thomas bangalter and guy-manuel de homem-christo met at secondary school in paris and formed daft punk in 1993.

their debut album, Homework, arrived on virgin in 1997, licensed alongside the scottish label soma quality recordings. by 2000 the duo had their first big chart single, One More Time, which reached number 2 on the uk singles chart, a career best they would not beat for another thirteen years.

2001's Discovery, released on their own label daft life, pushed the group to a global scale and coincided with the robot helmets and gloves that became their public identity from then on, a way of keeping the focus on the music rather than the two men making it.

in 2013 daft life licensed Random Access Memories to columbia records, and its lead single Get Lucky, made with pharrell williams and nile rodgers, gave the duo their first ever uk number 1, holding the top spot for four weeks. the album itself also reached number 1 on the uk albums chart. at the 2014 grammy awards, daft punk won album of the year and record of the year for random access memories and get lucky, plus best dance/electronica album and best pop duo/group performance.

on 22 february 2021 the duo announced their end with an eight minute video called epilogue, drawn from their 2006 film electroma, closing on an image of two robot hands forming a triangle beneath the years 1993 to 2021.

I think I was trying to come back as a human being in the simplest possible way, without making a spectacle of it.

thomas bangalter to rolling stone, 17 june 2026

the catalogue remains fully available across every streaming platform. the project ended in 2021, and there are no upcoming dates to publish.