Tiësto

Tiësto, born Tijs Michiel Verwest, is a Dutch DJ and electronic music producer from Breda.

In 1997 he founded the trance label Black Hole Recordings with Arny Bink, where he released the Magik and In Search of Sunrise compilation series. In 1998 he met producer Dennis Waakop Reijers, beginning a long collaboration on his productions that lasted until 2006; that same year he teamed up with Ferry Corsten under the alias Gouryella.

His 2000 remix of Silence featuring Sarah McLachlan introduced him to a broader audience. In 2001 he released his debut solo album, In My Memory, which spawned several major hits. His international fame exploded in the early 2000s: he was voted DJ Mag’s number one in the world from 2002 to 2004. In 2004, after releasing his second album Just Be, he made history as the first DJ to perform live at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Athens.

He also founded the label Magik Muzik in 2001. In 2007 he launched the radio show Tiësto’s Club Life and released his third album, Elements of Life, which reached number one on the US Billboard electronic chart and was nominated for the Grammy Awards. His fourth album, Kaleidoscope, was released in 2009.

After that album he shifted his music toward more mainstream styles such as dance-pop, big room and electro house. He sold his share in Black Hole Recordings and founded a new label, Musical Freedom (now Musical Freedom Records). He released the album A Town Called Paradise in 2014.

He won a Grammy Award in 2015 for ‘Best Remixed Recording’ for his remix of All of Me. Mixmag named him ‘the greatest DJ of all time’ and he has been called the ‘godfather of EDM’. In 2025 he announced his return to trance with a new track.