As Tomorrowland returns, so do its stars to the mainstage. This year in the spirit of making grand returns, Hardwell took his place atop the Tomorrowland 2022 mainstage DJ decks once again for arguably one of his best performances from the festival yet.
Lighting up the ‘Reflection of Love’ mainstage in spectacular fashion, Hardwell had the honour of being the second to last act to close the mainstage during the Friday night of the first weekend, getting it off to an explosive start just before Major Lazer Soundsystem. As the night got dark, the deep anthems came out to play and Hardwell wasted no time in showing off his new style to the audience, as one of his first major festival performances (following Ultra Europe in Split, Croatia) since returning at Ultra Miami in March.
His last appearance at the festival before this one was in 2018, which became instantly iconic for multiple reasons. One of those reasons was that it was his famed return to the stage after being sorely missed from the lineup multiple years in a row, and this performance followed directly from that, with him not playing in the 2019 edition. All eyes were on Hardwell to make his Tomorrowland 2022 set just as memorable as his last, and he did all of this and more. With a fresh new sound and style, he was ready to dominate the stage like never before.
Starting off strong with a triple threat of ‘Rebels Never Die‘ music, first came the already known and beloved ‘INTO THE UNKNOWN‘ and ‘GODD‘, followed by one of the few tracks still to be released, an ID known as ‘Laser‘. Then going into mashup territory, we saw the mashup master at work before he cut into the ultimate crowd pleaser that is A-Trak‘s ‘Heads Will Roll‘ remix. Although most of the set was understandably focused on this new, techno-leaning side of his music, he proved that he still knows exactly how to hype up a crowd with throwback anthems, whilst not making them feel so out of place amongst this darker sound (even throwing in ABBA‘s ‘Voulez-Vous‘ as an unreleased remixed version).
Hardwell gave the Tomorrowland 2022 crowds an in-depth look into his ‘Rebels Never Die’ era, whilst maintaining the fun-loving side to his performances. Now, we’re looking forward to his Weekend 3 set more than ever on on July 29, but for now relive the set below and check out the full tracklist here.
Image credit: Tomorrowland
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