and television shows. Various videos and live streams of "Sandstorm" had gathered some 60 million hits by December 2014, and in October 2015, the track achieved platinum sales status in the UK as it surpassed 600,000 sales in the UK. His first live gig was on December 5, 1999 in Tampere, Finland