Martin Garrix

Martijn Gerard Garritsen (born 14 May 1996), known professionally as Martin Garrix and also as Ytram and GRX, is a Dutch DJ and record producer who was ranked number one on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs list for three consecutive years—2016, 2017, and 2018.

He is best known for his singles "Animals", "In the Name of Love", and "Scared to Be Lonely".

Garrix has performed at music festivals such as Coachella, Electric Daisy Carnival, Ultra Music Festival, Tomorrowland, and Creamfields.

Garrix was born as Martijn Gerard Garritsen on 14 May 1996 in Amstelveen, the son of Gerard and Karin Garritsen.

He has a younger sister named Laura.

He showed musical interest at an early age and learned to play the guitar at the age of 8.

In 2004, he expressed interest in becoming a DJ after seeing Dutch DJ Tiësto perform at that year's Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Athens.

He took particular inspiration from the track "Traffic", prompting him to download the specialist digital audio workstation FL Studio, enabling him to start producing.

He signed with Spinnin' Records in 2012, releasing "Error 404", a collaboration with Dutch DJ Jay Hardway.

In 2013, he graduated from the Herman Brood Academy, a production school in Utrecht.

Garrix was discovered by Tiësto, whom he described as inspirational, humble, and legendary.

He had his beginnings with the songs "BFAM", a collaboration with Dutch DJ Julian Jordan, and "Just Some Loops", a collaboration with TV Noise.

In the documentary What We Started, Garrix describes how he was discovered by the Dutch record label Spinnin' Records following the release of his remix for the Enrique Iglesias single "Tonight (I'm Loving You)".

In 2013, Garrix co-released "Torrent" with Dutch DJ Sidney Samson on Tiësto's Musical Freedom label.

Garrix gained fame through his solo release, "Animals", which was released on 16 June 2013.

The single became a hit in several countries in Europe, and allowed Garrix to become the youngest person to reach number one on Beatport.

The track appears on Dutch DJ Hardwell's album, Hardwell presents 'Revealed Volume 4'.

On 30 September, Garrix released a remix of "Project T" by Sander van Doorn and Belgian-Greek DJ duo Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike which quickly hit number one on the Beatport charts.

He appeared on DJ Magazine's top 100 DJs list in 2013 as a new entry at number 40.

In November 2013, Garrix signed a deal with American entertainment company Scooter Braun Projects, making Garrix the company's first EDM client.

The deal was split-worldwide management with MusicAllStars Management, sister company of Spinnin' Records, since Garrix was already signed to Spinnin' Records.

In December 2013, he released "Wizard" with Jay Hardway which peaked at number 6 in Belgium and number 17 in the Netherlands.

In 2014, he headlined the first edition of Ultra South Africa, making this his first major festival.

In the same year, he became the youngest DJ to headline 2014 Ultra Music Festival at the age of 17.

In 2014, Garrix collaborated with Dutch duo Firebeatz on "Helicopter" which reached number one on the Beatport Top 100 charts for two weeks.

He also produced the Sensation 2014 anthem, "Tremor", along with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike.

Garrix performed at Ultra Music Festival 2014, where he debuted several new and unreleased tracks, including collaborations with American DJ Dillon Francis, Hardwell, and Dutch DJ Afrojack.

In June, he collaborated with Dutch DJ Sander van Doorn and Canadian duo DVBBS on "Gold Skies".

This was his first vocal track which featured the singer Aleesia.

He also released the track "Proxy" for free download.

Most of these songs were featured on Garrix's debut EP, Gold Skies, which was released on 8 July 2014.

After the release of his debut EP, Garrix continued to collaborate with mainstream DJs.

The first of such collaborations being a song with Dutch DJ MOTi called "Virus (How About Now)", followed by a collaboration with Afrojack called "Turn Up the Speakers" which Afrojack and Garrix both premiered at Ultra Music Festival.

In 2014, he appeared on DJ Magazine's top 100 DJs list at number 4.

In 2015, Garrix experimented with progressive house and started producing progressive tracks aside from his signature big room sound.

On 6 February, he released the track "Forbidden Voices" as a gift to his fans after his Facebook page reached 10 million likes.

In February 2015, he released the single "Don't Look Down" featuring Grammy-winner Usher.

He also released two video versions for it on Vevo, "Towel Boy" and "Towel Girl".

He founded the label Stmpd Rcrds in 2016, months after leaving Spinnin' Records and before signing with Sony Music.

He was a resident DJ at Spain's Hï Ibiza (2017) and Ushuaïa Ibiza (2016 and 2018).