The iconic house and dance pop duo formed in Paris back in 1993.
Iconic house and dance pop duo Daft Punk have split after 28 years of collaboration.
The pair -- Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who formed Daft Punk in Paris in 1993 -- announced their breakup in their usually cryptic manner, via an eight-minute video titled "Epilogue." In the clip, the pair stands in the desert in their usual masks, until one of them walks away and explodes, as their song, "Touch," plays in the background.
Daft Punk's longtime publicist confirmed the split to ET.
Bangalter and de Homem-Christo met as teenagers at school in Paris in the 80s and soon after began collaborating on music. After finding success in the electronic dance wave of the 90s, the pair adopted their signature robot helmet look and found massive international success in 2001 with the release of their second album, Discovery, led by singles "One More Time" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger."
Daft Punk went on to help popularize the EDM movement of the 2000s, with a now-legendary performance at Coachella in 2006, and provided the instrumental soundtrack for Disney's Tron remake in 2010, which landed them a GRAMMY nomination. Following that, they reinvented themselves once again, recording 2013's Random Access Memories with only live instruments. The album, which would end up being their last, featured chart-topping collaborations with Nile Rogers, Pharrell Williams and more, and earned the duo four GRAMMYs in 2014, including Album of the Year.
In the years since, the dup have collaborated with The Weeknd on two tracks on his 2016 album, Starboy. The titular single, "Starboy," became the duo's first-ever No.1 song in the U.S.
The singer paid tribute to the group on Monday by sharing an image of the three on his Instagram story, writing, "Thrilled to be a part of the journey."
As for the group's now-iconic mystique, Bangalter told Pitchfork in 2013, "When you know how a magic trick is done, it's so depressing... We focus on the illusion because giving away how it's done instantly shuts down the sense of excitement and innocence."
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