Armin van Buuren releases mini-documentary to celebrate 10 years of ‘This Is What It Feels Like’

As we approach the anniversary of one of his greatest career achievements, Armin van Buuren is giving fans an exclusive in-depth look at the birth of one of dance music’s most memorable songs.

Released ten years ago, “This Is What It Feels Like,” is still to this day one of the most successful songs from Armin van Buuren. Created together with former member of Soul Decision, Trevor Guthrie, it ushered in a new era for the trance legend as it explored a sound he had never commercially released before. And now, as we celebrate its ten-year anniversary, van Buuren has released a mini-documentary detailing the story behind the iconic song.

The 12-minute short goes into detail, not just about the origins of the song but also the idea behind the music video. Armin van Buuren explains how he and Guthrie came to work together on the track, along with Guthrie detailing how he wrote the lyrics to the song. Also featured in the video is van Buuren’s manager, Maykel Piron giving his first reactions to hearing the track. The video then goes back to December 2012, where we are given a behind-the-scenes look during the shooting of the music video. It’s here that we see how the idea of a ‘Fast and Furious’ style video came to life and even get never before seen footage of van Buuren and Guthrie off-camera. We are also given insight from the director of the video, Svenno Koemans, and the creative director, Sander Reneman. Towards the end of the documentary, van Buuren teases his 2023 rework of the song and claims it will first appear at Ultra Music Festival this weekend.

“I finished my album ‘Mirage’ in 2010. I did a tour for that one. I had an amazing career. My radio show reached episode 500. This is probably a good moment just to try something else, I mean as much as I love trance music, I still do, but I felt like I wanted to express myself in a different way so, I still remember to this day when ‘This Is What It Feels Like’ came out and everything changed after that.” – Armin van Buuren, “This Is What It Feel Like” documentary

“This Is What It Feel Like” is still van Buuren’s second most streamed song of his career, with over 200 million streams. It earned him his first Grammy nomination and his first platinum plaque in the United States, all while rising to the #1 spot in 31 countries. It’s no question the impact it had on his career and dance music as a whole, as it stands the test of time to this day.

It goes to show that one song can truly change the world.

Watch the full mini-documentary celebrating the ten year anniversary of Armin van Buuren’s “This Is What It Feels Like” with Trevor Guthrie below.

Image Credit: SNDR / Provided by Armada PR