From: The Netherlands
DJ style: “Trance and progressive.”
Best known for: “A State Of Trance.”
Armin van Buuren continues his incredible run inside the top five of the Top 100 DJs poll — now running at a whopping 22 years — alongside scooping the The World’s No.1 Trance DJ award again as part of another huge year for the Dutch artist. “I’ve been spending a lot of time in the studio to cook up new tracks, and also had the pleasure of performing at premier festivals throughout the summer season,” he enthuses when asked about the last 12 months.
In terms of releases, Armin dropped the final part of his 'Feel Again' album trilogy in March. Split into three, the record — which takes in 33 tracks in total — is said to have been born out of van Buuren's disconnect with his family, friends and fans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Having reformed his life routines and taken up yoga, he found a renewed love for music, which fed into work on the album. Armin also found time to release the 20th instalment of his long-running 'A State Of Trance' mix album series in May. Featuring 41 tracks in total, it is split across three mixes, rather than the usual two. The additional third mix pays homage to another of van Buuren's own labels, Who's Afraid Of 138?!, and among its 14 tracks are two new remixes by Bogdan Vix & UUFO and Maddix of van Buuren's recent tracks, 'Vulnerable' and 'Computers Take Over The World', respectively. Alongside his busy release schedule, Armin also took over the weekly radio show Dance Department, on Dutch broadcasting station Radio 538, which goes out alongside his long-running weekly A State Of Trance broadcast.
But that doesn't mean his life on the road has slowed down. Earlier this year, Armin played a double record-breaking 40-minute set from the 149th floor of the world’s tallest building — the Burj Khalifa in Dubai — breaking the world record for the highest-ever DJ performance, as well as the largest LED screen ever used in a show. He also played a five-hour set from Untold Festival — closing out the Romanian festival's open-air Arena stage — a DJ Mag live stream from A State Of Trance Silverworks Island, EDC Las Vegas and many more. Armin describes another high-point of the year as being his A State Of Trance Festival landing the No.50 spot in this year’s DJ Mag Top 100 Festivals poll, an achievement he describes as “pretty special”.
Hero of 2023: “Fred again..”
Fav tune of 2023: “7 Skies ‘Tokyo777’.”
Best DJ set you’ve seen in 2023: “ARTBAT at A State Of Trance Utrecht 2023.”
What was the most exciting tech development of 2023? “Using AI to generate voices and better extracting stems from existing tracks.”
Rising star DJ/producer of 2023: “D.O.D.”
What gives you hope for 2024: “How much of a uniting factor music still is. There are so many differences in background, upbringing, personalities and beliefs, but none of them matter when the music starts playing.”
