SouthFlorida.com | City Link Magazine

Every musician has his own measure of success. Tiësto has several, but the Dutch electronica artist enjoys a major claim to fame as the first DJ to officially rock the Olympics.

During the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece, Tiësto kicked off the opening ceremonies with two hours of dance music, spinning blaring orchestral beats beneath the unlit Olympic cauldron as the athletes danced their way into the arena. It was a glorious moment not only for the DJ but for dance music itself.

While Tiësto pumped the bass for an international crowd that included British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Queen Sofia of Spain and Prince Frederik of Denmark, his proudest moment was when the team from his home country paraded before him. "The point when the Dutch team was passing by was amazing," Tiësto recalls, answering questions by e-mail while vacationing in Tel Aviv, Israel, before several major upcoming gigs, including Saturday's Ultra Music Festival in Miami. "They were all dancing and partying in front of the DJ booth, and the security people had to take them away because they caused a big delay in the parade of the athletes."

At this point, major gigs are commonplace for Tiësto, who was voted the No. 1 DJ in the world for 2002 and 2003 by the readers of DJ magazine. And he makes sure his audiences get their money's worth. At one show in the Netherlands last year, 25,000 people danced to Tiësto's music for an astounding nine hours.

"I took one month to prepare for that show," he says. "I had to produce a lot of new tracks and listen to a lot of new music and had to be totally involved in the whole production. But coming out onstage and seeing that many people was really thrilling for me, a real adrenaline rush that all those people were there especially for me."

Tiësto must surely be getting used to this feeling. "I think it's the combination of the music I play that attracts the crowds," he explains. "I play various kinds of house music, like trance, techno and progressive, and the different styles attract many different people."

His blend of styles will be showcased in April, when he'll perform at the grand opening of Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris. The three-hour show will see him put what he calls a "Tiësto twist" on a remix of the Space Mountain: Mission 2 soundtrack. He'll also perform his own songs, with fireworks and lasers exploding and flashing around him on a stage he is helping to design.

Many of the songs Tiësto performs that night will hail from his latest album, Just Be, which features a combination of anthemic beats and romantic flourishes from guest vocalists including Aqualung, Kirsty Hawkshaw and BT. The singers add a cool flourish to some of the tracks, such as Aqualung's floating lilt on "Ur." In seeking out collaborators, Tiësto looks for artists who command a sense of wonder in any setting. "Vocalists can be very good studio singers but really bad stage singers," he explains. "I'm always looking for vocalists who are good in the studio as well as onstage."

Born Tijs Verwest, Tiësto began DJ'ing in 1985. He developed his talent by mixing and producing in his home studio, then started playing out. "When I began DJ'ing in a small club in my hometown," he remembers, "I played six-hour sets every night. This let me really develop the style. Because the shows were so small, there was a close interaction between me and the crowd." Although his popularity soared in the late '90s, he did not evolve out of the rave scene, as many of his contemporaries did.

In about 1997, Tiësto's name began spreading throughout the Netherlands. Several years later, he was asked to remix a track for Sarah McLachlan titled "Silence." Released in 2000, the mix was a huge international hit, spending four weeks in the British Top 10 and peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard dance charts here in the States.

From there, he became the toast of the dance scene, even earning the respect of star DJ Paul Oakenfold, who began placing Tiësto on his mix albums and playing his songs at his concerts. At one Oakenfold show in England with an audience of 50,000 people, the DJ spun Tiësto's version of "Silence" -- twice. The crowd went into a frenzy upon hearing it. Tiësto recalls thinking, "Wow, that's me I'm hearing." At that moment, he knew he had made it.

As the remixer of the moment, he has declined many opportunities, including the chance to remix a U2 song. However, he did work with the Dave Matthews Band and Moby.

Over the past several years, Tiësto has performed on Moby's Area 2 tour and at the Coachella festival in Indio, Calif. He has also founded two record labels, Black Hole Recordings and Magik Muzik, which highlight the work of his favorite up-and-coming DJs.

"I started Black Hole with a good friend of mine, who at that time was working for another record company," Tiësto says. "Together, we had the feeling that we couldn't release the type of music we wanted, so we started our own record company. On Magik Muzik, all the music released is my own or tracks I often play in my sets. This way, I can make the music I play reachable for the people."

With live shows, recordings and special events, Tiësto will continue to seek new audiences. Last month, he posed for photographers and sculptors who will create a figure of him for Amsterdam's version of Madame Tussauds wax museum. The sculpture will stand behind a turntable, and visitors will be able to mix Tiësto's music on the spot.

Yet even after receiving such major ego strokes as gigging at the Olympics and being cast in wax, the DJ is still looking for bigger and better things. "I keep on searching for new opportunities to amaze people with the things I do," Tiësto says matter-of-factly. "I will assure you that there are new, exciting things coming."

Tiësto will perform Saturday at the Ultra Music Festival at Bayfront Park in Miami. For details, see page 27. He'll also spin Thursday at Club Space, 34 N.E. 11th St., in Miami. Doors will open at 9 p.m., and tickets cost $46. Call 305/375-0001 or visit www.wantickets.com.