Do we like Martin Garrix?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Nothing harmful found and a clear record of backing LGBTQ+ people, with a couple of ego-fuelled spats keeping him off the top shelf.
Martin Garrix is the Dutch DJ and producer who broke through as a teenager and has been one of the biggest names in dance music ever since. Our search turned up less backstory than we would have liked, so this is a thinner file than most, and the reporting we could open mostly covers his legal and public run-ins.
His biggest legal drama was with his early label and management. He sued, arguing a conflict of interest, and a Dutch court sided with him about two years after he filed. Then in December 2019 the appeals court in Leeuwarden went the other way, finding the agreements were proper and that he had not been falsely led into them.
The mark against him is temper and ego, but only a small one. In 2023 he publicly accused another Dutch act, Avalan, of copying his unreleased music, then met him in person and apologised. That is the right way round to do it.
The 2024 Shanghai stoush is murkier. Singer Huang Zitao said Garrix skipped their rehearsal and left the stage, while Garrix denied it, saying Zitao never showed for the planned meetings. Zitao later apologised for his own remarks, and the reports we found don't settle who was right.
Nothing recent and newsworthy turned up in the reporting we could open, and the charity work we saw listed in search results wasn't something we could verify. On what we have, he's a sound pick: solid on harm, a bit hot-headed on occasion, and publicly kind to the LGBTQ+ community.