Felipe Augusto Ramos (born 2 June 1987), better known by his stage name FTampa, is a Brazilian DJ and record producer.[1]
Career
FTampa has been a rock musician since childhood, having learned to play the guitar and keyboard in his hometown of Conselheiro Lafaiete, MG. After moving to Belo Horizonte, he became disheartened with a somewhat disappointing music scene, and started working in marketing. In 2011, he was introduced to electronic music by a cousin, and took an interest in it, mainly because a backing band was not needed. He adopted the pseudonym Tampa (Portuguese for "cork"), his nickname since childhood because of his short stature, released his first EP and began to build his career. By going to the United States, he found that another DJ already used the name Tampa and added the initial of his name, becoming FTampa.[2]
His musical style, a version of electro house called complextro, tried to enter the history in bands with more acoustic elements. However, in 2013, his style began to move away from complextro, and more towards a more mainstream, big-room sound. FTampa began to stand out in the middle when Dutch DJ Hardwell started playing his track "Kick It Hard" in concerts. FTampa entered the repertoire of other famous DJs such as David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Afrojack and Tiësto, leading to invitations to international festivals like Burning Man (2013) and Rock in Rio Las Vegas (2015), and works with artists like Chris Brown and Paulo Ricardo. In 2016, FTampa made 12 monthly presentations in houses in Belo Horizonte and Los Angeles.[2] He had songs included in commercials and soundtracks, and reached the top spot on Beatport website in 2015.[3] On 24 July 2016 FTampa became the first Brazilian to perform at the main stage at Tomorrowland, the largest electronic music festival in the world, in Belgium.[2]
Awards and nominations
First Brazilian ever to perform on the Main Stage of Tomorrowland Belgium (2016)
