drumfire n : intense and continuous artillery fire [syn: cannonade]

Tiësto (; born Tijs Verwest () on January 17, 1969 in Breda, North Brabant, Netherlands) is one of the world's most famous trance DJs and producers in the electronic dance music scene. Although he has used many aliases in the past, he is best known for his work as DJ Tiësto. On his latest productions, however, he has dropped the "DJ" label and is now known simply as "Tiësto", an alias which is a twist on his childhood nickname. His accomplishments include being voted "World’s No.1 DJ " 3 consecutive times by DJ Magazine from 2002 through 2004, the first DJ to play live on stage in front of a public audience at an Olympic Games at the 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Athens, and a nomination for a Grammy Award in 2008, for his album Elements of Life.

Tiësto's motto is: "I feel the energy from the crowd and I try to give it back, to create a unity."

History

1985–2000: Early years

Tijs Verwest had an interest for music since the age of twelve. When he was twenty he decided to dedicate more time to it and 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 after his manager and friend Wilfred encouraged him. During these years, he produced hardcore/gabber tracks under aliases such as Da Joker and DJ Limited. 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. In the beginning of his career as DJ he mostly played new beat and acid house, and many Madonna songs because her music shows that she likes to dance. Before the release of her album there where already dancemixes like Vogue which was one of the songs of Spock. He was discovered by the General Manager of Rotterdam-based Basic Beat Recordings, Tiësto released his first of five mix CDs as a part of the label's Forbidden Paradise series.

In the mid-1990s, he started to produce trance,in 1997 he and Arny Bink co-founded Black Hole Recordings to support his work releasing a series of singles under various aliases. During this period, DJ Tiësto had been releasing the Magik series, which has had seven installments starting in 1997 and ending in 2001, after this Tiësto began releasing the In Search of Sunrise series, that is a compilation of Tiësto's mixes with tracks from other DJs. In 1999, Tiësto joined forces with fellow Dutch deejay Ferry Corsten to create the trance based duo of Gouryella. In 1999 he also played in a 12-hour set, being his longest lasting concert in Amsterdam.

2000–2004: Rise to fame

Late in 2000, Tiësto decided to concentrate on his personal work and left Corsten by himself to write and produce Gouryella's next single with John Ewbank, the record company was demanding more tracks and neither Tiësto or Ferry could work together at the time. Tiësto introduced Armin van Buuren, Johan Gielen and Ferry Corsten to the mainstream with his first compilations and the In Trance We Trust (series). Summerbreeze became Tiësto's debute DJ mix album in the United States with the help of a contract signed to Nettwerk. Tiësto decided to create a sub-label, known as Magik Muzik. The label began releasing Tiësto’s own releases, but it has also released tracks for The Filterheadz, Oliver Lieb, Mark Norman, Mojado, Phynn and Jes Brieden. The label became a trademark which stands for high quality electronic dance music which was due to the release of Tiësto's classic dance anthem "Flight 643" in 2001.

In My Memory

Tiësto's fame started to rise in the early 2000s after his set at the first ID&T Innercity party (Live at Innercity: Amsterdam RAI), and the release of In My Memory, his first solo album released in 2001 which contained 10 singles and 5 major hits; The singles from the album were: "Lethal Industry" which was actually produced in 1999 and had only 3 copies released at that time, the track was officially released in 2001 which was remixed by Richard Durand in 2006 along with "Flight 643" which was another leading single that was later adapted with vocals by Suzanne Palmer and released as "643 (Love's on Fire)". Other track were "Obsession" in which Tiësto worked along Junkie XL also know as Tom Holkenborg, the instrumental tracks "Dallas 4PM" and "Suburban Train" with "Urban Train" as it's B-Side which contained some vocals. The last singles to be released were "In My Memory" which is the title track for the album as it only received high ratings in the United States and the opening track "Magik Journey" which opened Tiësto in Concert (2003). On February 2 2002, Tiësto played nine consecutive hours during the second edition of the Dutch Dimension festival. On February 27 he was awarded a Zilveren ('Silver') Harp music award. The same year he also received a Lucky Strike Dance Award in the category Best DJ Trance/Progressive. In August he became part of Moby's Area2 Tour. For eighteen days he traveled through the United States with artists such as Moby himself, but also David Bowie and Busta Rhymes. After Junkie XL's chart topping success with the Elvis Presley remix A Little Less Conversation, Tiësto releases a remix of the Elvis track Burning Love, he is then nominated for a Dance Award by the UK's Muzik Magazine in the category Best Radio 1 Essential Mix. In January 2003 Tiësto received the annual Dutch Popprijs ('Pop Award') during the Noorderslag festival. After touring with Moby, Tiësto remixed two songs from him, We Are All Made of Stars and Extreme Ways in the same year, having "We Are All Made of Stars" reach #13 in the Hot Dance Club Play. In 2002 he released his first In Search of Sunrise mix to feature a place on its name, In Search of Sunrise 3: Panama.

Tiësto Solo In Concert

His fame 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. This concert was later called "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. It consists of 200+ minutes of performances with a second disc with special features, It includes a behind-the-scenes looking at The Making Of the event, the music video for his song "Traffic" and TV Commercials for the event. The second DVD has performance from Matt Hales from Aqualung and violin player DJ Mason, Micha Klein and the Bulgarian Children of Orpheus choir. During this period he was crowned as "No. 1. DJ in the World" by DJ Magazine (UK) in 2002, 2003, and 2004. In 2004 he released his second artist album Just Be, which featured his first single Traffic which is the first non-vocal track to reach number one spot in the Dutch national charts for 23 years. Tiësto and Kirsty Hawkshaw's production and single "Just Be" appeared in the Nip / Tuck: Original TV Soundtrack, and "Love Comes Again" was used in a Coca-Cola commercial in Holland. The track Sweet Misery was originally written for Evanescence but it did not meet the deadline for the release of their album. Tiësto's remix of the Kane song "Rain Down on Me" is featured in the game FIFA Football 2004. In support to his Just Be album, he played at Breda, Eindhoven, Utrecht, and Amsterdam, this stops were later named Tiësto - Just Be: Train Tour, this tour was not planned for people to know about it. On May 20, Ascension Day, when he got on the train in his hometown of The Hague to go to Breda, he was honored by the mayor and the citizens, he was then named an officer in the name of the royal family Orange-Nassau.

Olympics Opening Ceremony

The Athens Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (ATHOC) asked Tiësto to perform at the Olympic Games, making him the first DJ to play live on stage at an Olympic Games at the 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Athens for 90 minutes.

Tiësto flew to Athens in January 2004 to have a meeting with the ATHOC. The reason why they asked him to perform was because of his Tiësto in Concert DVD which caught their attention, he was asked to write more tracks based on his opening tune Adagio for Strings which could fit in with the Olympic spirit and combine the classical with the modern age; They also request him to play his own produced music. The first rehearsal was on Saturday 7, August for an empty stadium, the second rehearsal was on Sunday 8 with 35,000 volunteers, a lot of the people recognized some tracks like Traffic and Adagio for Strings. The last rehearsal included almost 60,000 people in the stadium which was on Tuesday 10, there were some technical problems, the mixer broke down, the monitors dropped out a couple of times and the music in the stadium was not continuously on the right volume.

<blockquote class="toccolours" style="text-align:left; width:30%; float:right; padding: 10px 15px 10px 15px; display:table;">"The opportunity to perform my music for billions of people around the globe will be the greatest highlight of my life, I am honoured to be part of the biggest sports event in the world."- said Tiësto about the ATHOC.

During the parade on Friday 13, all participating nations introduced their athletes which were over 10,500 in total and 80,000 in the public, only 75,000 knew about dance music. 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. The performance included new tracks produced especially for the Opening Ceremony and songs that were created to compliment the spirit and theme of the Ceremony. A condensed studio-recorded album of the songs played on the Olympic set was later released, including new songs especially composed for the occasion, 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. After some success an unmixed version was also released exclusively on iTunes, it featured full length tracks.

2005–2006: World wide popularity

In 2004 he began his touring across Latin America, with it he released In Search of Sunrise 3: Panama and gained influence from the sun and sand in summer, the tour continued in 2005 and Tiësto performed live at Brazil, Argentina, Panama, Peru, Costa Rica, and Colombia, In Search of Sunrise 4: Latin America was released in 2005, featuring a second CD for the first time in the ISOS series.

In January 6 Tiësto performed in an outdoor fundraiser in De Dam, Amsterdam, the event was free and many famous Dutch artists like Dinand Woesthoff, Bløf, Acda & De Munnik, Di-rect, Berget Lewis, Xander de Buisonjé and Trijntje Oosterhuis were involved in it to provide financial aid to the people who suffered from the tsunami in Asia. All profits made of all TV commercials and live broadcast were given to the organisations collecting the relief funds. On April 16 2005, Disneyland Resort Paris who had recently ignaurated the Space Mountain: Mission 2, had invited Tiësto to celebrate the launch of the ride by offering a live concert in Disneyland Park. Tiësto performed a special remix of the Space Mountain: Mission 2 soundtrack, as well as many of his own tracks. Tiësto's Space Mountain: Mission 2 Concert also featured French deejay Bob Sinclar, the park would re-open for Tiësto's fans so they could stay for the 3 hour concert. A sculpture of Tiësto was placed behind a turntable where Madame Tussauds visitors can mix Tiësto's music together with the man himself and he also won and Edison music award in the category Best Dance. The Dutch national soccer competition is the most viewed program on Dutch television, Tiësto is the first potential artist to become an inspiration to the programs directors which created a tune based on his performance in the Olympic Games. The tune "Match of the day" was played in all soccer stadiums before each match when the teams entered the field.

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 at 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. During 2005 he also made a small cameo appearance in the award-winning film It's All Gone Pete Tong as himself. He also contributed the song Goldrush to the PlayStation Portable futuristic racing game Wipeout Pure. BPM (magazine) has an annual poll in the United States which is unveiled in the WMC, in 2005 Tiësto took the No. 1 spot.

In Search of Sunrise 5: Los Angeles was released in 2006 which was certificated Gold in Canada for sales over 50,000 copies. It also charted, peaking #34 in Canada and #59 in Austria. The compilation was launched in the Winter Music Conference at Mansion, Miami South Beach, to support his release, Tiësto went to an Asian tour for more than 3 weeks in Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, China, Thailand, Taiwan, and Indonesia. On March 19 2006, the Formula 1 circus took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. During the international Grand Prix Tiësto played with the official Renault F1 team pit party. Tiësto prepared a 5 hour set the Saturday night before the beginning of the race on Sunday in which JES sang As The Rush Comes. On June 10, 2006 Tiësto gave a free open concert of the Volvo Ocean Race in Rotterdam which lasted 75 minutes. Walt Disney Pictures released Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and the soundtrack included the song He's a Pirate which Tiësto was asked to remix and produced a trance anthem as well as an orchestral remix with the original orchestral break. The Pirates Remixed contains the Tiësto remix, a Tiësto radio edit. The film opened in theatres nationwide on July 7, and the remix was released on July 4. The song later became the first single in Tiësto album Elements of Life which was included as a bonus track, the song charted #7 in the Hot Dance Club Play chart of Billboard and #5 in the Netherlands Dutch Top 40. In September Tiësto was diagnosed with pericardium, subsequently he had to cancel shows. In April 2006 Tiësto was named the official worldwide ambassador for the Dance4Life foundation promoting awareness of HIV/AIDS. DJ Tiësto, as the foundation's ambassador has helped the organization with fundraising along with recording the track "Dance4life", which marks the beginning of "Elements of Life", his future album at this time. The foundation consists on a better way of living with safe sex in exchange of entertainment to the young crowd. The song charted #1 twice in the Bulgarian Singles Chart and #3 in the Dutch Top 40.

2007–present: Elements of Life era

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 and on iTunes audio podcasts. On April 16 2007, Tiësto released his fourth studio album Elements of Life, the album moved 72,000 units in its April release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album consists of rock, trance and experimental music, which shows the style Tiësto has grown throughout the years since his previous albums which contained lyrics, In My Memory and Just Be. Producer Brian Transeau collaborated with Tiësto in three tracks, he composed "Bright Morning Star" and "Sweet Things", he also performed the vocals in the single "Break My Fall". Together, they produce more tracks which were not released in the album, Tiësto has mentioned they would work again during the coming summer. In support of the album, he embarked on his Elements of Life World Tour. In December 2007 it was announced that the album was nominated for a Grammy Award, in the category "Best Electronic/Dance Album." The album also received gold certifications in Belgium, Hungary, Netherlands, and Romania. In 2007, on his Elements of Life World Tour, which has shows across the world, South and Latin America brought some of the biggest crowds on his January and February South American leg of the tour. On January 7th, he played to an amazing 200,000 people in the streets of Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro. On February 16 2007 he played in India at the Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad. Though this show had a low turn out of only 5000, it was his first show in Asia. Tiësto's performance at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark on November 10 2007 was also sold out. On Valentine's day 2008, he performed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On January 10 2008, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf announced that Tiësto and his 19-year-old girlfriend Stacey Blokzijl are going to get married on October 10 2008. He proposed to her in December 2007 while they were visiting Mauritius. Until early 2006 Verwest had a relationship with the beauty contest winner Monique Spronk. The Elements of Life World Tour DVD was released in a party which was held on February 29 2008 from 8PM - 3AM in London at the IndigO2 club.

Side Work

With the successful release of Elements of Life Tiësto and fashion designer Giorgio Armani collaborated together on a limited edition Tiësto T-shirt available at Armani Exchange stores. His single "Sweet Things" comes with the shirt including an exclusive "A|X Remix" by Tom Cloud which shows the great influence Tiësto has in fashion culture. The charity raised over $300,000. Tiësto opened a new club-restaurant acquisition with Chinese cuisine, dance music and live entertainment on June 7, 2007 called Cineac. 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. It was later renamed "The Mansion".

thumb|left|200px|Tiësto in 2007 Streamline Studios, an independent game developer and digital content provider for AAA videogames and Black Hole Recordings have formed Streamline Sound, a joint venture which will provide sound solutions for digital entertainment including the entire catalog of Black Hole's artists. The first work that Streamline Sound has contributed is on the massively multiplayer online role-playing PC game Sword of the New World: Granado Espada with 17 12" tracks, Forza Motorsport 2 which includes Tom Clouds' track Told You So and Hoopworld.

Tiësto and Reebok introduced the new 'Tiësto shoe' in November 2007. The shoebox comes with a special limited-edition Tiësto & Reebok CD, containing the Elements of Life album and the bonus disc. Only 1000 pair units were available for sale in Netherlands. Previously Tiësto & Reebok had released "Run the DJ Tiësto", which consisted of another shoe release with Tiësto as one of the designers. He now owns a line of Reebok RBK shoes and was recently tapped by Microsoft to launch its new Vista operating system for the Dutch market, placing him on par with Robbie Williams, who performed a similar duty in the United Kingdom. The partnership includes a Vista application built especially for Tiësto, which had more than a thousand downloads from his website a day during its first week of availability. It has a Tiësto toolbar for sorting, a plug-in application which allows fans to be informed with the DJ in real-time and get live alerts on gigs, appearances and new music. Tiësto introduced the application at the Jan. 29 Vista launch event in Amsterdam. Tiësto announced he will be the resident at Privilege which is officially recognised by The Guinness Book of Records as being the largest club in the world. He will play in Ibiza every Monday, starting on the 7th of July until the 22nd of September. The gigs consist of four hour sets in the style of his In Search of Sunrise (series). In 2007 he had released In Search of Sunrise 6: Ibiza which was inspired by the island. The residencies will also feature the performance of guest deejays, all selected by Tiësto, such as Chris Lake, Andy Duguid, Mat-Zo, Cosmic Gate, Alex Kunnari and Sander van Doorn. There will be exclusive appearances by Fonzerelli, and Airbase. In the backroom of Privilege, Riley & Durant will present Electric Playground, supported by Galaxy FM.

In April 28, Tiësto released Elements of Life: Remixed, a recompilation of the Elements of Life album with all songs except "He's A Pirate" being replaced by remixed versions, and "He's A Pirate being replaced by "No More Heroes", a joint production with mute performer trio Blue Man Group. The song is a remake of the song 'Heroes' in his previous album Parade of the Athletes. In 2008, Tiësto announced his In Search of Sunrise: North American Summer Tour 2008, the tour will be presented by Armani Exchange on May 23rd and ending on July 4 at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on Friday 13, June and ETD Pop Festival in San Francisco. This tour is in support of his upcoming In Search of Sunrise (series) compilation, which is part of a sponsorship partnership, with exclusive apparel and a limited edition 3 CD set. An exclusive best of CD from the DJ’s own imprint Black Hole Recordings, called "10 Years of Black Hole Recordings" will be released later in the year. Armani will also sell an exclusive Tiësto branded tour T-shirt, and the artist will perform at three A|X in-stores during the tour. The tour is based on his previously released In Search of Sunrise 6: Ibiza and his upcoming In Search of Sunrise 7: Asia compilation.

<blockquote class="toccolours" style="text-align:left; width:30%; float:right; padding: 10px 15px 10px 15px; display:table;">"I integrate music from all over the world in my sets, harmony is what my music and life are built upon."—Tiësto. Due to the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games in August, New York’s Ultra Records announced on Friday it is a partner in Coca-Cola’s upcoming WE8 bottle campaign, a promotion that celebrates Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing as well as art and music. Eight musicians and eight artists were chosen, including Tiësto, to create tracks inspired by some specially designed Coke bottles. Tiësto produced a song inspired on "Global Harmony" and on Xiao Xue's design of the Coke bottle which is titled "Global Harmony"; This is not his first time to be involved with the Olympic Games or Coca-Cola, previously Tiësto participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics and also produced a song for Coca-Cola titled "Searching" which was used on a television commercial.

Discography

Studio albums

• In My Memory (2001)
• Just Be (2004)
• Elements of Life (2007)

Compilation albums

• Parade of the Athletes (2004)
• Parade of the Athletes (Unmixed) (2004)

Remix albums

• In My Memory - Remixes (2001)
• Just Be: Remixed (2006)
• Elements of Life: Remixed (2008)

Live albums

• Live at Innercity: Amsterdam RAI (1999)
• We Can Not Get Enough! Dance Valley #9 (2003)

Video albums

• Live at Innercity: Amsterdam RAI (1999)
• Underground Trance (2001)
• Another Day at the Office (2003)
• We Can Not Get Enough! Dance Valley #9 (2003)
• Tiësto in Concert (2003)
• Tiësto in Concert 2 (2004)
• Elements of Life World Tour (2008)

Tribute and cover albums

• Best & New 2005 (2005)
• Gouryella - Best of System F & Gouryella (Part One) (2005)
• Kirsty Hawkshaw's cover album "Meta-Message" (2005)
• Gouryella - Best of System F & Gouryella (Part Two) (2006)
• Tiësto: iTunes Essentials (2008)
• Kamaya Painters - The Collected Works (2008)
• 10 Years of Black Hole Recordings (forthcoming) (2008)

Awards and nominations

Tiësto was the first DJ to hold DJ Magazine's "No. 1. DJ in the World" title for the three consecutive years: in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Other honours include countless national and international best DJ awards, being named Officer of the "Order of Orange-Nassau" by the Dutch Royalty, and being voted by the Dutch people as their 40th greatest citizen of all time. In 2007, he was awarded with the national Dutch prize of the Golden Harp. Recently he had a nomination for a Grammy Award in 2008, for his album Elements of Life.

References

External links

• Official website