Hazel

DJ Hazel, born Michał Orzechowski on 1 July 1980, died on 7 May 2025. He studied at the Grażyna Bacewicz State Music Secondary School in Warsaw, where he learned keyboard, piano and clarinet.

His career began in June 1998. In September 1998 he won the Polski DMC championship in the mix dance category; in 1999 he became Master DJ DMC. In 2001 he took part in the European DJ championships in Germany and finished runner‑up among 80 participants from across Europe. He worked for Pioneer Polska and was part of the Pioneer DJ’s Team, responsible for presenting and testing the brand’s equipment.

He was a member of MDT Agency (Manieczki DJs Team) until 2004, then resident at the Ecuador Manieczki club between 2004 and 2005. From 16 April 2006 he became resident of Omen Club Płośnica.

His repertoire mainly covered house, electro house, progressive house, trance, hard trance, hardstyle and techno. He was known for incorporating lyrics, rhymes and humorous stories into some performances, notably in tracks like Take a Pill, The Legend of Yellow Cheese and Because the Most Important Thing Is !!!, a phenomenon partly linked to the “wiksa”.

He played at many events such as Amsterdam Dance Mission, Sunrise with Ecuador, Viva Beach Party Sopot, Parada Wolności, ATB in Concert, Terminal Summer Beat, Independance, Sunshine Music Factory and Tunnel Electrocity. In March 2014 his track I Love Poland was broadcast during a ski jumping competition in Oslo. The same year he performed at the farewell night of the Ekwador Manieczki club. In 2017 he played at the XXIII Pol’and’Rock Festival in Kostrzyn nad Odrą with the Pawbeats orchestra as part of the Nocnej Akademii Sztuk Przepięknych (Night Academy of Fine Arts).

On the business side, he ran his own company registered in 2005. He owned Bud‑Net, under which he operated the Mihałufka inn in Skępe from 2008. He was also a partner in Ego Partner s.c., which ran Face Club in Warsaw (opened 2012, closed 2016), and in Media Partner s.c., which ran Explosion Club in Borkow Kościelny (opened 2014).

His production career took off in December 2011 with the release of his first track, I Love Poland. In June 2012 he released his second track, Give me the Stars (feat. Lunar), accompanied by a video. He won the Dance Music Awards 2013 in the Polish club DJ category.

In 2015 he signed with Ultra Records, joining Ultra Music. The deal provided for the release of one of his existing productions, three additional singles and an album, with the label committing to global promotion, video production and artist exposure. The first song released on that label was a new version of I Love Poland, for which a video was filmed.

In 2016 he collaborated with Adrima on the track Get Down, then released solo Sunshine. In 2017, with CJ Stone, he produced a bootleg of Faithless‘s Insomnia. He then released The Way You Glow, which received remixes by CJ Stone and Adrima, before publishing Let Me Hear the DJ with Adrima.

DJ Hazel was found dead on 7 May 2025 in a car near Lake Skępe, in the vicinity of Lipno, Poland.