Hardwell and W&W Go Full Big Room on "Bangkok"

Hardwell and W&W are not easing their way back into big room. Their latest collaboration, "Bangkok," goes straight for the sound that helped define an entire era of festival EDM.

The track is intentionally massive. A familiar hands-in-the-air vocal, a countdown into the drop, towering builds and an oversized payoff make "Bangkok" feel much closer to peak big room than the techno-influenced direction that has dominated many festival stages in recent years.

And coming from Hardwell and W&W, that sound carries some history.

The Dutch artists were responsible for several records that became staples during big room's biggest years, including "Jumper," "Don't Stop The Madness" with Fatman Scoop and "Live The Night" with Lil Jon. Their newest run of collaborations feels less like trying to recreate those records and more like revisiting the energy behind them.

"Bangkok" also arrives shortly after "Turn Up The Bass," giving fans two new Hardwell and W&W collaborations after years without a new release together.

There is a fitting connection behind the title too. Hardwell and W&W finally performed their first full B2B set at NEON Countdown in Bangkok at the end of 2025, despite having collaborated on music for well over a decade. It turned what had previously existed mostly through records and festival appearances into a full shared set for the first time.

Since then, their renewed partnership has become increasingly visible. Hardwell brought "Bangkok" into his Tomorrowland Mainstage set this summer, placing it almost immediately after his intro and giving the record exactly the kind of environment it was built for.

The bigger story may be what is happening around them.

Big room never completely disappeared, but its position at the center of EDM clearly faded as house, techno and harder sounds took over more of the festival conversation. Recently, though, the style has started showing signs of renewed interest, especially among producers and artists who grew up during its early-2010s peak.

That does not mean dance music is suddenly back in 2014. It probably shouldn't be.

But "Bangkok" shows there is still room for the kind of unapologetically huge festival record that big room was built around. And if Hardwell and W&W keep making music together, this may be less of a nostalgic one-off and more of a new chapter for a sound they helped shape.