2012–2014: Spinnin' Records deal, "Animals", and Gold Skies Garrix was discovered by Tiësto, whom he described as inspirational, humble, and legendary. He had his beginnings with the songs "BFAM", a collaboration with Dutch DJ
Julian Jordan, and "Just Some Loops", a collaboration with TV Noise. In the documentary
What We Started, Garrix describes how he was discovered by the Dutch record label
Spinnin' Records following the release of his remix for the
Enrique Iglesias single "Tonight (I'm Loving You)". He signed with Spinnin' Records in 2012, releasing "Error 404", a collaboration with Dutch DJ
Jay Hardway. In 2013, Garrix co-released "Torrent" with Dutch DJ
Sidney Samson on Tiësto's Musical Freedom label. Garrix gained fame through his solo release, "
Animals", which was released on 16 June 2013. The single became a hit in several countries in Europe, and allowed Garrix to become the youngest person to reach number one on
Beatport. The track appears on Dutch DJ
Hardwell's album, ''
Hardwell presents 'Revealed Volume 4'. On 30 September, Garrix released a remix of "Project T" by Sander Van Doorn and Belgian-Greek DJ duo Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike which quickly hit number one on the Beatport charts. He appeared on DJ Magazine''s top 100 DJs list in 2013 as a new entry at number 40. In November 2013, Garrix signed a deal with American entertainment company
Scooter Braun Projects, making Garrix the company's first EDM client. The deal was split-worldwide management with MusicAllStars Management, sister company of Spinnin' Records, since Garrix was already signed to Spinnin' Records. In December 2013, he released "
Wizard" with Jay Hardway which peaked at number 6 in Belgium and number 17 in the Netherlands. In 2014, Garrix collaborated with Dutch duo
Firebeatz on "Helicopter" which reached number one on the Beatport Top 100 charts for two weeks. He also produced the
Sensation 2014 anthem, "
Tremor", along with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. Garrix performed at
Ultra Music Festival 2014, where he debuted several new and unreleased tracks, including collaborations with American DJ
Dillon Francis, Hardwell, and Dutch DJ
Afrojack. In June, he collaborated with Dutch DJ
Sander van Doorn and Canadian duo
DVBBS on "
Gold Skies". This was his first vocal track which featured the singer Aleesia. He also released the track "
Proxy" for free download. Most of these songs were featured on Garrix's debut EP,
Gold Skies, which was released on 8 July 2014. After the release of his debut EP, Garrix continued to collaborate with mainstream DJs. The first of such collaborations being a song with Dutch DJ
MOTi called "
Virus (How About Now)", followed by a collaboration with Afrojack called "
Turn Up the Speakers" which Afrojack and Garrix both premiered at Ultra Music Festival. In 2014, he appeared on
DJ Magazines top 100 DJs list at number 4.
2015: Collaborations and Spinnin' contract termination In 2015, Garrix experimented with progressive house and started producing progressive tracks aside from his signature big room sound. On 6 February, he released the track "
Forbidden Voices" as a gift to his fans after his Facebook page reached 10 million likes. In February 2015, he released the single "
Don't Look Down" featuring Grammy-winner
Usher. He also released two video versions for it on
Vevo, "Towel Boy" and "Towel Girl". The track was written by Garrix,
James 'JHart' Abrahart, and
Busbee. It peaked at number three on the
Billboard Dance Club Songs. In an interview with British media company
Digital Spy in early 2015, Garrix noted that Usher is a "humble" artist and a great collaborator to whom he can directly give input. Garrix also worked with multi-Grammy winner
Ed Sheeran on a track called "
Rewind, Repeat It" which he played at Ultra Music Festival in Miami in March 2015. On 4 May, he released a track with Tiësto, called "
The Only Way Is Up". On 22 May, Swedish DJ
Avicii released a lyric video of the song "
Waiting for Love" which was co-produced by Garrix. On 6 July, Garrix released the
Break Through the Silence dual single with Russian DJs
Matisse and Sadko, consisting of the songs "
Break Through the Silence" and "Dragon". On 31 October, he released a track titled "
Poison" as a promotional single. On 31 December, Garrix released "
Bouncybob", his final track of the year, for free which he had co-produced with Justin Mylo and
Mesto. On 26 August 2015, Garrix announced that he had left
Spinnin' Records and MusicAllStars Management due to a conflict over the ownership of his music. He also announced that he had filed a lawsuit against his then-manager Eelko van Kooten. He also went on to sue his manager, Eelko van Kooten, stating that he was told "false and misleading information" before signing with
Spinnin' Records. On 2 December 2015, Garrix reportedly settled with Spinnin' Records in their ongoing legal dispute over the ownership rights of his music. He released a statement confirming that he had withdrawn the summary proceedings after his former record label transferred the ownership rights of his music to him, granted that exclusive licence of all his tracks released before August 2015 will be retained by Spinnin' Records for an undisclosed period. However, Garrix also stated that their other outstanding disagreements will likely be the subject of further legal proceedings. Speaking about the label, he said that he wanted it to be a 'platform' for artists of various genres. On 11 March 2016, he released his first single via Stmpd Rcrds titled "
Now That I've Found You", featuring the vocals of
John Martin and
Michel Zitron. On 18 March 2016, he made use of his one-hour set to premiere ten new unreleased tracks at Ultra Music Festival, including collaborations with
Jay Hardway,
Julian Jordan,
Ed Sheeran,
Bebe Rexha,
Third Party, and
Linkin Park along with
Area21, Garrix's duo with
Maejor. On 27 May 2016, he released his second single "
Lions in the Wild" with British DJ duo Third Party. On 13 June 2016, Garrix released a promotional single titled "Oops" which became the
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 anthem. On 26 July 2016, it was announced that Garrix signed a worldwide contract with
Sony Music International. He explained that, "their forward thinking approach to streaming and incredible roster of talented artists combined with their passion and understanding for my vision of the future of my music made this a no brainer." On 22 August 2016, Garrix made his first-ever live performance of his own music, with Rexha on
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, accompanied by
The Tonight Show house band, The Roots. On 14 October 2016, Garrix announced on social media that he was releasing seven songs for seven days. Several of the released songs have been premiered during his performances at Ultra Music Festival and
Tomorrowland Belgium. The songs were uploaded onto his
YouTube channel as music videos with seven visual artists who live-painted their interpretations of each song. On 19 October 2016, Garrix was named the world's top DJ in ''DJ Mag's'' annual Top 100 DJs poll. Speaking to the press, he said "It feels unreal to have won. I 100 percent did not expect it at all. I've had an amazing year, with awesome shows and amazing fans – I'm so thankful for their support. I didn't even do a campaign, and it just shows how dope the fanbase is." It was announced that Garrix would co-star, alongside British DJ
Carl Cox in an
EDM-themed documentary titled "
What We Started". The documentary was directed by Bert Marcus alongside executive producer and music supervisor Pete Tong. The documentary was premiered on 15 June 2017 at the LA Film Festival. On 6 November 2016, Garrix won "Best Electronic Act" and "Best World Stage Performance" awards at the
MTV European Music Awards 2016. On 31 December 2016, Martin Garrix played "Scared to Be Lonely", featuring British singer
Dua Lipa, for the first time while headlining the stage at his first ever show in Myanmar. He released the song on 27 January 2017.
2017: Residency, modeling, legal victory and collaborations Garrix announced that he would be supporting Canadian singer
Justin Bieber on his
Purpose World Tour in Australia which began in March and at the '
Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Hyde Park' show on 2 July 2017. On 27 January 2017, he released "
Scared to Be Lonely", a collaboration with British singer
Dua Lipa. He performed the song with Lipa on
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in March before releasing two volumes of extended plays featuring twelve remixes. Garrix was announced as a resident DJ for the 2017 season at
Hï Ibiza, previously known as
Space Ibiza, a popular dance-music club owned by Ushuaïa Entertainment. He previously had a DJ residency at Hï Ibiza's sister venue,
Ushuaïa in 2016. On 7 April 2017, "
Byte", a collaboration with
Brooks, was released as a single. The song was previously debuted by Garrix during his 2017
Ultra Music Festival set in Miami. On 14 April 2017, Garrix debuted a collaboration with Australian singer
Troye Sivan, who later joined him on stage for their performance at the
Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival in California. The song title was "
There for You", as announced by Sivan on Twitter. The song was officially released on 26 May 2017. Garrix appeared as the face of
Armani Exchange in their Fall 2017 campaign, becoming one of the first few internationally recognized DJs to enter modeling. Armani Exchange announced it on social media, stating "the face of the new Armani Exchange Fall Winter 2017/2018 campaign: Martin Garrix" At the
Tomorrowland 2017 festival, Garrix debuted his YTRAM alias, which spells "Marty" backwards. He also premiered the song "
So Far Away", a collaboration with French DJ
David Guetta, who joined him on stage to perform it, as well as his first solo track in over a year, "
Pizza", which received an official release on 25 August 2017. Garrix was listed in
Forbes World's Highest-Paid DJs 2017 ranking with earnings of $19.5 million for 12 months prior to June 2017. Details of Garrix's collaborative unreleased song with Ed Sheeran, titled "Replay Rewind" or alternately, "
Rewind, Repeat It", was published on
ASCAP with Sony and
BDI listed as the publishers of the song. The track was not officially released. The song was premiered at the 2015
Ultra Music Festival in Miami and is regularly played by Garrix at music festivals. On 20 September 2017, a Dutch judge ruled in favor of Garrix who regained the rights to his music that were previously signed to Spinnin' Records and MusicAllStars, to have his contract permanently terminated. Garrix, who demanded €3.7 million from Spinnin' and €650,000 from MusicAllStars, said "All of (their) claims have been rejected by the court. The only remaining question is the amount to be repaid (to Garrix)." On 15 October 2017, Martin Garrix, under the alias GRX, collaborated again with Brooks to release the song "Boomerang". On 20 October, Garrix alongside Russian DJ's Matisse & Sadko release the song "Forever". In December 2017, he released "
So Far Away" with David Guetta, featuring Romy Dya and Jamie Scott. British singer Ellie Goulding was originally supposed to be featured on the song but her label prevented the release after it was previewed by Garrix at his Tomorrowland set.
2018: Closing the Winter Olympics, further collaborations and Bylaw On 23 February 2018, Garrix released his second collaboration with
David Guetta and his third with
Brooks with the song "
Like I Do". Two days later, he headlined the
closing ceremony of the
Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the
Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium in
South Korea. He was the closing act of the night, performing his newly released single as well as many others. His setlist is as follows: "Forever", "Together", "Animals", "Like I Do", and "Pizza". On 20 April 2018, Garrix released his collaboration with Loopers titled "
Game Over". On 15 June, he released the single "
Ocean", a collaboration with American R&B singer
Khalid. On 29 July, he headlined the
Tomorrowland Belgium 2018 music festival and released the single "
High on Life", a collaboration with singer Bonn, immediately after his closing set ended. On 30 July, the music video for "High on Life" was released which contained footage from his Tomorrowland set. Garrix was announced as a resident DJ at Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel, performing on Thursdays from 5 July to 30 August 2018. It was announced that he will be bringing guests to perform with him at the said venue. He was also scheduled to be the resident DJ at Hakkasan Nightclub, Omnia Nightclub, and Wet Republic Dayclub starting 2 August. On 10 August 2018, under his 'GRX' alias, he released the single "X's", a collaboration with Dutch DJ
CMC$ featuring Icona Pop. On 14 September, he released his collaboration with
Justin Mylo featuring
Dewain Whitmore Jr. titled "
Burn Out". The music video was released on the same day. It was announced on social media that Garrix was releasing five songs in five days, in a similar manner to the single releases of his
Seven EP in 2016. The songs are all part of the
Bylaw EP, and are: "
Breach (Walk Alone)" with Blinders, "
Yottabyte", "Latency" with
Dyro, "
Access", and "
Waiting for Tomorrow" with
Pierce Fulton featuring
Mike Shinoda. In the same month, Garrix performed at the
F1 Singapore Grand Prix. In October 2018, Garrix was ranked number one on
DJ Mags annual Top 100 DJs list, winning for the third time in a row. His first win in 2016 made him the youngest DJ to top the poll. The awarding ceremony was held onstage at the Amsterdam ArenA during the 2018 Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) where Garrix headlined. On 1 November 2018, he released the single "
Dreamer" featuring American singer
Mike Yung. He released his next single "Glitch", with long-time collaborator
Julian Jordan on 14 December.
2019: Headlining festivals and song leaks Garrix announced an upcoming collaboration with Bonn, titled "No Sleep". The single was released in February 2019, along with the music video. In February 2019, he performed at the
Ultra Music Festival Australia, a two-day festival held in Sydney and Melbourne. In March 2019, he headlined
Tomorrowland Winter, held in France, and Ultra Music Festival, held in Miami. On 18 July 2019, Garrix release the song These Are The Times featuring Jamaican vocalist JRM. In October 2019, Garrix lost his place as
number 1 DJ to Belgian DJs
Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, whom he beat to number one in 2016, after spending a consecutive three years at the top. Garrix finished the 2019 polls in second place. The next month, he announced on his Instagram account that he had ended his relationship of over three years with Dutch model Charelle Schriek. On 24 December 2019, Spinnin' Records won the appeal from the court ruling of the Higher Court of Leeuwarden, suggesting that Garrix did not have the right to break his agreement prematurely with Spinnin' and MusicAllstars Management. A few days after Spinnin' Records won the appeal, Martin's computer was hacked by an unknown assailant where the hacker stole and leaked a number of unreleased songs, including "
Rewind, Repeat It". {{quote box|width=33%|align=right|quote=I am delighted with the ruling of the Higher Court that we made valid agreements with Martijn at the time, which should have been respected. This statement confirms that the accusation of deception or fraud was unjustified. Even though I have since sold Spinnin' Records and MusicAllStars Management, those accusations were also aimed at me personally. I look back with pride on a successful collaboration with Martijn and wish him the best in his further career.
2020–2021: Touring pause and collaborations In February 2020, Garrix released the single "
Drown" featuring Australian singer Clinton Kane. For the 2020
King's Day celebrations in April, Garrix played a set from the rooftop of A'DAM Toren in
Amsterdam in place of the usual in-person festivities due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The next month, he released the single "
Higher Ground", featuring singer
John Martin. On 5 February 2021, Garrix released the single "
Pressure", featuring Swedish singer
Tove Lo. On the occasion of his 25th birthday, 14 May 2021, Garrix released "
We Are the People" featuring
Bono and
the Edge from Irish rock band
U2, which served as the official song of
UEFA Euro 2020. The trio performed the song as part of the tournament's virtual opening ceremony at Rome's
Stadio Olimpico, and Garrix also performed the song as part of a mix for the tournament's closing ceremony at London's
Wembley Stadium. Three further collaborations followed: "Love Runs Out" featuring
G-Eazy and
Sasha Alex Sloan, "Diamonds" with
Julian Jordan featuring
Tinie Tempah, and "Won't Let You Go" with
Matisse & Sadko and
John Martin.
2022–present: Sentio On 27 March 2022, Garrix released "Follow", a collaboration with
Zedd featuring guest vocals from
Emily Warren. A week later, he released the track "Limitless" with
Mesto. On the same day, Garrix announced his debut album,
Sentio, which was released on 29 April. All the songs on the album were listed in order of release date as singles. On 15 July 2022, Garrix released "Loop", a collaboration with
DallasK featuring vocals from
Sasha Alex Sloan. The track was first premiered during Garrix's set at
Ultra Music Festival earlier that year. Garrix reclaimed the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs title on 19 October, 2022, his fourth time winning the award. On 8 December 2022, Garrix released "Hero", a collaboration with
Jvke and the mobile card game
Marvel Snap. At the end of 2024, Garrix once again won the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs award, winning his fifth title, and tying
David Guetta and
Armin Van Buuren for the joint-most wins by a single DJ. The 1st of October of 2025, he was named the second-best DJ in the world by
DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs Awards, narrowly missing the top spot he held in 2024. The recognition marked a decade of uninterrupted podium finishes for Garrix, who has remained in the top three every year since 2015. ==Brand endorsement and modelling==