04/11/2021
We would like to express our great sadness at this week's passing of Ibiza Voice co-founder Jean Louis.
We as a team purchased Ibiza Voice in 2019 and not directly from Jean Louis, and so our dealings with him were limited, but in the few times we did speak he was extremely friendly, helpful, and full of advice for the future.
This publication Jean Louis & Samuel Guetta founded in 2003 was a very special publication, with a unique voice and a completely different way of looking at the island. It had something rival publications didn't offer and was a unique part of the island that should be celebrated.
We would like to share some words from the tributes of those who knew him best:
Grego O'Halloran - "Jean Louis, along with Sam, was one of the first people to give me a real chance in the business in the mid 00s when I was journalist for Ibiza Voice and from where many of my later relationships and achievements originated from. We spent hours and hours together in the office on Vara de Rey, especially cold dark winter days when we worked on new ideas and concepts, artist interviews and feature ideas, as well as listening to music, checking out party infos from around the world and generally having a good laugh at some of the people who take themselves way too seriously on the island."
"Jean Louis was an idealist, much more than I could ever imagine being and he never sold out to the island, despite everything around him going that way. He always remained true to his soul and philosophy about freedom of information and also, calling out the bad guys. And boy did he do lots of that on IV. Nobody escaped unscathed! Haha"
Florian Amann - "His idealistic view was essential. He could not be bought, not for a ton of gold. He was the true soul of the spirit of Ibiza, or at least how it should have been in an ideal world. With the sword between his teeth he and his team was respected – not feared – on this island. His wrath for the only certain thing you could count with if you caused any overpriced and overcrowded sh*tshow or even a cl*******ck on the island"
"Jean-Louis, i today have learned about his passing away, one of the toughest, yet also very sensitive and humble people i ever worked with in this industry. Thank you for everything we did together, also on behalf of the Coxy at Space crew. Thank you for all your insights, knowledge, your amazing humour and simply for being such an amazing sweetheart. And friend. Rest in peace. "
Stephen Flynn - "Gutted today to read about the passing of my old friend Jean Louis. He was the first person to give me a chance in electronic music at Ibiza Voice (I think mainly because I was so persistent and enthusiastic tbh!) which ultimately led to me being made editor of DJ Mag Ibiza… a real dream come true in my early 20s.
More than this, JL always treated me with the utmost kindness and respect, and we shared many great dinners and evenings in Ibiza as he showed me the ropes and introduced me to the island.
He’ll be sorely missed and I’ll always remember the time we spent together very fondly. Rest easy my friend."
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For those asking - Ibiza Voice will return in January 2022, and in tribute to Jean Louis & Samuel, will again operate under the tagline 'Hype, Lies & Gossip", and will honour and stay true to the spirit of this great publication.
The complete web archive will be made available, with the many years of amazing clubbing content Jean Louis presided over, and the complete Ibiza Voice podcast series will be uploaded to both Mixcloud & Soundcloud, showcasing over 500 episodes of Ibiza history. The idea was to relaunch in early 2020, but Covid halted progress. We look forward to returning all of this great work online.
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Rest In Peace Jean Louis ❤️
Santoro left an enormous mark on Ibiza’s clubbing scene
