Tiësto

Tiësto
Background information
Birth name	Tijs Verwest
Also known as	DJ Tiësto, Allure, Da Joker, Drumfire, Handover Circuit, Paradise In Dubs, Passenger, Roze, Stray Dog, Tom Ace, Wild Bunch
Born	January 17 1969 (1969-01-17) (age 39) Breda, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
Genre(s)	Trance, Progressive Trance
Occupation(s)	DJ, Producer, Remixer
Years active	1985 - present
Label(s)	Black Hole Recordings SongBird
Associated acts	see Co-production section of Tiësto discography.
Website	http://www.tiesto.com/

Tiësto (IPA: /tiɛsto/; born Tijs Verwest (IPA: /tɛɪs vɛɹʋɛst/) on January 17, 1969 in Breda, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands)^[1] is one of the world's most famous trance DJs.^[2] Although he has used many aliases in the past, he is best known for his work as DJ Tiësto.^[3] On his latest productions, however, he has dropped the "DJ" label and he is now known simply as "Tiësto,"^[4] an alias which is an Italian twist on his childhood nickname.^[5] He has also been voted "best DJ in the World" 3 consecutive times by DJ magazine from 2002 through 2004^[6], the first DJ to play live at an Olympic Games at the 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Athens and was nominated for a Grammy Award in December 2007, for his album Elements of Life.^[7] In April 2006, Tiësto was named the official worldwide ambassador for the Dance4Life foundation,^[8] fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS, for which he recorded the track "Dance4life." Tiësto's motto is: "I feel the energy from the crowd and I try to give it back, to create a unity."^[9]

History

1985–1999: Tijs Verwest / Black Hole Recordings / ISOS

Tijs Verwest began DJing professionally at school parties and then moved on to become a resident DJ between 1985 and 1994 at several clubs in The Netherlands.^[10] During these years, he produced hardcore/gabber tracks under aliases such as Da Joker and DJ Limited.^[11] However, it was at The Spock, a small club in Breda, where he was able to fine-tune his own style by playing in a separate room from 10 pm until 4 am on weekends.^[12] In the mid 1990s, he started to produce trance,^[13] and in 1997 he and Arny Bink co-founded Black Hole Recordings to support his work releasing a series of singles under various aliases.^[14] Black Hole Recordings and its sub-label Magik Muzik continue to sign Tiësto's vision of trance – producing musicians and DJs such as Cor Fijneman, Ton TB, and Mark Norman and also Joe Cheang.^[15] Tiësto began releasing the In Search of Sunrise series, ISOS is a compilation of Tiësto's mixes with tracks of other DJ's which included a variety of tracks.

1999–2004: Tiësto Solo / Tiësto In Concert / DJ Magazine

Tiësto's fame started to rise in the late 1990s after his set at the first ID&T Innercity party, and it continued to skyrocket in the early 2000s following his six-hour "Tiësto Solo" sets which he performed without other DJs or opening acts. This idea, of one DJ playing alone to a large crowd, was brought to its pinnacle when Tiësto was the first DJ to hold a solo concert in a stadium; on May 10 2003, he performed for over 25,000 people in Arnhem's Gelredome. Dubbed "Tiësto in Concert", the event was an enormous success. He repeated the same type of concert the following year during two consecutive nights in late October. In addition to holding these two concerts for 35,000 of his fans, he held another concert for a crowd of 20,000 in Hasselt, Belgium the following week. DVDs of both his May 10 2003 and October 30 2004 concerts have been released. In 2002, 2003 and 2004 Tiësto was crowned as "No. 1. DJ in the World" by DJ Magazine (UK) thanks to the release of In My Memory his first solo album released in 2001. He also appeared in the film It's All Gone Pete Tong as himself in 2004.

2004–2007: 2004 Olympics Opening Ceremony / Tiësto In Concert US

Globally, Tiësto is known for being the first DJ to play live at an Olympic Games at the 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Athens. During the course of his performance the Dutch athletes started dancing in front of the DJ booth and had to be moved on by officials. A condensed studio-recorded rerun of his Olympic set, including new songs especially composed for the occasion, was released as a nonstop mix-CD entitled Parade of the Athletes in October 2004. In the liner notes, he noted the IOC requested to him that the music not contain any lyrics as they could be inadvertently misinterpreted. On August 20 2005 Verwest took "Tiësto in Concert" to the United States when he played to thousands of fans in Los Angeles, California in the Los Angeles Sports Arena. For the second year in a row he performed live for a New Year's Eve/New Year's concert in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Orleans Arena to a sell-out crowd. Despite his four-city American tour being postponed due to the hurricane damage in New Orleans and Miami, playing such cities in the United States further expanded and cemented his popularity among more mainstream audiences. In the fall of 2005 he went on a very successful tour across Central and Eastern Europe where he played once in each country to crowds of 10,000 to 15,000 fans. Stops were made in Ukraine, Slovakia, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Turkey,Croatia ,and Poland . Tiësto also performed at the UNITY festival in South Africa where he played a show at the Gallagher Estate Arena in Midrand, a suburb of Johannesburg, to over 18,000 fans. However, the United States tour that was part of "Tiësto in Concert" was dwarfed by his appearance at Sensation White in 2006 where he performed to over 45,000 people in the world's biggest dance event in Amsterdam, Holland. Even this was surpassed later in the same summer where some 250,000 people danced on Ipanema Beach, Brazil, the second largest concert in the history of mankind.^[16]

2007–present: Tiësto's Club Life / Elements Of Life Tour

Tiësto performing for thousands on his Elements of Life tour

On April 6 2007 Tiësto began presenting a new weekly two-hour radio show called "Tiësto's Club Life" on Dutch radio station Radio 538. XM Satellite Radio in the United States later started broadcasting the show on Channel 81 BPM as part of their "Global Domination" lineup on Saturday nights. The show is broadcast on Radio 538 on Friday nights between 22:00 CET and midnight and on BPM on Saturday nights between 8:00 PM EST and 10:00 PM EST. The first hour is also available as a podcast on the Radio 538 website. In late May 2007 the international DJ scene was in a state of alarm after a Lebanese site, Ya Libnan, announced that Dutch DJ Tiësto would be targeted by the radical islamist group Fatah al-Islam. There would exist plans to kill DJ Tiësto during his DJ set in Byblos on Monday July 2 at the Eddé Sands Hotel & Resort. This announcement was later retracted as spurious and based on rumours.^[17][18] Tiësto completed the Byblos gig which turned out to be a huge success and according to Ya Libnan it has "officially become the biggest event in Lebanon’s history" breaking the venue's previous record of 16,000 by several thousand – at 2 a.m. the Eddé Sands beach and the neighbouring beach had reached maximum capacity and thousands had to be turned away having to watch from nearby roads and surrounding areas, at this party 18,000 people bought the tickets to watch the concert.In the mean time 23,000 people were outside the zone hearing and dancing on the streets, the people were standing at the last place that the sound can be heard and dancing on the new album "Elements Of Life" his newest success^[19] On July 4 2007, Tiësto failed to show up at his scheduled Elements of Life tour concert in Bahrain's capital Manama. Without prior warning, the DJ left a crowd of over 3000 fans waiting until the closing hours. Ticket prices went up to $250, and fans from across the region flew in to Bahrain just to attend the concert. The concert was clearly scheduled on his website, and tickets were still being sold until the last moment by local organizers Prime Time Entertainment and promoter Ayman Al Hamad. Apparently, Tiësto waited until the final hours to get paid in full by the organizers prior to his performance, but according to Tiësto himself they never did. Shortly before closing moments, the crowd started rioting demanding Tiësto's appearance, which forced the local police to intervene.^[20][21][22] On July 6 Tiësto provided an explanation of what had happened on his website

Later, promoter Ayman Al Hamad told Bahrain's Gulf Daily News newspaper that Tiësto was very stupid for the statements he provided on his website, and that he believes that the DJ refused to perform because he was expecting more than 3000 fans to show up at his debut in Bahrain. Ayman also said that the DJ was offered the full payment in parts of different currencies, but refused to receive part of the payment in Bahraini Dinar because Tiësto was not willing to recognize it as a valid currency. Al Hamad strongly refuses Tiësto claim that there was nobody to transport him from his hotel to the venue: "Even if I didn't have a car for him any of the fans would be happy to offer one of theirs." He has announced that legal action will be taken against Tiësto and is also urging witnesses who took photographs or videos of the melee to come forward to assist the ongoing investigation into what did in fact take place. According to the news article Prime Time Entertainment had paid Tiësto 18,000 euros in advance to cover his private jet expenses.^[23] On August 23 2007, during the Winnipeg stop on Tiësto's Elements of Life tour concert in Manitoba's capital Winnipeg, a bomb threat was called in to local authorities, prompting an immediate shut down of the concert in the middle of Tiësto's set. Amid fears that a riot would ensue, the Winnipeg Police Department dispatched over 20 cruisers from around the city to control the crowd. The crowd did not turn violent despite fears they would and the party continued outside when local buskers began to play. The building was searched and cleared and Tiësto resumed his set around 1 am.^[24]

Other work

In 2006 Tiësto collaborates with Dance4Life by making everyone be aware about HIV/AIDS. DJ Tiësto as one of the foundation's ambassador has helped the organization with fundraising. It consists on a better way of living in exchange of entertainment to the young crowd. Cineac, Tiësto's new Club-Restaurant acquisition with Chinese cuisine, Dance music and Live Entertainment was opened June 7 2007. Tiësto inaugurated with his new Cineac Anthem called Happy People. Guests are welcome to see various modern styles of music mixed by some known top DJs. Tiësto and Reebok introduce the new Tiësto shoe on November 2007, The shoebox comes with a special limited-edition Tiësto & Reebok CD, containing rare and exclusive remixes from the Elements of Life album. Only 1000 pair units were sold. Previously Tiësto & Reebok had released "Run the DJ Tiësto", which consisted of another shoe release with Tiësto as one of the designers. In December 2007, Tiësto and Giorgio Armani collaborated together on a Limited Edition Tiesto T-shirt available at Armani Exchange stores. His single Sweet Things comes with the shirt including an exclusive "A|X Remix." Proceeds from the sale of this T-shirt benefit the Mercy Corps.

Discography

Main article: Tiësto discography

Awards

Main article: List of Tiësto awards

References

External links

• Official website
• Tiësto at MySpace
• Tiësto at Discogs
• Tiësto at the Internet Movie Database
• Tiësto at The DJ List
• Tiësto at iLike
• Tiësto at Last.fm
• Tiësto at mp3.com
• Tiësto discography at MusicBrainz
• Tiësto at All Music Guide
• Tiësto's Tracklisting archive
• Cineac