Carl Cox Receives OBE From Prince William at Windsor Castle
Carl Cox has been presented with an OBE, the Officer of the Order of the British Empire, by Prince William at Windsor Castle. The honour recognises his outstanding services to music, Billboard reported on 11 November 2026.
The award was first announced in June, when Cox was named in the King's Birthday Honours List. That list is published each year by the British government and names people from many fields who are recognised for their contribution to public life. An OBE is one of the mid-level honours in the order, and it is typically presented in person by a member of the royal family or another senior figure at a ceremony.
Cox is one of the best-known names in electronic dance music, a genre built around DJs mixing and producing club tracks for dancefloors. He has spent decades playing clubs and festivals around the world, and his career has stretched from the underground to large stages.
He is also a label founder. Cox set up Intec Records in 1999, a record label that releases music by other artists as well as his own. A label handles the making, marketing and distribution of records, and it is often the business that decides which music reaches listeners.
Cox has written about his life too. His autobiography, "Oh Yes, Oh Yes!", was published by White Rabbit in August 2021. The book covers his career and the music scene he came up in.
For the music business, the honour is a reminder that electronic music now sits alongside other genres in the official recognition of British culture. For fans, it is a moment to see a DJ who has spent years behind the decks receive a formal honour from the Crown. Cox's award was given for services to music, and that phrase covers the whole of a working career, from club nights to the labels and records that followed.
The ceremony at Windsor Castle brought the honour out of the June list and into a formal room, with a royal handing over the medal. For a career built on late nights and crowded floors, it was a very different setting.
