Relive Armin van Buuren’s most ‘Intense’ year

As we eagerly await the release of Armin van Buuren‘s A State Of Trance Year Mix, here at We Rave You we’ve decided to warm up and honour the trance icon by going back to one of the most ‘Intense‘ years in his career, 2013.

After reaching the 500th episode in 2011, Armin started 2013 by celebrating the A State of Trance 600th episode in Madrid (Spain) with the A State of Trance 600 – The Expedition World Tour that would go along stopping at other amazing cities including Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Beirut, Kuala Lumpur and many more before finishing in Den Bosch. Following up on this, Armin, together with the Royal Orchestra, had the pleasure to be the artist who performed at the crowning celebration ceremony of the new king Willem-Alexander and queen Máxima of the Netherlands.

Shortly after, Armin van Buuren released his new album titled ‘Intense’, which in the artist’s own words was about ‘moments of extreme joy or sadness’. It was clear that some tough situations as well as true happy moments like the birth of his two kids, his daughter Fenna and then the announcement of his son Remy, left a stamp on this compilation. This LP brought to life truly spectacular songs, some of which have gone on to become trance anthems like the album starting track ‘Intense‘ and ‘This Is What It Feels Like‘. The release was a huge success and the summer was simply a big celebration, as Armin van Buuren established himself in Ibiza with a massive summer ASOT residency at Privilege Ibiza that had attendees buzzing week after week. Finally, in October Armin announced he’d be bringing back the Armin Only shows after a 3-year break with a massive Armin Only Intense world tour that would keep him busy for the rest of the year and part of 2014.

On this day today 6 years ago, Armin decided to wrap the year up releasing the ultimate playlist with his personal selected Top 20 tracks of 2013. In it you could find tracks of his own album like the previously mentioned tracks ‘Intense’ and the W&W remix of ‘This is What It Feels Like’. He also included his collab with Markus Schultz for the official anthem of ASOT 600 ‘The Expedition’, his new collab with W&W ‘D# Fat’ and songs from other icons like Orjan Nilsen‘s ‘Violetta’. At the same time, he gave visibility to his Armada label artists featuring tracks from Alex M.O.R.P.H, Fihserman & Hawkins with their unreal bummer ‘Apache’, ‘Boom’ by MaRLo or ‘Dreams’ by the fast-rising talented producer Andrew Rayel.

Overall, this vast selection of amazing trance music perfectly sums up how amazing that year was for him. However, what is even more incredible is that 6 years later Armin is still able to maintain and even level up the quality of his sounds, shows and label.

Relive Armin van Buuren’s Top 20 tracks of 2013 below: