APRIL 2014
DJ TIMES 12
Miami Beach, Fla. – It’s the week before Christmas and I pile into an SUV with Armin van Buuren and crew at the Fontainebleau Hotel. Before we know it, we’re streaking north up I-95, discussing van Buuren’s whirlwind year. Like many of his recent professional escapades, this trip will represent another first for the mega-popular DJ/producer, but it’s also the culmination of a previous 12 months unlike any other. The destination? The Y100 Jingle Ball at the BB&T Center, a 20,000seat hockey arena in very suburban Broward County, 35 miles away from South Beach. As one of 12 stops on Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour, the event would see van Buuren sharing a concert stage with the year’s biggest hitmakers—Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, Robin Thicke, Enrique Iglesias, Jason Derulo, etc. And with his international smash— the Trevor Guthrie-fronted “This Is What It Feels Like”—still burning up radio, van Buuren finally had joined fellow DJs like David Guetta and Calvin Harris as a bonafide hitmaker himself. This would be another big night, but for an audience completely
