Tiësto, born Tijs Michiel Verwest on January 17, 1969, is one of the leading Dutch DJs and record producer of electronic dance music. Although he has used many aliases in the past, he is best known for his work as DJ Tiësto. On his productions in the past five years, however, he has dropped the “DJ” label and is now known simply as “Tiësto”, an alias which is an Italian twist of his childhood nickname.
In 1997 he founded the label Black Hole Recordings with Arny Bink, where he released the famous Magik and In Search of Sunrise CD series. In 1999 and 2000 he collaborated with Ferry Corsten to create Gouryella. In 2001 he released his first solo album “In My Memory” which gave him several major hits that launched his career as well as his remix of Delerium’s “Silence” featuring Sarah McLachlan which exposed him to more mainstream audiences. As his popularity rose in the early 2000s he became the first DJ to perform to a large crowd without any other DJs or opening acts. He was crowned the “World’s No.1 DJ” 3 consecutive times by DJ Magazine from 2002 through 2004.
Just after releasing his second studio album Just Be in 2004, at the Summer Olympics he performed live at the opening ceremony in Athens, Greece becoming the first DJ to play live on stage at an Olympics Games. Tracks he made especially for the Olympics were mixed together and released as the mix compilation Parade of the Athletes later that year. He was appointed Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 2004 by Queen Beatrix. He was chosen as the official ambassador for the Dance4Life foundation in May 2006, and released the song “Dance4Life” with Maxi Jazz to help spread the awareness of HIV/AIDS. In April 2007 Tiësto launched both his radio show Tiësto’s Club Life on Radio 538 in the Netherlands and released his third studio album titled Elements of Life. The album reached number one on the Dutch album chart as well on “Billboard Top Electronic Albums” in the U.S. and received a nomination for a Grammy Award in 2008. Tiësto released his fourth studio album called Kaleidoscope in October 2009 to critical acclaim. The hugely successful tour was recognized by Billboard Magazine who nominated Tiësto for two 2010 Billboard Touring Awards and placed him among Billboard’s Top 25 biggest grossing touring acts of 2010.
Tiesto himself with his wax statue at Madame Tussauds, Amsterdamn. Guess who’s the real one?
Tiësto is a performer who has transcended musical genres to create a global “Tiësto” brand. His achievements include: a Grammy nomination, numerous MTV awards, performing at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games to an audience of billions, and even a wax statue at Madame Tussauds.With over 14 million fans on Facebook, 1 million followers on Twitter, close to 300 million hits on YouTube, his globally syndicated Club Life radio show as well as his Club Life iTunes artist podcast (#1 music podcast globally), Tiësto has truly become a universal phenomenon. Voted ‘The Greatest DJ Of All Time’ by Mixmag in 2011, Tiësto has worked with superstars such as Kanye West, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Nelly Furtado, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Goldfrapp, U2 and many more. For those who might not know, Tiesto has even collaborated with deadmau5 but unfortunately it the track they produced didn’t turn out to be that well ; so they never released it or did anything with it at all. Having completed his 2010 Kaleidoscope World Tour (15 months, 175 dates, playing to 1,000,000+ people across 6 continents) Tiësto had yet another relentless year in 2011.
In 2012, he made a huge name for himself, crossing the age of 44 recently he has become a pioneer of dance music creating hits like “Hell Yeah!”, “Pair of Dice” and his sick compilation album “Club Life: Volume Two Miami“. As at 2012, Tiësto also attained the #2 poll position of the DJ Mag 100 Popularity Poll, and he refers to the styles he mainly plays as House, Electro House, and Progressive House now. For nostalgia, Tiësto still throws in Trance Music in his shows, the style he became attached to in the early 2000s. He is widely regarded as one of the most popular DJ’s ever and often places at the top or near the top of lists compiling the top DJ’s ever.
Some of the massive Tiesto tunes released over the years which you cannot afford to miss -
# Tiësto – Maximal Crazy
# Tiësto & Hardwell – Zero 76
# Tiesto – Adagio For Strings
# Tiesto & Showtek – Hell Yeah!
# Tiesto & Allure – Pair Of Dice
Tiësto who has previously performed in India at Hyderabad back in 2008 is all set to return to India for a three-city tour at the end of March 2013 with ‘Sunburn Arena’ in association with Submerge, for what promises a great concert and arguably one of the biggest this year. “
Tiësto is one of the most remarkable artists who has managed to remain relevant through almost two decades,” says Nikhil Chinapa, co-director of Submerge. Tiësto , who started off playing trance in the early 90s began leaning towards electro and progressive house since 2010.
The upcoming three city tour will be held in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. “I’ve been chasing Tiësto for almost five years now, ever since he performed in Hyderabad. That time, his first gig didn’t go too well. So when I met him in Manchester, he was very curious to know more about the scene in India,” says Chinapa. While the venues are to be decided, Chinapa is sure that it won’t be a club gig. “One of the concerns in organizing this tour was that Tiësto is too big an artist to perform at a nightclub. Over the past year, with artists like SHM and Above & Beyond, we have seen that the concert format can work well with big-ticket EDM artists in India,” he adds.
Tiesto India Tour Dates:
March 29th, 2013: Mumbai | March 30th, 2013— Bengaluru | March 31st, 2013— New Delhi
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