Amid changing tides, DJ Armin van Buuren still on top

Armin van Buuren has done surprisingly well for himself of late.

After years at the top of the electronic-music pecking order with his distinctively uplifting trance sounds, the sudden arrival of the EDM juggernaut posed a major threat to the Dutchman’s sonic empire, as the harder electro-house basslines of Swedish House Mafia and dubstep drops of Skrillex lured a new generation out of their bedrooms and onto the dance floor.

When van Buuren was knocked off pole position in DJ Mag's Top 100 list last year after topping the chart for five of the previous six years – the crown taken from the 37-year-old by his 26-year-old countryman, Hardwell – it looked like the beginning of the end. When this year he slipped to third place, his lowest rank since 2005, many presumed the Dutchman's days were well and truly numbered.

But AvB, as he's known to fans, has smartly repositioned himself amid the changing tides. Last year's This Is What it Feels Like channelled a polished EDM sound and a windswept MTV-ready video, scoring van Buuren his only US chart hit to date.

This month, he appeared on CNN's new reality-TV DJ hunt Ones to Watch as the show's ceremonial "DJ master".And last week saw the CD release of the anthology Armin Anthems, neatly tying up his legacy and introducing his key themes to new young fans of the genre. It's almost as if he was aiming to position himself as the elder statesman of all Electronic Dance Music.

That is not a bad idea when you consider that many assumed EDM would be what finally laid his beloved trance to rest. Aesthetics aside, the genres occupy the same spiritual territory – huge, euphoric, largely instrumental productions, constructed to translate to festival-sized crowds. And they share the same industry territory – before EDM, it was trance that most serious house and techno DJs regarded as frivolous immature music for the masses, lacking in sophistication.

So perhaps it is only right that AvB should position himself as EDM's spiritual godfather. He remains trance music's most prominent spokesman. His long-running radio show A State of Trance is a key outlet for new releases in the genre – in an interview, van Buuren once boasted to me that listeners were guaranteed to hear "70 to 80 per cent" of the tunes that mattered in trance by tuning in.

And while other superstar DJs, such as David Guetta and Calvin Harris, have built a roster of hits by working with chart R&B stars, van Buuren generally avoids celebrity collaborations, instead staying largely true to his trance roots.

But whatever his heritage in the electronic music world, there’s no denying a few heads turned when it was announced that AvB would headline the Grand Prix’s Yasalam After-Race Concerts – something no DJ has done before – taking the Friday party slot previously filled by Jamiroquai, Kanye West, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue and Jay Z.

“I could have foreseen there would be that reaction,” says Olly Wood, one half of Hollaphonic, van Buuren’s support act on the night. “It’s the reaction all the superstar DJs get – electronic music is very Marmite to a lot of people. But you can’t argue that, like the US, the Middle East has really identified with the genre.”

The promoters Flash have hinted that van Buuren’s performance won’t just be any DJ set, promising a one-off “special, customised show” including guest vocalists and musicians to help bring his electronic compositions to life for a more casual Formula 1 crowd.

Whatever your musical persuasion, there’s no denying one of the biggest musical forces on the planet is coming to town, and you’d be wise to take note.

• Armin van Buuren performs at the Yasalam After-Race Concerts at du Arena, Yas Island, on Friday. Entry is restricted to race-day ticket holders only

rgarratt@thenational.ae

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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

COMPANY%20PROFILE

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”