New York-based Tony Moran will replace Chus & Ceballos as the headlining DJ at Nation.VI, touted as Asia's largest gay and lesbian dance party, to be held in Phuket, Thailand from Oct 20-22, 2006.

Tony Moran, a two-time Grammy Award Nominee and one of the most sought after DJs on the American dance circuit, will replace Chus & Ceballos as headlining DJ act at Nation.VI as the duo is unable to play at Nation due to scheduling conflicts.

One of the best-known producers with numerous hit mixes for pop divas including Mariah Carey, Cher, Beyonce, he has also headlined major dance events around the world, including his DJ residency at the "Alegria" parties in New York City, the "Dancing On the Bay" and Labor Day "Zenith" parties on Fire Island, "Dance on the Pier" for New York’s Gay Pride, "Black and Blue" in Montreal, "The Zoo Party" in San Diego, Gay Games in Chicago and "The Hell Ball" in San Francisco, "Southern Decadance" in New Orleans and "Winter Party” in Miami just to name a few.

Honing his songwriting, production, and remixing skills since the early 80s, the old-school freestylin' DJ who befriended Albert Cabrera and formed The Latin Rascals, first enjoyed major air-play on New York dance radio WKTU's popular mix show. He has since released Six compilation albums on both Tommy Boy Records and Centaur Entertainment –“Tour de Beats,” "Global Groove: House," "Global Groove: A Deeper Heart," "Party Groove: Hotlanta," "Maze: Miami Beach" and "Global Groove: Clubland 2." Tony is currently working on his own compilation album under his own label imprint due out next early fall 2006.

Nation.VI will be Moran's first foray into the Asian dance party scene.

"We are extremely excited that Tony Moran will be headlining at Nation. This is the first time many of his fans in Asia will get to dance to one of his legendary sets." Said Fridae CEO, Dr Stuart Koe.

Moran credits his freestyle background for the pop sensibility he incorporates into his music today. Playing music that generates a feel-good energy is what I love about being a DJ/mix master," he explained. He eschews the strict underground house mentality preferred by many of his contemporaries and instead prefers to impart his remixes and productions with a hook laden commercial appeal that is both radio friendly and dance floor ready. He measures a successful dance floor with the number of hands in the air, dancing and singing along. His sets are known for including personal and unreleased mixes of popular songs.

"Tony enjoys playing his long sets, so as to take the crowd on a musical journey." says his manager Marc Katz of Spectrum Talent Agency.

Moran is currently working on the new production of Deborah Cox's keenly awaited new single “You Use To Hold Me” with Ralphie Rosario as well as remixing Janet Jackson’s new single . Little known fact - Tony Moran produced and remixed Singaporean evangelical pastor turned songbird Ho Yeow Sun's Billboard Dance #1's “One With You” and “Without Love.”

Over the years, Tony Moran has been a major contributor to the dance and pop music scene. Whether as a music editor, record producer, songwriter, singer or DJ, he has stayed on top of his game, exhibiting time and time again that his creativity is unrestricted. " I don't try to reinvent myself. I work at making music and playing music because I love it. I don't set boundaries, nor do I allow them be built around me," explains Tony. "I go where the music takes me."

The three-day event will also see Argentina-born LA-based De León play at the Military Ball party on Oct 20, DJ Sawa (Japan) opening for Tony Moran on Oct 21; and hot faves DJs David S (Taiwan), Victor Cheng (Taiwan) and Kate Monroe (Australia) - who played at Nation last year - at the closing party on Oct 22.

About Fridae
Fridae is a diversified media and services company implementing an integrated strategy that covers the Internet, Publishing and Events. As the gay media leader in Asia, Fridae provides unparalleled reach to the valuable, yet diverse and hard to reach gay and lesbian communities in the region.
 
Fridae's innovative online portal (www.fridae.com) harnesses the distribution power and reach of the Internet to provide products and services to more than 250,000 unique visitors each month and more than 200,000 registered members. Fridae Events include parties held around Asia such as NATION (named one of the Top 10 Gay Events in the World by DNA Magazine), SNOWBALL and SQUIRT offering companies valuable offline exposure and marketing opportunities. Past and present advertisers include Air NewZealand, Qantas Airways, Singapore Airlines, Ford Motors, Mini Cooper, Subaru, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, Biotherm Homme, Dolce & Gabbana, Conrad, InterContinental, IBM, Motorola, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox and Visit Britain.