Martin Garrix

About Martin Garrix

Martin Garrix started making electronic music in his bedroom in Amstelveen, Netherlands when he was eight years old. His real name is Martijn Gerritsen, and like most producers who eventually headline festivals, he spent his early teens figuring out how to use production software instead of doing whatever else teenagers do.

He broke through in 2013 with "Animals," a big room house track that essentially took over every festival and club that year. The song hit number one in multiple countries and became one of those rare electronic tracks that people who don't listen to electronic music still recognize. He was seventeen when it dropped, which made him both very successful and very young to be very successful.

What followed was the predictable trajectory of a teenage producer who suddenly has the entire dance music industry's attention. He collaborated with Tiësto on "Red Lights," worked with Afrojack, and generally became part of the Dutch electronic music establishment that had been dominating the scene for years. The tracks were big, loud, and designed for massive crowds. "Wizard" with Jay Hardway and "Gold Skies" with Sander van Doorn and DVBBS kept him firmly in the festival circuit through 2014 and 2015.

Then he started broadening out. "Scared to Be Lonely" with Dua Lipa in 2017 showed he could work in more pop-leaning territory. "There for You" with Troye Sivan did something similar. These weren't just EDM bangers with a vocalist pasted on top—they were actual songs that functioned outside of a festival context. He also worked with Bebe Rexha on "In the Name of Love," which became one of those crossover hits that lives on Spotify playlists forever.

His business side got messier around this time. He had a legal dispute with his former label Spinnin' Records that dragged on for years and involved arguments about contracts he signed as a minor. He eventually won, but it meant he spent a significant chunk of his early twenties dealing with lawyers instead of just making music.

He founded his own label, STMPD RCRDS, which has released his music and given him more control over his career. Recent years have seen him continue the pattern of big collaborations—he's worked with everyone from David Guetta to Macklemore to U2's Bono and The Edge on "We Are the People," which was the official song for the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament.

These days he's essentially electronic music establishment himself, the same way Tiësto and Armin van Buuren were when he was coming up. He still headlines major festivals, still releases tracks that do well on streaming platforms, and still represents a particular strain of accessible, commercially successful dance music. He's in his late twenties now, which in electronic music years means he's been around long enough to have influenced the next wave of bedroom producers.

Garrix's shows are methodical rather than frantic. He reads the room carefully, building tension over long stretches. The crowd tends to be patient with him in a way they aren't with everyone—they know something's coming and they wait for it. His production values are slick, his transitions clean.

Known for Animals, Scared to Be Lonely, There For You, Citadel, Forbidden Voices

See Martin Garrix Live