Daniela Di Lillo[5] (formerly Niederer,[6] born 20 July 1990),[6] better known by her stage name Nora En Pure, is a Swiss-South African DJ and deep house producer.[7] She first received recognition for her 2013 single "Come With Me". Further popular releases are "Morning Dew", "Lake Arrowhead", and "Tears In Your Eyes." In July 2016, she was invited to put together a two-hour long mix for Pete Tong's radio show: "BBC's Essential Mix".[8]
Born to a South African mother and a Swiss father in Johannesburg, Di Lillo migrated to Switzerland during her infancy.[9] Raised in a musical environment, she has learned to play musical instruments since childhood.
Before engaging in the electronic music scene, she used to listen to other musical genres including classical music, pop and rock.[10]
Being an outdoors enthusiast, Nora En Pure finds most creative inspiration in nature and travels resulting in organic and nature-infused productions and sets. Weaving her influences of South African roots with the love for classical music and soundtracks, tracks often paint a certain scenery combining tribal percussion with traditional Western instrumentation, creating emotional melodies and harmonies with piano, strings, wind instruments and synthesizers.[11]
Being part of the Helvetic Nerds in Switzerland, Nora En Pure has a long year studio and label partnership with Enormous Tunes label owner Christian Hirt. Through the long-term collaboration they developed a characteristic sound that is well recognizable, distinct and sets the electronic act apart from general dance music. Nora En Pure was one of the first artists of her kind of melodic and organic deep house sound when this genre gained popularity. However the productions and live sets always remained unique connecting dots between different and disparate sounds, styles and scenes with ease and in her own raw style setting her apart from the mainstream.[12]
Her first steps into the global scene she started with the single "Saltwater" which contains elements of "True" by Spandau Ballet, and was included in the 2012 compilation by Buddha Bar.[13] In 2013 the success of "Come With Me" followed, which remained in the Top 100 of Beatport's download list for more than seven months.[14]
She gained international recognition by touring, with appearances at Coachella Festival on the Yuma stage (which hosts the best artists of deep house and techno music), at the Tomorrowland "Daybreak Session" (a 3-hour set on the mainstage of alongside Joris Voorn, Carl Cox and others), or with a whole catalogue of EPs and remixes (for artists such as Faithless, Wretch 32, Klingande, Oliver Heldens, Paul Harris and his side project Dirty Vegas).
Nora plays the deep house radio show "Purified Radio" on Sirius XM Chill satellite radio every Saturday at 10pm. On Mondays the episodes get uploaded to iTunes,[15] soundcloud[16] and Youtube.[17] This radio show received a nomination for Best Radio/Podcast in the 2019 IDMA Award.[18] In April 2024 the 400th episode was released.
In 2017, she released an extended play titled Conquer Yosemite.[19]
In 2020 she ranked 73th place in DJ Mag's top 100 worldwide DJs.[20] In 2021 she ranked 59th on the same listing.[21] In 2022 she ranked 57th,[22] and in 2023 she ranked 53rd[23] (6th among female DJs).
Nora En Pure was part of the lineup for the 22nd Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2023.[24] In 2024 she was part of the lineup for Tomorrowland festival,[25] where she has featured several times.
| Year | Category | Nominee / Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Best House Artist (Female) | Nora En Pure | Won | [26] |
| 2020 | Won | [27] |
| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
