Armin van Buuren is gearing up to give back to a music scene that champions him.
The Grammy-nominated Dutch producer, who was voted the world’s number one DJ by DJ Mag a record five times, will perform at Abu Dhabi’s du Arena on November 21. But first, he will shine the light on three budding trance talents from across the globe as part of CNN’s series, Ones to Watch.
“It’s cool to have an established brand like CNN actually pay attention to something that was really small back in the day, which is dance music,” van Buuren told tabloid! on Tuesday. “And now, to have such a primetime slot on the network — I think it’s amazing.”
The show aims to expose the hidden talents of the art world. Van Buuren’s choice talents to watch are Argentinean duo Heatbeat and Moldovan DJ Andrew Rayel. Both acts are currently signed onto his record label, Armada Music.
Part of his decision to select them came down to the “exotic locations” they came from.
“You wouldn’t expect, maybe, the next big thing in dance music to come from countries like Moldova, or Argentina — you’d maybe think it would be from the UK or the US,” he added.
During the episode, Matias Faint and Agustin Servente of Heatbeat wrap up their debut album and play to their fans for the first time in Buenos Aires. Meanwhile, 21-year-old Rayel prepares to open for van Buuren in Ibiza and finds out if he has what it takes to entertain 400,000 people at Belgium’s Tomorrowland festival.
“I’ve seen through my travels that these guys are really doing something new, something fresh, and they’re really adding something to the sound of the scene, which I think is really exciting,” van Buuren said.
The 37-year-old, who came onto the dance music scene in 1995 as a teenager, has found continued success over the decades of DJing and releasing music, with five studio albums to his name. He also holds the record of most entries onto the US Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart, with his latest hit, This Is What It Feels Like, making it into Billboard’s Top 100 and peaking at No. 4 on the UK’s Dance charts.
Despite his victories, however, he remains humble about his impact on the scene and the direction in which its heading in.
“I think, at the end of the day, I don’t decide where the sound is going. That’s totally up to the fans,” he said. The DJ has promoted and supported tracks in the past, “but if the fans don’t like it, that’s the end of the story.”
“At the end of the day, the listener and the clubber decides if a track is really well-received or not,” he added.
