Tiësto

Tiësto’s career covers most of modern dance music’s history in one life: gabber pressings in the early 1990s, trance mix CDs and stadium shows in the 2000s, US pop-dance hits in the 2010s. He changed sound several times, and each phase left records that DJs still know.

Breda and the Spock years

Tijs Verwest discovered music at 12 and was DJing school parties at 14. From 1985 to 1994 he held club residencies, among them the Spock club in his home town of Breda. His first records, in 1994, were hardcore and gabber tracks under names such as Da Joker and DJ Limited. Late that year he signed with Basic Beat Recordings, and in 1995 and 1996 he released four EPs on its sub-labels Bonzai Jumps and XTC. Aliases piled up over the years: Allure, Stray Dog, Steve Forte Rio, VER:WEST, TST and Glycerine among them.

Black Hole and the trance years

In 1997 he co-founded Black Hole Recordings with Arny Bink. The label became home to his Magik mix series and, from November 1999, to In Search of Sunrise. From the late 1990s he played monthly as a resident at Gatecrasher in Sheffield. Gouryella, his project with Ferry Corsten, made the UK top 15 in 1999, and his own “Walhalla” reached No. 27 the same year. In 2000 his remix of Delerium’s “Silence”, with Sarah McLachlan, spent four weeks in the UK top ten and reached No. 3 on the Billboard dance chart.

His first artist album, In My Memory, came out in 2001. DJ Mag readers voted him the world’s No. 1 DJ in 2002, 2003 and 2004, and in 2003 he became the first DJ to headline a solo concert in a stadium, at the GelreDome in Arnhem.

Athens 2004 and “Traffic”

2004 was the high point of that era. At the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics he played for about 90 minutes, the first DJ to perform live on stage at an Olympic Games. The same year “Traffic”, the first single from Just Be, went to No. 1 in the Netherlands, the first non-vocal track to top the Dutch national chart in 23 years. Elements of Life (2007) earned a Grammy nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album.

In April 2007 he launched the weekly radio show Club Life on Radio 538. It ran until 27 December 2025, after 978 episodes, and was replaced in January 2026 by a new show, Prismatic.

Musical Freedom and the pop turn

Around 2009 he left Black Hole and set up Musical Freedom to release Kaleidoscope. The sound moved away from trance towards big-room house and pop collaborations. “Red Lights” (2013) and “Wasted” (2014) became his first two US gold singles, and in 2015 his remix of John Legend’s “All of Me” won the Grammy for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical. Later albums include A Town Called Paradise (2014), The London Sessions (2020) and Drive (2023). In 2013 DJ Mag readers voted him best DJ of the previous 20 years.

Which Tiësto to play

It depends on the room. The Gatecrasher-era records and the early In Search of Sunrise mixes belong to trance’s golden years, alongside ATB and “Meet Her at the Love Parade” by Da Hool. The Musical Freedom singles are festival and radio records. For the melodic trance that followed, read the story of “Sun & Moon” by Above & Beyond.