Armin van Buuren has been named number one in the prestigious DJ MAG Top 100 poll four times in a row, as the first DJ in the history of the DJ Magazine and an indication of his prolific output over the more than 14 years he’s been dj’ing and producing. Being the official World’s Most Popular DJ is just one of his many achievements, but the driving force behind his success is an overriding passion for dance music.
A State of Trance
The Dutchman discovered a passion for dance music by listening to mix-tapes and radio shows, and taught himself how to create his own. 20 years later, his very own radio show A State of Trance has grown out to legendary heights. Nowadays, 15 million listeners tune into his 2 hour selection of trance and progressive, every week. For 9 years in a row and more than 450 episodes already, the A State of Trance show has been and still is a weekly highlight to many dance music lovers.
Awards & Accolades
Even a basic list of recent successes reads like a lifetime of work. Armin van Buuren isn’t ‘just’ the number one on the critically acclaimed DJ Mag Top 100, but also holds the ‘Best Global DJ’ and ‘Best Trance Artist’ title, awarded to him at the International Dance Music Awards and Beatport Awards, respectively. Radio show A State of Trance received the IDMA for ‘Best Mix Radio Show’ for 5 years in a row. Furthermore, Armin was awarded for ‘Best Podcast’, became the most popular International DJ at Australia's Sony inthemix DJ Poll and, in March 2010, received the ‘Gouden Harp’, the highest distinction a Dutch artist can get.
Albums
Armin van Buuren has delivered four successful artist albums so far, ‘76’, ‘Shivers’, ‘Imagine’ and 2010 album 'Mirage'. As the first dance artist in Dutch music history, his ‘Imagine’ entered the Dutch Album Top 100 Chart at number one. Hit singles ‘Going Wrong’, ‘In & Out of Love’, ‘Unforgivable’ and ‘Never Say Never’ didn’t only haunt the charts, but also became favourites of the dance crowd. The music video of ‘In & Out of Love’, featuring Dutch singer Sharon den Adel, received more than 67 million views on YouTube, holding the first position on the Dutch Top 10 of most viewed videos of all-time. Armin’s back catalogue, including ‘Blue Fear’, ‘Communication’, ‘The Sound of Goodbye’, ‘Shivers’, UEFA Youth Championship theme ‘Rush Hour’, ‘Burned With Desire’, ‘Exhale’, ‘Yet Another Day’ en ‘This World Is Watching Me’, is full of timeless tracks that wear that classic-tag and keep returning to the clubs. But, as a true artist befits, Armin keeps creating new music and has now released his fourth artist album, 'Mirage'. For the album, Armin collaborated with the likes of BT, Christian Burns, Ferry Corsten, Adam Young and Nadia Ali. After the first single, ‘Full Focus’, the second release of the album was a collaboration with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, ‘Not Giving Up On Love’. The music video for the track was shot on party island Ibiza and includes shots of Club Amnesia, where Armin holds his residency.
Performances & Armin Only
Being the world's number 1 DJ sees the Dutch DJ perform at some of the world's biggest and best festivals, clubs, events and shows. One of the highlights of 2010 was Armin's DJ set at the Museumplein in Amsterdam in July, during the honoring of the Dutch soccer team. Even though the national team lost in the FIFA Worldcup, they partied like they were the absolute winners, and so did the 200.000 strong crowd.
Sold-out shows for Armin Only in 2005 and 2006 created eager anticipation of the third edition, which kicked off in a sold-out Jaarbeurs in Utrecht in 2008; over 16,000 fans attended and were enthralled by the DJ’s nine hour set, under the name of ‘Imagine’. For his fourth artist album, ‘Mirage’, Armin will kick off another Armin Only World tour. After the first show in the sold-out Jaarbeurs in Utrecht on November 13th, Armin will continue to travel the globe with shows in 15 different countries, ranging from Australia to Ukraine, Argentina, Libanon and more.
