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Dominique and Velvet Code have joined forces on ‘You’re A Star (Get On Up)’ – the first time Los Angeles-based pianist and composer Dominique has released his own lyrics and vocals. Its original and Afrobeat mixes are available now, with further versions arriving across October and November.
Dominique wrote the song shortly before recording it, following a period in which he lost both parents to cancer and experienced homelessness and addiction. Its call to “get on up” began as something he needed to hear himself: an instruction to remember who he was and find a way forward.
“It’s like I’m going back in time to tell myself to wake up, get on up, and remember exactly who I am,” he says.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Dominique began playing piano as a young child and later became principal bassoonist in the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra. His musical life also took shape outside the concert world.
After leaving home, he found freedom and a sense of belonging in nightclubs, where house music offered a way to express parts of himself he had struggled to show elsewhere. ‘You’re A Star (Get On Up)’ brings those experiences together in a piano-led vocal house record built around confidence, movement and self-expression.
Dominique co-produced the track and its wider mix package with Velvet Code, the Canadian producer, DJ and founder of So Fierce Music. Velvet Code’s work spans house and pop, including an official remix for Lady Gaga’s Chromatica campaign and productions for performers from RuPaul’s Drag Race and Canada’s Drag Race. Through So Fierce Music, he has also worked to create opportunities for emerging artists and LGBTQ2S+ talent.
For Dominique, the partnership meant finding someone who understood both the music and the experience behind it. “He never tried to change who I was as an artist,” he says of Velvet Code. “He helped bring my vision to life and elevate it.”
The release continues on 9 October with Melodic House, Tech House and Funky House mixes. A Disco House mix follows on 23 October, before the remaining remixes arrive on 6 November. The wider package expands the track’s reach with bold new mixes spanning funky house, tech house, melodic house and disco house—each reimagining the song for a different corner of the dancefloor while keeping Dominique’s vocal and its message at the centre.
Dominique & Velvet Code’s ‘You’re A Star (Get On Up)’ original and Afrobeat mixes are out now on So Fierce Music
