Tiesto show 2022
Tijs Michiel Verwest was born in
, Netherlands, on 17 January 1969.
He began to cultivate his passion for music from age twelve. At age fourteen, he intensified his commitment to the art, and began DJing professionally at school parties. Between 1985 and 1994, Tiësto began a residency at several clubs in the Netherlands at the behest of his manager. At the Spock, a small club in Breda, he fine-tuned his own live style by performing from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. on weekends. In the beginning of his career as a DJ he mostly played
and
.
In late 1994, Tiësto signed to Basic Beat where he met Arny Bink, Tiësto released records on the sub-label Trashcan, founded by Arny, and later created the Guardian Angel sub-label with Arny in which they introduced the popular Forbidden Paradise series. From 1995–96 he released four extended plays on Bonzai Jumps and XTC, sub-labels of Lightning Records. In 1997, he joined his friend Yves Vandichel on his sub-label, DJ Yves, a division of the now defunct Human Resource label XSV Music. In the fall of 1997, Bink and Tiësto decided to leave Basic Beat and create their own parent label,
, Trashcan was discontinued and Guardian Angel continued releasing music until 2002. Through Black Hole, Tiësto released the
and also created two major sub-labels;
and
. From 1998 to 1999, he released music on Planetary Consciousness where he met
Hardy Heller and invited him to release some records on Black Hole.
In 1998, Tiësto joined forces with fellow Dutch deejay
to create the trance based duo of
.
The first Gouryella track, also called Gouryella, was released in May 1999 and became a huge hit scoring various chart positions around the world, including a top fifteen position in the
.
Tiësto showcased this track in
as well as in his set at the first
Innercity party (
Live at Innercity: Amsterdam RAI
), his first major breakthrough.
The next single, entitled “Walhalla”, also made it on the charts worldwide, peaking at No. 27 in the UK Singles Chart.
Released via Ferry’s Tsunami, both singles went on to be certified Gold on record sales.
During these years, Tiësto also collaborated with
of
under the name
. In November 1999, he released the first installment of the
series. Since then, he performed monthly as a resident at
in
, and played a 12-hour set, his longest, in
.
On 31 December 1999, he performed at
2000, a special party held by ID&T for the turn of the millennium.
Together with
, Tiësto created two projects in 2000; Alibi – “Eternity”,
which was released on Armind, and Major League – “Wonder Where You Are?”, which came out on Black Hole. After the release of “Tenshi” in September 2000, Tiësto decided to concentrate on his solo work and left Ferry Corsten to take on the Gouryella project solely as his own.
Through his first compilations and the “In Trance We Trust” series, he ended up introducing Armin van Buuren and
to the mainstream.
marked Tiësto’s U.S. debut,
a mix album that showcased his remix of
‘s “
“, which spent four weeks in the UK’s Top Ten chart and reached number three in the
dance chart.
was released in November 2000.
In 2001, Tiësto created a new sub-label,
, and released his first solo album,
, which contained 5 major hits; “
“, which was actually produced in 1999 and had only 3 copies released at that time, the track was officially released in 2001 which was remixed by
in 2006 along with “
” which was another leading single that was later adapted with vocals by
and released as “
“. Other tracks were “
” in which Tiësto worked alongside
, the instrumental tracks “Dallas 4PM” and “
” with “
” as its vocal version. The last singles to be released were “
” which is the title track for the album as it only received high ratings in the United States and the opening track “Magik Journey” which opened
(2003). On 2 February 2002, Tiësto played nine consecutive hours during the second edition of the Dutch Dimension festival.
On 27 February, Tiësto was awarded a Zilveren (‘Silver’) Harp music award. The same year he also received a Lucky Strike Dance Award in the category Best DJ Trance/Progressive. In August he became part of Moby’s
. For eighteen days he travelled through the United States with artists such as
himself, but also
and
. In January 2003, Tiësto received the annual Dutch Popprijs (‘Pop Award’) during the Noorderslag festival. After touring with Moby, Tiësto remixed two songs from him, “
” and “
” in the same year, having “We Are All Made of Stars” reach No. 13 in the
. In 2002 he released his first In Search of Sunrise mix to feature a place on its name,
In Search of Sunrise 3: Panama
. On 28 March 2003; Tiësto,
,
, and Noel Sanger joined the
Dual Play tour. Tiësto and Noel’s appearance began on 13 April and ended on 6 June.
His fame continued to increase for then known he has in the early 2000s, following his six-hour “Tiësto Solo” sets which he performed without other DJs or opening acts. This idea, of one DJ playing alone to a large crowd was new. Tiësto was the first DJ to hold a solo concert in a stadium; on 10 May 2003, he performed for 25,000 people in
‘s
, later called
. He repeated the same type of concert the following year during two consecutive nights in late October.
In addition to holding these two concerts for 35,000 of his fans, he held another concert for a crowd of 20,000 in
the following week.
of both his 10 May 2003 and 30 October 2004 concerts have been released, having the other DVD titled
. The DVDs show the journey from the first idea to the main event, featuring live performances by
,
, and
. The event includes live music and dancers performing at different times throughout the set.
The track “Sweet Misery” was originally written for
but it did not meet the deadline for the release of their album. In support to his Just Be album, he played at
,
,
, and
; these stops were later named
. On 20 May 2004 he was appointed Officer of the
by Her Majesty
of the Netherlands.
The
Athens Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games
(ATHOC) asked Tiësto to perform at the Olympic Games, making him the first DJ to play live on stage at an
at the
2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
in
, where he played for 90 minutes.
External video
Tiësto flew to Athens in January 2004 to have a meeting with the ATHOC. His
DVD caught their attention, after which he was asked to write more tracks based on his opening tune “
” which would fit in with the Olympic spirit and combine the classical with the modern age. The first rehearsal was on 7 August, for an empty stadium; the second rehearsal was on 8 August, with 35,000 volunteers. The last rehearsal included almost 60,000 people in the stadium which was on 10 August.
During the course of his performance at the Olympics, the Dutch athletes started dancing in front of the DJ booth and had to be moved on by officials. The performance included new tracks produced especially for the Opening Ceremony and songs that were created to complement the spirit and theme of the ceremony. A condensed studio-recorded album of the songs played on the Olympic set was later released, including new songs specially composed for the occasion, entitled
in October 2004.
In the liner notes, he noted the IOC requested that the music not contain any lyrics as they could be inadvertently misinterpreted. In late 2004, he began his touring across
, with his release of
In Search of Sunrise 3: Panama
in which he gained influence from the sun and sand in summer 2002. The tour continued in 2005, and Tiësto performed live in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Panama, Peru, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia. Following the tours,
In Search of Sunrise 4: Latin America
was released in 2005, featuring a second CD for the first time in the
.
In 2005, his
compilation was released through Warlock Records, containing ten tracks which were created during the beginning of his career, between those is
,
and
. On 20 August 2005, Verwest took Tiësto in Concert to the US when he played to 16,000 at the
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena
with
dancers.
For the second year in a row he performed live at a New Year’s Eve/New Year’s concert in
at the
to a sell-out crowd. His four-city U.S. tour was postponed due to the hurricane damage in
and
.
has an annual poll in the US which is unveiled in the
, in 2005 Tiësto took the No. 1 spot.
The influences of
remained with him and would later influence his In Search of Sunrise compilation.
A wax sculpture of Tiësto was placed behind a turntable at
in Amsterdam where visitors can mix Tiësto’s music together.
Stops were made in Ukraine, Slovakia, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Croatia, Poland and South Africa. The United States tour that was part of
was dwarfed by his appearance at
in 2006 where he performed to over 45,000 people in
.
The compilation was launched in the
in
to support his release, Tiësto went on his
In Search of Sunrise 5 Asia Tour
for more than three weeks.
In September 2006, Tiësto was admitted to hospital after experiencing pain in his chest. He was diagnosed with
and subsequently had to cancel a number of shows.
With the diagnosis, he was invited to support
to help teens who are not aware of the risks of
.
On 6 April 2007, Tiësto began presenting a new weekly two-hour radio show called
on Dutch radio station
. Ten days later, Tiësto released his third studio album
. The album moved 73,000 units in its April release, according to
.
During the production of the album Tiësto in several cases sent a demo with the music to certain artists, and they replied back with the lyrics and vocals and other duration times. In the case of
from
, Tiësto met him through
and contacted him and the production of the single “
“.
The album consists of
,
and
, which shows the style Tiësto has grown throughout the years since his previous albums which contained lyrics,
and
. Producer
collaborated with Tiësto in three tracks, he composed “Bright Morningstar” and “
“, and performed the vocals in the single “
“. Together, they produced more tracks which were not released in the album, Tiësto has mentioned they would work again during the coming summer.
External video
In December 2007 it was announced that the album was nominated for a
, in the category “Best Electronic/Dance Album.”
The album also received gold certifications in Belgium, Hungary, Netherlands, and Romania. In support of the album, he embarked on the worldwide
, and released the
Copenhagen: Elements of Life World Tour
DVD in 2008.
Tiësto announced his residence at
. He played sets in
every Monday, from 7 July to 22 September in the style of his
. In 2007, he had released
which was inspired by the island.
On 28 April, he released
, a recompilation of the Elements of Life album with all remixed versions. In mid-2008, Tiësto announced his
In Search of Sunrise: Summer Tour 2008
, which was presented by
in May in support of his
compilation
and the previously released In Search of Sunrise 6: Ibiza.
On 6 October 2009, he released his fourth studio album
, which featured artists such as
,
,
and
. Unlike his earlier albums, which were all mostly trance, Kaleidoscope explores other electronic genres, and is considered Tiesto’s most experimental album. The first single “
” featuring
being released in July 2009. It reached number three on the much acclaimed Driscoll 5, and lasted there for 24 weeks in the beginning of 2012.
In its first week, the album reached the Top 10 chart on
.
To release the album he set up a new record label called Musical Freedom after parting ways with
. Tiësto felt that his music was evolving in a new direction and his focus as an artist was moving away from what Black Hole was set up to support.
His new tour, sharing the name of his new album, called
commenced in late September.
On 16 March 2010, he released a greatest hits album,
Magikal Journey: The Hits Collection 1998–2008
, a two disc album focusing on his most famous songs and remixes of his songs. On 7 April, he announced that he would start a new compilation series called A New Dawn with his own label Musical Freedom. In his interview Tiësto furthermore confirmed that he would no longer have any more involvement with Black Hole Recordings.
On 31 August,
was released, a remix album of his album Kaleidoscope.
Also in 2009 and 2010, Tiësto contributed songs to both the
and
video games and is a playable character in the second game.
He also produced a trance-flavored song for Memphis rap duo
‘s album called “
“, which features
and
.
Tiësto performing at the 2012
On 4 April 2011, his mix compilation
Club Life: Volume One Las Vegas
was released.
On 13 June, his studio album,
, was released under his alias Allure, and featured
,
, and
.
External video
Club Life: Volume Three Stockholm
was released worldwide physically on 25 June 2013 and it hit No. 16 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart. He followed up his third “Club Life” installment with the 2014 effort,
. The album featured an assortment of guest stars and was preceded by two singles, “
” and “
” – yielding his first two gold singles in the U.S.
A medley from the album also soundtracks a presentation at the
fountain in Las Vegas, a first for a dance music artist.
In a 2014 interview with
, Tiësto revealed why he left trance music. When asked whether his decision to leave the genre was influential to his popularity in the United States, the Dutch producer said: “Maybe, it’s hard to say. I think I’d still be the ‘Tiesto trance guy’ but the difference is you’re not really being relevant. Some of the old trance guys still have their following but it doesn’t feel like anybody really cares – and that’s the biggest difference. It’s nice to be in touch with the new kids who are coming up – the 16 and 18-year olds who are producing house music see me as kind of a godfather, and it’s really cool to be in touch with them. I think if I’d still been a trance DJ, they’d have been so disconnected with that sound that I wouldn’t be much inspiration for them, and vice versa.”
In 2015, at the
, he won the
Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical
for his remixed version of
‘s hit “
“.
The same year his fourth installment of the Club Life compilation series, titled
Club Life: Volume Four New York City
, was released through Musical Freedom. In April 2016, he launched a
label, AFTR:HRS, to promote deep house music.
He appeared in the 2016
-nominated documentary film about American DJ and producer
, titled
.
On 14 January 2017, Tiësto was awarded the key to the city of
. The day is now known as “Tiësto Day” in
.
He was featured in the 2017 documentary starring
and
, titled
.
On 6 October 2017, the fifth installment of the Club Life series entitled ‘
‘ was published.
The compilation album features tracks by John Christian, SWACQ, Tiësto and Z.Tao, and collaborations between Tiësto and Aloe Blacc, John Christian,
, Diplo, KSHMR, Talay Riley, Sevenn, Stargate, SWACQ and Vassy.
On 30 March 2018, Tiësto released his debut EP titled
, featuring four songs that are collaborations with artists such as
,
,
and
.
On 2 July 2018, Tiësto released with
,
and
on a track titled “
“.
On 7 May 2020, Tiësto announced his seventh studio album
; it was released 15 May 2020. The album features the previously released singles “Jackie Chan”, “Ritual”, “
“, “Blue” and “
“.
On 6 January 2005, Tiësto performed in an outdoor fundraiser in De Dam, Amsterdam. The free event involved Dutch artists like
,
,
,
, and
were involved in it to provide financial aid to the people who suffered from the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
in
and
.
In April 2006, Tiësto was named the official worldwide ambassador for the
foundation promoting awareness of
, as the foundation’s ambassador he has helped the organisation with fundraising along with recording the track “
” that he recorded with
from
. The foundation consists on a better way of living with safe sex in exchange of entertainment to the young crowd.
The song was a huge success, peaking for five weeks in number 3 and eleven consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of the
, it reached number 5 in Belgium, number 6 in Finland and also charting in the
and Germany.
With the successful release of
, Tiësto and fashion designer
collaborated on a limited edition Tiësto T-shirt available at Armani Exchange stores. His single “
” comes with the shirt including an exclusive “A|X Remix” by Tom Cloud which shows the great influence Tiësto has in fashion culture.
The charity raised over U.S. $300,000.
In November 2012, Tiësto released a compilation album Dance (RED) Save Lives in collaboration with
, with the aim of donating any proceeds from the album to the fight against AIDS.
In June 2014, Tiësto headlined the first-ever Thank You Festival, presented by Global Citizen in partnership with
.
As a part of the festival campaign, Tiësto took part in supporting ThankYou.org. For every song shared, the Carlson Family Foundation donated $5 to the World Childhood Foundation.
In September 2014, Tiësto headlined the free
in New York’s Central Park.