1994–2000: Early projects and success In 1994, he began releasing material on Noculan Records' sub-labels Chemo and Coolman. During these years, he produced
hardcore and
gabber tracks under such aliases as Da Joker and DJ Limited. ,
Ibiza, prior to performing at
Amnesia, July 2000 In late 1994, Tiësto signed to Basic Beat where he met Arny Bink, Tiësto released records on the sub-label Trashcan, founded by Arny, and later created the Guardian Angel sub-label with Arny in which they introduced the popular
Forbidden Paradise series. From 1995 to 1996 he released four extended plays on
Bonzai Jumps and XTC, sub-labels of Lightning Records. In 1997, he joined his friend Yves Vandichel on his sub-label, DJ Yves, a division of the now defunct Human Resource label XSV Music. In the fall of 1997, Bink and Tiësto decided to leave Basic Beat and create their own parent label,
Black Hole Recordings, Trashcan was discontinued and Guardian Angel continued releasing music until 2002. Through Black Hole, Tiësto released the
Magik series and also created two major sub-labels;
SongBird and
In Trance We Trust. From 1998 to 1999, he released music on Planetary Consciousness where he met
A&R Hardy Heller and invited him to release some records on Black Hole. The first Gouryella track, also called "Gouryella", was released in May 1999 and became a huge hit, scoring various chart positions around the world, including a top-15 position in the
UK Singles Chart. Tiësto showcased this track in
Magik Three: Far from Earth as well as in his set at the first
ID&T Innercity party (
Live at Innercity: Amsterdam RAI), his first major breakthrough. The next single, entitled "Walhalla", also made it on the charts worldwide, peaking at No. 27 in the UK Singles Chart. Released via Ferry's Tsunami label, both singles went on to be certified Gold on record sales. During these years, Tiësto also collaborated with
Benno de Goeij of
Rank 1 under the name
Kamaya Painters. In November 1999, he released the first installment of the
In Search of Sunrise series. Since then, he performed monthly as a resident at
Gatecrasher in
Sheffield, and played a 12-hour set, his longest, in
Amsterdam. On 31 December 1999, he performed at
Trance Energy 2000, a special party held by ID&T for the turn of the millennium. Together with
Armin van Buuren, Tiësto created two projects in 2000; Alibi – "Eternity", which was released on Armind, and Major League – "Wonder Where You Are?", on Black Hole. After the release of "Tenshi" in September 2000, Tiësto decided to concentrate on his solo work and left Ferry Corsten to take on the Gouryella project solely as his own. His fame continued to increase for then known he has 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 new. Tiësto was the first DJ to hold a solo concert in a stadium; on 10 May 2003, he performed for 25,000 people in
Arnhem's
GelreDome, later called
Tiësto in Concert. 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.
2004–2006: Just Be and appointment to the Order of Orange-Nassau 's
GelreDome, 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. 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, where he played for 90 minutes. In the liner notes, he noted the IOC requested that the music not contain any lyrics as they could be inadvertently misinterpreted. In late 2004, he began his touring across
Latin America, with his release of
In Search of Sunrise 3: Panama in which he gained influence from the sun and sand in summer 2002. The tour continued in 2005, and Tiësto performed live in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Panama, Peru, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia. Following the tours,
In Search of Sunrise 4: Latin America was released in 2005, featuring a second CD for the first time in the
In Search of Sunrise series. In 2005, his
Perfect Remixes Vol. 3 compilation was released through Warlock Records, containing ten tracks which were created during the beginning of his career, between those is
Junkie XL,
Mauro Picotto and
The Roc Project. On 20 August 2005, Verwest took
Tiësto in Concert to the US when he played to 16,000 at the
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena with
Cirque du Soleil dancers. 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. His four-city U.S. tour was postponed due to the hurricane damage in
New Orleans and
Miami.
BPM magazine has an annual poll in the US which is unveiled in the
WMC, in 2005 Tiësto took the No. 1 spot. The influences of
Los Angeles remained with him and would later influence his
In Search of Sunrise compilation. A wax sculpture of Tiësto was placed behind a turntable at
Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam where visitors can mix Tiësto's music together. Stops were made in Ukraine, Slovakia, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Croatia, Poland and South Africa. 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
Amsterdam. The compilation was launched in the
Winter Music Conference in
Miami Beach to support his release, Tiësto went on his
In Search of Sunrise 5 Asia Tour for more than three weeks. In September 2006, Tiësto was admitted to hospital after experiencing pain in his chest. He was diagnosed with
pericarditis and subsequently had to cancel a number of shows. With the diagnosis, he was invited to support
Dance4Life to help teens who are not aware of the risks of
HIV/AIDS.
2007–2008: Elements of Life , 2007 On 6 April 2007, Tiësto began presenting a new weekly two-hour radio show called ''
Tiësto's Club Life on Dutch radio station Radio 538. Ten days later, Tiësto released his third studio album Elements of Life. The album moved 73,000 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 Morningstar" and "
Sweet Things", and performed the vocals in the single "
Break My Fall". Together, they produced more tracks which were not released in the album, Tiësto has mentioned they would work again during the coming summer. On 28 April, he released
Elements of Life: Remixed, a recompilation of the
Elements of Life album with all remixed versions. In mid-2008, Tiësto announced his
In Search of Sunrise: Summer Tour 2008, which was presented by
Armani Exchange in May in support of his
In Search of Sunrise 7: Asia compilation In its first week, the album reached the Top 10 chart on
iTunes. To release the album he set up a new record label called Musical Freedom after parting ways with
Black Hole Recordings. Tiësto felt that his music was evolving in a new direction and his focus as an artist was moving away from what Black Hole was set up to support. His new tour, sharing the name of his new album, called
Kaleidoscope World Tour commenced in late September. On 16 March 2010, he released a greatest hits album,
Magikal Journey: The Hits Collection 1998–2008, a two disc album focusing on his most famous songs and remixes of his songs. On 7 April, he announced that he would start a new compilation series called
A New Dawn with his own label Musical Freedom. In his interview Tiësto furthermore confirmed that he would no longer have any more involvement with Black Hole Recordings. On 31 August,
Kaleidoscope: Remixed was released, a remix album of his album
Kaleidoscope. Also in 2009 and 2010, Tiësto contributed songs to both the
DJ Hero and
DJ Hero 2 video games and is a playable character in the second game. He also produced a trance-flavored song for Memphis rap duo
Three 6 Mafia's album called "
Feel It", which features
Sean Kingston and
Flo Rida. On 4 April 2011, his mix compilation
Club Life: Volume One Las Vegas was released. On 13 June, his final trance studio album,
Kiss from the Past, was released under his alias Allure, and featured
Christian Burns,
JES, and
Emma Hewitt. In March 2012, satellite radio broadcaster
Sirius XM launched Tiësto's Club Life Radio, one of five dance/electronic stations on the platform. Programming was "curated by Tiësto himself". The station ran until 2017.
2013–2018: Club Life and A Town Called Paradise Club Life: Volume Three Stockholm was released worldwide physically on 25 June 2013 and it hit No. 16 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart. He followed up his third "Club Life" installment with the 2014 effort,
A Town Called Paradise. The album featured an assortment of guest stars and was preceded by two singles, "
Red Lights" and "
Wasted" – yielding his first two gold singles in the U.S. A medley from the album also soundtracks a presentation at the
Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas, a first for a dance music artist. In a 2014 interview with
DJ Magazine, Tiësto revealed why he left trance music. When asked whether his decision to leave the genre was influential to his popularity in the United States, the Dutch producer said: "Maybe, it's hard to say. I think I'd still be the 'Tiesto trance guy' but the difference is you're not really being relevant. Some of the old trance guys still have their following but it doesn't feel like anybody really cares – and that's the biggest difference. It's nice to be in touch with the new kids who are coming up – the 16 and 18-year olds who are producing house music see me as kind of a godfather, and it's really cool to be in touch with them. I think if I'd still been a trance DJ, they'd have been so disconnected with that sound that I wouldn't be much inspiration for them, and vice versa." In 2015, at the
57th Annual Grammy Awards, he won the
Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical for his remixed version of
John Legend's hit "
All of Me". He appeared in the 2016
Grammy-nominated documentary film about American DJ and producer
Steve Aoki, titled ''
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead''. On 14 January 2017, Tiësto was awarded the key to the city of
Las Vegas. The day is now known as "Tiësto Day" in
Clark County, Nevada. He was featured in the 2017 documentary starring
Carl Cox and
Martin Garrix, titled
What We Started. On 6 October 2017, the fifth installment of the Club Life series entitled
Club Life, Vol. 5 – China was published. The compilation album features tracks by
John Christian, SWACQ, Tiësto and Z.Tao, and collaborations between Tiësto and
Aloe Blacc, John Christian,
Dzeko,
Diplo,
KSHMR, Talay Riley, Sevenn,
Stargate, SWACQ and
Vassy. In March 2018,
Billboard named Tiësto as number eight on their 2018 ranking of dance musicians titled Billboard Dance 100. On 30 March 2018, Tiësto released his debut EP titled
I Like It Loud, featuring four songs that are collaborations with artists such as
John Christian,
Mesto,
Matisse & Sadko and
MOTi.
2018–2020: The London Sessions , 2019 On 2 July 2018, Tiësto released with
Dzeko,
Post Malone and
Preme a track titled "
Jackie Chan". On 31 May 2019, Tiësto released with
Rita Ora and
Jonas Blue a track called "
Ritual". On 14 June 2019, Tiësto released his remix of
Avicii's posthumous "
Tough Love". On 7 May 2020, Tiësto announced his seventh studio album
The London Sessions; it was released 15 May 2020. The album features the previously released singles "Jackie Chan", "Ritual", "
God Is a Dancer", "
Blue" and "
Nothing Really Matters".
2020–present: Drive and Prismatic On 25 September 2020, Tiësto released the song "
The Business". On 21 January 2021, Tiësto released a remix version of the song titled "The Business, Pt. II" featuring American rapper
Ty Dolla Sign. On 28 May 2021, Tiësto released his remix of
Ben Platt's "
Imagine." Later that year, he released "
Don't Be Shy" with
Karol G on 12 August, "
The Motto" with
Ava Max on 4 November, Savage with
Deorro and a remix of No Mienten and You got the Love by
Becky Hill. On 30 June 2022, Tiësto released "
Hot In It" with English singer
Charli XCX. The track was previously teased by Charli XCX and Tiësto multiple times on
TikTok. On 7 October 2022, Tiësto released a remake of
Black Eyed Peas song "
Pump It" called "Pump It Louder". On 3 November 2022, Tiësto released "
10:35" with
Tate McRae. On 6 January 2023, Tiësto released "Lay Low". On 9 March 2023, Tiësto officially announced his new studio album called
Drive, along with the release of his single "All Nighter". The album was released on 21 April 2023. On 11 February 2024, Tiësto was scheduled to perform at
Super Bowl LVIII in
Las Vegas both before and during the game, which would have made him the first DJ to perform throughout the Super Bowl. However, he canceled his performance due to a family emergency and was replaced by
Kaskade. In January 2025, Tiësto released the extended play Prismatic: Pack One, which featured collaborations with
Oaks, Jordan Shaw, and Alex Mills. In March 2025, it was announced that Tiësto would premier a new "
In Search of Sunrise" set at EDC Las Vegas 2025. In April, the 2025 Formula 1
Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix promoted an entertainment lineup to include Tiësto,
Pitbull, Kygo and Kaskade. On 19 December 2025, Tiesto delivered a three and a half hour concert at the
Giza Pyramid Complex, Egypt on a circular stage in the Pyramids Arena with his Prismatic show . The show featured 8 new IDs and many familiar pieces of the veteran DJ. DJ Tiesto uploaded the Pyramids set to his YouTube channel. Tiesto also recently performed at
Coachella 2025. On 27 December 2025, he ended his radio show
Club Life after 978 episodes. He later announced that a new radio show,
Prismatic, that features music from his previous iteration that made him famous: trance and progressive. The new show was launched on 2 January 2026. In late 2025, Tiësto signaled a broader return to his trance roots, a shift noted by electronic music publication DJ Mag. The transition included a revival of visual elements associated with his early career and a renewed focus on trance-oriented sounds. == Income ==