Boris Brejcha, the masked German DJ and producer known as "The Joker," has announced he is retiring from music. In a video statement posted to his social channels on Saturday, October 24, he said 2027 will be his last year of festival performances and 2028 will be his final year as an artist, capped by a farewell headline run called the "Last Chapter: Becoming the Joker Tour."

Brejcha says the decision wasn't sudden. He first thought about retiring several years ago and spent the last two years working out what comes next. "You have given me so much strength, and that's why I want to give just as much strength back to you when we celebrate together one last time in 2028," he says in the video, which also shows him writing the tour title in an ornate book. Tour dates have not been announced yet.

Born in Ludwigshafen in 1981, Brejcha started producing electronic music at twelve and made his first releases in 2006, the same year of his first live show, at Brazil's Universo Paralello festival. The Joker mask came from Brazilian Carnival. He built his own genre tag, "High-Tech Minimal," and released on labels including Autec and Harthouse before putting out his tenth studio album on Ultra Music. He has placed 42nd in DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs. North American highlights include Coachella's Sahara stage, Red Rocks (2023 and 2025), a Hollywood Bowl show with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and a Mexico City show at the Palacio de los Deportes that drew over 18,000 fans.