Bart Claessen (also known under the pseudonym Barthezz) was born in the Netherlands on January 22nd, 1980, always loved music and got his first piano lessons at the age of seven. Impressed by electronic music at the end of the nineties, he worked hard during high school to buy his first studio equipment: a synth, a sampler, an Atari computer and a small mixer. With this equipment, he changed the attic of his parental house into a small studio and there it all began..

After graduating from high school, he started studying Music Technology at the Utrecht School Of Arts and impressed the dance scene one year later, in 2001, with his fist release ever: Barthezz – On The Move. With top dj support, it started as a massive dancehit in his home country and ended up as a worldwide charthit with releases on labels like Positiva (UK), Superstar (Germany), Avex (Japan) and Ultra (US). Top 10 positions in single charts of over ten countries were achieved, nominations for two dutch TMF Awards and almost 150.000 copies were sold in Germany only. The follow-up, Infected, had almost the same success. This, together with many worldwide dj gigs (Trance Energy and Impulz in the Netherlands, Innercity New Zealand, Tokyo, Barcelona, Moscow, Beiruth, Warschau, Vancouver and more), placed him in the top regions of dance music instantly.

After a long break it was time to try something new and Bart decided to release his new tunes under his own name: Bart Claessen. Persona Non Grata was the first Bart Claessen release, and also the first release on a new label founded by United Recordings, called Yakuza. The track did very well but the réal smash came undoubtedly with Playmo, in summer 2005. Support from almost every dj who plays trance, techno or anything that sounds like it and featured on many cd compilations. 2006 brought the long awaited follow up When Morning Comes, many remixes for the biggest names and labels around, and the highly sought-after As Playmo Comes mashup. With DJMag naming him an artist expected to blow up in 2007, and many productions scheduled for the coming year, the future surely looks good.

In the beginning of 2008 he released First light wich was a succes as well and in April 2008 Playmo was released as single with a video clip. This time it contained vocals. The official title became Bart Claessen ft. Denise River - Catch Me (Playmo)