[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aezttQNJXyo&w=680&h=491]

The next featured DJ needs no introduction. Voted best DJ in the world 2002-2004, founder of Black Hole Records (together with Arny Bink), the In Search Of Sunrise-compilations, performer at the summer olympics in athens. I’m ofcourse talking about Tijs Michiel Verwest or Tiësto which is the name most people know him under.

The track features in this weekends classic is Tiesto featuring BT – Love Comes Again (with BT on vocals) (buy on Itunes)

Goosebump-moments:

1:12 when the main bass kicks in
1:41 when only the main kick and bass is heard
2:09 when the vocals starts
3:04 when the main synth comes in
4:18 after the breakdown when the vocals only are heard
4:46 and onward after the main synth kicks in again

Lyrics:

You have become what you have always been
light flickering around, peripheral vision
no words we can speak, our paths have been chosen
but all trails that we trek,
-should lead us back to here because our

love comes again
just when i’ve broken down i found
love can come again

Dutch born DJ/Producer started his musical career in the mid 90´s, then producing hardcore/gabber under the aliases Da Joker and DJ Limited. It was first after creating Black Hole Records in 1997 with collegue Arny Bink that the path to trance begun.

His first own release on the label was Theme From Norefjell, the first track of many with production partner Dennis Waakop Reijers. Early stuff from the label included the Magik-series and a few productions under the name Allure (together with Wouter and Sjoerd Janssen from Showtek and David van den Hurk.

His second single on Black Hole was Sparkles and that was followed by the collaboration with Armin Van Buuren under the name Major League with the single Wonder Where You Are.

Meanwhile working on his own tracks, Tiesto managed to release some legendary tracks together with Ferry Corsten under the Gouryella-moniker and also Benno De Goeij under the Kamaya Painters-moniker. He also released the In Trance We Trust-compilation that made way for many of todays biggest trance artists like Ferry Corsten, Armin Van Buuren and Johan Gielen to the mainstream crowd.

In 2000, Tijs left Gouryella and Kamaya Painters to concentrate on own material. This later resulted in the legendary 2001 album In My Memory, the first release on his sub-label, Magik Muzik.
The now legendary album contained such hits as In My Memory, Flight 643, Lethal Industry and Suburban Train, all huge hits in the trance-scene.

The 2003 live dvd Tiësto in Concert is IMHO a must-have in every trance-freaks collection.

But it wasn’t until the second album, Just Be and his gig at the opening of the Summer Olympics in Athens that his worldwide commercial fame came. Tijs was asked by the officials of the The Athens Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (ATHOC) to play at the opening after they had seen his 2003 Tiesto In Concert-video. Rumour has it that he played for free as he thought this was lifetime opportunity to reach out to the bigger mass. The 90 minute gig was seen by 72.000 people in the audience, 15.000 athletes and millions of people in their tv-sofas worldwide.
The Summer Olympics-tracks were later mixed together and released as Parade of the Athletes.

The Just Be-album contained loads of gems like Love Comes Again (with BT), Traffic, Nyana, UR (with Aqualung), Just Be (with singer Kirsty Hawkshaw) and his version of Samuel Barbers classical track Adagio For Strings.

The result of Tijs hard work got him voted Best DJ from 2002-2004 by the readers of DJ Magazine. No DJ before him had got the no1 spot for 3 years in a row and he held the record until 2010 when Armin Van Buuren got voted Best DJ 4 times in a row.

A cool fact is that Tijs was dubbed Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 2004

In 2005, Tijs went on tour around most of central- and eastern europe, playing for 10.000-15.000 people at every stop. That’s not much when you compare to his 2005 gig at Sensation White in The Netherlands where he performed for over 45.000 people.
He also went on an US tour which later, in 2006 resulted in the mix-album In Search Of Sunrise 5: Los Angeles. The compilation was released at the 2006 Winter Music Conference in downtown South Beach, Miami.

Tijs was also 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

2007 saw the release of Tijs third album, Elements Of Life which is the most commercial of the albums so far. He teamed up with vocalist Christian Burns (from the band BBMak) for the track In The Dark, Maxi Jazz (from Faithless) for the single Dance4Life, JES for Everything and Julie Thimpson for Do You Feel Me. He also collaborated with BT for the tracks Bright Morningstar, Sweet Things, and BT also sung the vocals on the single, Break My Fall.

The album went very well in the charts and later gave Tijs a nomination for the Grammy Awards in 2007 for best electronic/dance album.

The fourth album, Kaleidoscope, released in 2009 was a step more into electro and house with collaborations with Calvin Harris, Sneaky Sound System, Cary Brothers and Nelly Furtado. The album went high in the charts worldwide and a few singles were released, like I Will Be Here, Feel It In My Bones and Who Wants To Be Alone just to name a few. The album was the first on Tijs new imprint, Musical Freedom which he started after parting with Black Hole Records as his new style wasn’t what Blach Hole usually released.

Kaleidoscope is IMHO the most boring album he’s done.

In 2010, Tijs released Magikal Journey: The Hits Collection 1998–2008, which contains all the classics that made him famous.

Worth noticing is that Tijs released the Allure-album, Kiss From The Past in 2011 which were a step back to his trancier side

Also worth noticing is his remix-work through the years which includes classics like

1999 BT – Dreaming
1999 Binary Finary — 1999 (as Gouryella)
2000 Salt Tank – Eugina
2000 SuReal — You Take My Breath Away
2000 Sarah McLachlan — Sweet Surrender
2000 Delerium — Silence
2001 Jan Johnston — Flesh
2001 Faithless — Tarantula
2001 DuMonde — Never Look Back
2001 Coast 2 Coast — Home
2001 Abnea — Velvet Moods
2002 Roc Project — Never
2002 Paul Oakenfold — Southern Sun
2002 Moby — We Are All Made of Stars
2002 Moby — Extreme Ways
2002 Mauro Picotto — Pulsar
2002 Lost Witness — Did I Dream
2002 Kosheen — Hungry
2002 Conjure One — Tears from the Moon
2003 Skin — Faithfulness
2003 Radiohead — Street Spirit
2003 Madonna — Die Another Day
2003 Kane — Rain Down on Me
2004 BT — The Force of Gravity
2006 Klaus Badelt — He’s a Pirate
2006 Tiësto — Dance4life
2006 José González — Crosses
2007 Imogen Heap — Hide & Seek
2007 JES — Imagination
2007 Justin Timberlake — LoveStoned/I Think She Knows
2007 Seal — The Right Life
2008 Cary Brothers — Ride

IMHO, Tijs glory days are over but i’m so glad that he left us some major classics so we can look back on the good old days with a huuuge smile.

Related tracks:
Tiesto – In My Memory (V-one Remix)
Tiesto – Suburban Train
Tiesto – Flight 643
Gouryella – Walhalla
Delerium feat. Sarah McLachlan – Silence (Tiesto’s In Search of Sunrise Remix)
Skin – Faithfulness (Tiesto Remix)
Coast 2 Coast – Home (Tiesto Remix)
Tiesto – Adagio For Strings
Tiesto & Kirsty Hawkshaw – Just Be (Antillas Club Mix)
Tiesto & Maxi Jazz – Dance4Life
Paul Oakenfold – Southern Sun (Tiesto Remix)
Kosheen – Hungry (Tiesto Remix)