Mash-up

Tiesto: 20 Years of Success

Voted greatest DJ of all time by Mixmag, Tiesto has reached a level of fame in the electronic dance music world that few artists have achieved. Tiesto performed at the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games; he has a wax statue at Madame Tussauds, and he has a character on a video game, DJ hero. Is there anywhere else Tiesto can go?

2014 was the 20-year mark in Tiesto’s music career. He recently released the third installment of his Club Life mix, has plans for an artist album in 2015, and a tour schedule that could be a killer for a lesser DJ. Tiesto isn’t slowing down!

Kudos for Tiesto! He thrilled fans by posting a picture of him holding two golden records for Wasted and Red Lights. Tiesto sold over 500,000 copies of each track. Being a humble man, Tiesto thanked all the fans that gave him their support throughout his career. Celebrations at Hakkasan nightclub featured his video of Light Years Away. Special friends and guests Dzeko & Torres and Crooked were there to cheer him on, and film more awesome videos. Keep buying his music; it is epic.

Add in a recent announcement for this amazing DJ, producer and musician. He has been asked to debut a new score for the Las Vegas attraction, the Bellagio Fountains. Choreographed fountains dancing to music is an attraction enjoyed by millions of Las Vegas visitors. Tiesto’s Bellagio Fountain set opens on September 17th. It is a medley of three songs from his studio album A Town Called Paradise. Tiesto is the first EDM set ever featured.

Early Life

Tijs Michiel Verwest born in 1969 is better known by his stage name Tiesto. You may remember Tiesto with the record label Black Hole Records with Arny Bink and his releases the Magik and In Search of Sunrise in 1997, but you might better remember Tiesto’s collaboration with Ferry Corsten and his creation Gouryella. Sarah McLachlan and Tiesto’s remix of Delerium’s Silence brought his name to more fans than just DJ and EDM. His first solo album, In My Memory, featured a remix of a song written by Nicola Hitchcock. This album ranked Tiesto at #1 on DJ Magazine’ annual Top 100 DJs for three years in a row.

Tiesto was the first DJ to play live on stage at an Olympics. HIs Olympic performance brought EDM into the limelight and gave Tiesto continued fame. He continues to hit top charts all around the world. In 2008, he received a nomination for a Grammy Award and released his fourth studio album Kaleidoscope.

Tiesto released material in 1994 on Noculan Records plus he produced hardcore/jabber tracks under aliases Da Joker and DJ Limited. Discovered by the general manager of Basic Beat Recordings, he signed on to the label in 1994, and began working with Arny Bink. During the next couple of years, Tiesto released four extended mixes on Bonzai Jumps and XTC. Tiesto left Basic Beat in 1997 and developed Black Hold Recordings.

The 2000s saw Tiesto concentrating on his own personal work, and he introduced Armin van Buuren, Johan Gielen and Ferry Corsten to fans with the In Trance We Trust series. Summerbreeze was his debut DJ mix album in the United States. After this release, Tiesto’s popularity began to rise, and he has never looked back.

The first DJ to hold a solo concert, Tiesto performed for over 25,000 people in Arnhem’s GelreDome in May of 2003.  His concert titled Tiesto in Concert played again in 2004 to crowds of over 35,000.

2004 saw the release of his second artist album Just Be and his first single Traffic. Traffic is the first non-vocal track to reach number one on the Dutch national charts. Next his track Sweet Misery, written for Evanescence (although it did not make the album due to time constraints), became a part of his Just Be album.

More honors for Tiesto when the Athens Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games requested his presence to perform at the Olympic Games opening ceremony. He played for 90 minutes, wrote his track Adagio for Strings for the Games, and ultimately played for over a billion live and television audiences.

Tiesto was such a national music and DJ hero that Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands appointed him an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau.

More accolades? How about a wax sculpture of Tiesto behind a turntable? Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam, where visitors can mix Tiesto’s music is just another honor this talented DJ deserves.

Tiesto is a man on fire and continued to release remixes. In 2005 Tiesto played to 16,000 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Sort Arena with Cirque du Soleil dancers. He then performed at a New Year’s Eve concert in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena to a sell-out crowd. His Los Angeles Concert influenced his In Search of Sunrise compilation.

Bounce around just a bit and discover Tiesto is not just an awesome DJ, but he is also a philanthropist. In 2005, he performed in an outdoor fundraiser in De Dam, Amsterdam. Dian Woesthoff, FLOF, Acaa & De Munnik as well as Tiesto donated their time to play and provide financial aid to the people who lost everything in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

In April 2006, Tiesto was the official worldwide ambassador for the Dance4Life Foundation that provided funding of HIV/AIDS research. The foundation asks for a better way of life with safe sex. Tiesto continues to contribute to AIDS research. (November 2002 he released an album Dance (RED) Save Lives and donated all proceeds to the fight against AIDS.)

Fans ask this question all the time. Is Tiesto still single? He was to marry Stacey Blokzijl in 2008, but his busy schedule left little time for a personal life. In 2008, Blokzijl broke off the engagement due to scheduling and delays in the wedding.

Technically Tiesto is one of the most awesome DJs in the world. Flawless mixing, interesting and unique albums plus tracks of various electronic genres gives him this title. He plays to the crowd and varies his sets depending on the country where he is performing. He is the most amazing remixer, and some of his best remixes are Paul Oakenfold’s Southern Sun and Delerium. He experiments with remixes and comes up with awesome music. Listen to his remix of the Dave Matthews Band – The Space Between.  Trivia about Tiesto? His stage name (originally he was DJ Tiesto) is a twist on a childhood nickname.