Martin Garrix Walks Back Avalan Copycat Accusation: "I Want To Publicly Apologize"

Last week, Martin Garrix suggested that Avalan copied one of his tracks. He has now chalked it up to “pure coincidence.”

Everyone’s wrong from time to time. What sets us apart is whether we’re big enough to admit it.

EDM superstar Martin Garrix has demonstrated that he can. He has apologized on social media for accusing fellow Dutch DJ and producer Avalan of lifting the melody from one of his as-yet-unreleased IDs for his 2021 single “World We Know.”

EDM Maniac reports that Martin Garrix (real name Martijn Garritsen) made the claim in his Instagram stories after airing his grievances about a time when another unreleased ID by him and Third Party was uploaded to Spotify without their permission. “Same thing happened with this idea, multiple people stole the chords + melodies which ends up with me never releasing it,” he wrote. The next slide showed the words “sound familiar?” as an audio clip of “World We Know” played. The ID in question originally found its way to fans via Garritsen’s Instagram in 2020.

Martin Garrix accusing Avalan World We Know

Garritsen has since had a change of heart. After meeting with Avalan (real name Valentin Hoogwerf) in person, he no longer suspects foul play. Once again taking to his Instagram stories, he even went as far as to make a heartfelt apology.

“We just met and I want to issue a public apology to him for my story last week claiming that he copied one of my unreleased IDs,” wrote Garritsen. “It has been pure coincidence and meeting him today helped me understand how this happened. Go check out his music! And who knows, maybe we’ll do a song together in the future.”

Martin Garrix broke through with the 2013 release of “Animals” when he was only 17. The single provided the blueprint for a wave of big room house producers like DVBBS and Blasterjaxx to follow suit (although Garritsen admits taking inspiration from Busta Rhymes‘ 2001 track “What It Is“). In addition to headline sets at festivals like Tomorrowland and EDC Las Vegas, his career includes additional hits like “In the Name of Love” featuring Bebe Rexha and “Don’t Look Down” featuring Usher.

By comparison, Hoogwerf is an up-and-comer. He’s nonetheless shown early promise; in 2019 he collaborated with Armin van Buuren on “Sucker for Love” off the Dutch EDM icon’s album Balance. Most recently, he collaborated with Burak Yeter on “Don’t Speak,” which came out on Spinnin’ Records in January.

This surely wouldn’t be the strangest origin story for a partnership in the EDM world. With any luck, fans of Martin Garrix and Avalan can look out for their joint effort in the coming months.