1996–1999: Early career and success In 1996, van Buuren released
EP and
Push on Timeless Records. van Buuren had his first success with a track called "
Blue Fear", which was released under the Cyber Records label in 1997. Another successful track, "
Communication", was released under the same label and became popular in
Ibiza, Spain in the summer of 1999. After being signed to
AM PM Records, this track entered the
UK Singles Chart at No. 18 in 2000. In the beginning of 1999, van Buuren started his label Armind together with United Recordings. The first release, Gig – "One", was well received. The second release, "
Touch Me" under the name Rising Star, was signed to
Ministry of Sound in the UK, before the record was released. By the time of his third release, Gimmick – "Free" was signed to
R&S Records. During this year, he remixed the first two singles of
Gouryella (
Gouryella and
Walhalla) and, under the guise of Rising Star, produced a remix of ''L'Esperanza'', a song by
Airscape.
2000–2004: 76 and A State of Trance series In 2000, Van Buuren started his own Armin van Buuren compilation series, a mix of
progressive house and
vocal trance styles of music. His first compilation album,
A State of Trance (not to be confused with his weekly
A State of Trance radio shows), sold 10,000 copies and contains van Buuren's remix of
Moogwai, "Viola". Teaming up with
Tiësto, two new projects were born: Major League – "Wonder Where You Are?" was released on
Black Hole Recordings and
Alibi – "
Eternity" was released on Armind. "Eternity" received club and chart success and was signed to
Paul van Dyk's imprint
Vandit Records. Another major collaboration followed this. Together with
Ferry Corsten, van Buuren recorded a
riff titled "Exhale" for the System F album,
Out of the Blue. Released as a single, this track reached Gold status. Under the pseudonym
Gaia he released "4 Elements" on Captivating Sounds, a sub-label of
Warner Brothers. His second album,
Basic Instinct featured a new track:
Perpetuous Dreamer – "
The Sound of Goodbye". This track entered the Dutch charts in June 2001 at number 26. Later in the year, the track hit No. 1 on the
Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The third album,
In Motion was released 6 August 2001. A fourth album,
Transparence, followed in 2002. In 2003, he worked with such artists such as DJ Seth Alan Fannin throughout a global tour on Dance Revolution in Europe, selling out to crowds of 20,000 people in the Netherlands. In March 2001, van Buuren started his own radio show on
ID&T Radio (traditionally broadcast in Dutch and later English since ASOT 183). In this weekly two-hour show, entitled
A State of Trance, he plays the latest popular trance music tracks, and publishes the artists and track titles on his website. When ID&T Radio changed genres in 2004, van Buuren moved
A State of Trance to
Fresh FM and later
SLAM!FM, two Dutch radio stations. It is now a weekly feature on
Radio 538, the Dutch radio station,
DI.FM, an online radio station, and on
XM Satellite Radio,
channel 52 in the United States and Canada. A complete list of stations that broadcast
A State of Trance can be found at the ASOT section of Armin's website. In 2002, he had a residency at Glow in Washington D.C., and played across North America. He regularly appeared at
Amnesia on the island of
Ibiza, Balearic Islands, Spain. In October that year, van Buuren was voted number 5 in the
DJ Mag. In June 2003, van Buuren celebrated the 100th episode of
A State of Trance at Bloomingdale,
Bloemendaal aan Zee, Netherlands and released his debut studio album,
76, a 76-minute album divided into 13 tracks. In the same year he was voted No. 3 in the
DJ Mag and held third place for the next two years (2004, 2005). Also in 2004, van Buuren remixed the
24 theme song into a trance hit.
2005–2006: Shivers 2005 On 2 June 2005, he celebrated the 200th episode of
A State of Trance at the
Museumplein of
Amsterdam. On 8 August 2005, van Buuren released his second studio album,
Shivers. On the album van Buuren worked with artists such as Pakistani-American singer
Nadia Ali, English singer
Justine Suissa and American trance duo
Gabriel & Dresden. On 25 May 2006, he celebrated with various artists the 250th episode of
A State of Trance at Asta,
The Hague, Netherlands. He was voted number two in the 2006
DJ Mag. On 17 May 2007, he celebrated with various artists the 300th episode of
A State of Trance at Pettelaarse Schans,
's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
2007–2009: Imagine Van Buuren was elected best DJ in the world in the 2007
DJ Mag edition. On 12 January 2008, van Buuren was given the "Buma Cultuur Pop Award," the most prestigious Dutch music award. On 17 April 2008, van Buuren released his third studio album,
Imagine. It features collaboration with singers such as
Jacqueline Govaert of
Krezip. The album debuted at number one on the
Dutch Albums Chart. The second single released from the album,
"In and Out of Love", featuring
Sharon den Adel from the band
Within Temptation, has spawned a music video that has been viewed over 304 million times on YouTube. Since the release of
Imagine, van Buuren has been working with
Benno de Goeij of
Rank 1 on solo productions and remixes. On 1 May 2008, he celebrated with various artists the 350th episode of
A State of Trance at Noxx,
Antwerp, Belgium. He was voted No. 1 in the 2008
DJ Mag again. He collaborated with his brother, guitarist Eller van Buuren, at
Together As One in Los Angeles, U.S., on New Year's Eve 2009, as well as on Armin's 2008 studio album
Imagine. His performance with his brother at Together As One was also the last event of his
Armin Only: Imagine world tour. To celebrate the 400th episode of
A State of Trance, he performed at three shows with various artists in April, 2009 at Club Butan,
Wuppertal, Germany,
AIR, Birmingham, United Kingdom and Maassilo,
Rotterdam,
Netherlands. Also in 2009, Foreign Media Games announced the production of
Armin van Buuren: In the Mix, a
music video game being produced in collaboration with Cloud 9 Music and van Buuren's Armada Music label. The title was released on 12 November 2010 exclusively for the
Wii console. He was voted number one DJ in the 2009
DJ Mag for the third consecutive year.
2010–2012: Mirage and appointment to the Order of Orange-Nassau On 3 March 2010, van Buuren was awarded with the
Golden Harp for his musical work and contribution to Dutch music, by
Buma/Stemra at the 2010 Buma Harpen Gala in
Hilversum, Netherlands. To celebrate the 450th episode of
A State of Trance, he performed with various artists at five shows across two continents. The locations were:
The Guvernment, Toronto, Canada on 1 April 2010,
Roseland Ballroom, New York City on 2 April and on 3 April again, Expo Arena,
Bratislava, Slovakia on 9 April and
Centennial Hall,
Wrocław, Poland on 24 April. On 23 June 2010, it was announced that van Buuren's fourth studio album,
Mirage was due to be released on 10 September. The first single "
Full Focus", was released through
iTunes Store on 24 June. The song peaked at number 60 in the Netherlands. One of the confirmed tracks from the album is a collaboration with English singer
Sophie Ellis-Bextor called "
Not Giving Up on Love", which was released as a single from Bextor's fourth studio album,
Make a Scene. Armin also wrote a song for English singer
Seal, but due to the release of his greatest hits album,
Hits, the collaboration never came together. On 12 September 2010, van Buuren launched "A State of Sundays", a new weekly 24-hour radio show aired on Sirius XM Radio. On 20 October 2010, van Buuren won the award for Most Popular International DJ presented by The Golden Gnomes. A week later he was announced, for the fourth year running, as the number one DJ in
DJ Mag. The 2010 edition of
Armin Only: Mirage kicked off in November 2010, in
Utrecht, Netherlands, and was followed by shows in
Saint Petersburg,
Kyiv, Buenos Aires,
Melbourne,
Beirut,
Poznań, Moscow and
Bratislava. '' show at the official pre-party, live from Club Trinity in
Cape Town on 17 March 2011 In March and April 2011, celebrating the 500th episode of his radio show, van Buuren performed five live shows along with various artists; the first was in
Johannesburg, South Africa at MTN Expo Centre, and the second in
Miami's
Ultra Music Festival. He then performed in
Argentina at
GEBA in Buenos Aires, followed by a large event at Brabanthallen in
Den Bosch, Netherlands which included more than 30 DJs from countries all over the world and was attended by over 30,000 people. The final show was held in Sydney on 16 April at
Acer Arena. In 2011, van Buuren was appointed Officer of the
Order of Oranje-Nassau for services to Dutch dance and music economy. That year he also received the
Key to (
Freedom) of
Leiden from the City Mayor, as well as being voted No. 2 in the 2011
DJ Mag. To celebrate the 550th episode of
A State of Trance, he performed with various artists on two different continents during fourth weeks. The show was called
A State of Trance 550: Invasion. The first event was celebrated at
Ministry of Sound in London on 1 March 2012. On 7 March, Moscow held the second event at
Expocentre.
Kyiv's show was performed at International Exhibition Centre on 10 March. On 17 March, as part of the
Beyond Wonderland festival in Los Angeles and on 25 March at the
Ultra Music Festival in Miami. On 31 March, the biggest and final edition of ASOT 550 took place in the Brabanthallen of
Den Bosch, Netherlands. On 19 October 2012, van Buuren was announced for a fifth non-consecutive year as the world's number one DJ according to
DJ Mag. To celebrate the 600th episode of
A State of Trance, van Buuren announced that he would perform with various artists all around the world in early 2013. The show was called
A State of Trance 600: The Expedition. It was announced that the show would tour the world, including stops in
Madrid,
Mexico City,
São Paulo,
Minsk,
Sofia,
Beirut,
Kuala Lumpur,
Mumbai,
Miami,
Guatemala City,
New York City, and
Den Bosch.
2013–2014: Intense The first single of van Buuren's fifth studio album,
Intense, titled "
This Is What It Feels Like", featured Canadian singer and songwriter
Trevor Guthrie, and was released on 5 April 2013. The single nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. The tour for the album,
Armin Only: Intense, was announced on 17 October 2013. 30 April 2013 saw the abdication of Queen
Beatrix of the Netherlands in favor of her son, King
Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who was sworn in and inaugurated that day, which was
Queen's Day as well. Van Buuren was the headline act in a performance to a live audience celebrating the King's crowning in Amsterdam. While he was performing live together with the
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the
Amsterdam Harbor on
Java-eiland, King
Willem-Alexander, Queen
Máxima and their three daughters made an unplanned visit on stage. On 19 October 2013, van Buuren was ranked number two DJ in the world by
DJ Mag. On 26 January 2014, Armin van Buuren attended the
56th Grammy Awards, in relation to his Grammy Award nomination for the single featuring Trevor Guthrie, "This Is What It Feels Like" in the category of
Best Dance Recording.
2015–2018: Embrace On 8 May 2015, van Buuren released the first single from his sixth studio album,
Embrace, which was released on 29 October 2015. The single is titled "
Another You" featuring
Mr Probz. Three weeks after releasing "Another You", van Buuren also debuted another remix from
Game of Thrones official theme which is originally made by composer
Ramin Djawadi. On 16 October 2015 he released the next single from
Embrace called "Strong Ones" featuring Cimo Fränkel. This was followed by the release of his collaboration with
Cosmic Gate "Embargo" on 22 October 2015. To accompany the album's release, van Buuren announced the return of the
Armin Only series of parties. This edition of the tour was titled
Armin Only: Embrace and took place throughout both 2015 and 2016. As the title of the tour suggests, it was based around the collection of music that he showcased on his new album. On 2 February 2017, van Buuren officially opened a new A State of Trance radio show studio in Amsterdam as part of his celebrations for the 800th episode of the radio show. The studio is located in the Armada headquarters. With the new accommodations made possible by the studio, he introduced a new segment of the radio show called Service for Dreamers where he invites fans to send in their favorite trance tracks that have a special meaning to them. Every week one track gets chosen to be featured live on the show and introduced by the fans of the radio show live, either by a walk-in, phone call, Skype or other means of contact. In 2017, van Buuren announced he will be releasing an online
MasterClass sharing his expertise in electronic music production. On 13 April 2017, Armin van Buuren performed at the Heineken stage in
Shanghai, in the first Formula 1 Festival along with
Angela Zhang. Van Buuren performed a seven-hour-long set at the Romania Untold Festival on 6 August 2018, clocking from 2:00 a.m. to after 9:00 a.m. This outlasted his previous 2017 ASOT performance, which had gone on for five hours.
2019–2022: Balance On 6 October 2019, van Buuren performed at
Republic Square, Yerevan,
Armenia as an opening act for the
World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT). On 25 October 2019, he released his seventh studio album,
Balance. In January 2021, van Buuren celebrated the 1000th episode of A State of Trance with a 7-day long livestream, where he, co-host Ruben de Ronde and monthly show resident
Ferry Corsten presented a list of the top 1000 songs played during A State of Trance radio shows, as voted on by listeners of the show. The livestream ran from January 14 to January 21, and the top song was
Shivers, from Armin's 2005 album. As has been done for previous radio show milestones, a major ASOT1000 festival was planned in
Utrecht, but due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, it has since been repeatedly delayed. The festival was held on March 4-5, 2023, by which point the weekly radio show have already surpassed 1100 episodes.
2023–2025: Feel Again and Breathe On 31 March 2023, van Buuren released his eighth studio album,
Feel Again. On 28 June 2023, he released the original film concert and documentary
This Is Me: Feel Again. On 12 January 2024, van Buuren released first part of his ninth studio album,
Breathe In. The full album,
Breathe was released on 27 June 2025, along with the second part of the full album
Breathe Out. The success of this release contributed to Armin van Buuren earning the fifth place in
DJ Mags Top 100 DJs ranking for 2025. On 31 October 2025, van Buuren released an acoustic piano album,
Piano. It features fifteen tracks of piano with string accompaniment, each recorded in a single take. ==Discography==