ED’N’RAY, the young and loud DJ duo shaking Beirut

BEIRUT: Finding a passion for sound and music at the young age of 14, two best friends decided to go against all odds and create the music they’ve always wanted to.

Today, these two friends are now 24, having their own radio stream on NRJ radio station, the duo has already won two awards, opened for the biggest names in the EDM music scene such as David Guetta, The Chainsmokers, and Armin Van Buuren, and many more international artists.

Eddy Hamati and Ryan Hamaoui, known by their stage name ED’N’RAY, decided to start their career after winning a competition hosted by NRJ radio station in 2013. The duo quickly got their own exclusive show that was initially aired at 4 a.m.

“In the beginning, we were just DJing for our school parties and proms.” Hamati told Annahar, “when we started, it was a dream for us to play at NRJ, but we tried our chance anyway at 17. They called us back and it was like a dream come true.”

The duo did not stop on the radio, the continued to host events, taking over clubs, and getting international artists to Lebanon. It wasn’t long until they released their single “Tell Me” which quickly made its way onto the top charts.

And from top charts to competitions, the duo went on to win two NRJ DJ Awards and got their own show called “NRJ Extravadance” with 56000 listeners per week.

At first, it was scary for the young duo to get out and play their music in front of big crowds, however, as soon as they started playing more often the stage became a comfortable place for the duo who put on more than 287 shows so far and many more of which they organized on their own.

The duo explained how they found their sound by combining different Acapellas on one single track. “We did live remixes, Ray learned and developed his own technique to do so,” Hamaoui said, we also want to do something with live instruments as I play the drums and Eddy plays the guitar so we can combine the performance with a launchpad and live remixes.”

ED’N’RAY stand out with their live performances and unique blend of genres ranging from commercial, pop, electric, progressive house, hip hop, and rap. Their immense success comes with a lot of struggle as the duo are independent and have to divide their time between work and their passion.

“We have full-time jobs; I am a jewelry designer and currently I am creating my own brand while Eddy is a marketing specialist in an IT company.” Hamaoui added, “we have no managers, no strategists, no consultant, we learned everything on our own very early on. I take care of PR and events while Eddy does the marketing and social media.”

Recently with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, ED’N’RAY had to move their party from stages outdoors to screen indoors as they started live-streaming their performances every week to entertain their followers and fanbase during the quarantine.

Although currently the duo only streams a weekly 30-minute set, their plan is big as they plan to start doing their live sets with live interviews as well as opening a club with Artists & More Entertainment afterlife presumes its normal pace.

“We have a community in which we created a very nice connection with people,” Hamati said, “We want to continue growing this community and just make our plans bigger”.