Veteran club rocker Armin Van Buuren earned his stripes playing massive sets in his home country of the Netherlands, and worked his way up to be named number-one DJ worldwide three years in a row.
When Armin was a young man, he was inspired by French electronic musician Jean Michel Jarre and longed to become a great electronic composer—mission accomplished. After leaving his hometown for Leiden University to study law, his desire to make EDM earned him a slot at Club Nexus, a large venue near his school. Armin played multiple sets a week, most of which lasted six or more hours.
His first major success came in 1995 when he released a track called “Blue Fear.” He was 19 at the time. He honed his skills and released a few albums of compilation material until 2001, when he began to establish himself as an authority in the field of electronic music. His two-hour radio show A State of Trance would eventually attract roughly 25 million listeners in 26 countries.
Four successful studio albums and countless live shows later, Armin Van Buuren would be ranked at the top slot by DJ Magazine from ’07 to ’10. Since then, A State of Trance is well beyond 500 episodes, with milestones like 550 highlighted with live sets from London to Kiev.
