Wasted Penguinz

Wasted Penguinz are one of hardstyle’s most enduring euphoric acts, a Swedish project that has carried the melodic, emotional side of the genre for well over a decade. They come from Helsingborg, and their story starts, improbably, with two rivals meeting on a message board.

From eurodance rivals to hardstyle

Pontuz Bergman and Jon Brandt-Cederhäll met online around 2008 as competing eurodance producers before deciding to join forces. Inspired by Headhunterz and Abject’s ‘Scantraxx Rootz’, they switched to hardstyle and named the project over a brainstorm and a few beers. That same track links them to Headhunterz and, through the Abject alias, to Frontliner, two of the producers who shaped the sound they fell for.

The Scantraxx breakthrough

In 2010 the Dutch label Scantraxx signed them, and a run of tracks, ‘Hate Mondayz’, ‘Resistance’, ‘Anxiety’ and ‘I’m Free’, turned them into one of hardstyle’s fastest-rising acts almost overnight. They won Fear.FM’s Best New Face award for 2010, and the 2011 anthem ‘Melancholia’ cemented them as leaders of the euphoric wave. A famously funny series of video blogs built one of the scene’s most devoted fanbases.

One penguin left standing

In 2020 Brandt-Cederhäll stepped away, and Bergman has carried Wasted Penguinz forward on his own. The music has kept coming, from ‘City Lights’ to the 2025 single ‘Keep Running’ and ‘When The World Ends’ in 2026, proof that the euphoric flame the duo lit is still burning.

Every new Wasted Penguinz release lands on the Hardstyle Release Radar the day it hits Spotify. The full tracked catalogue is listed above.