The Leiden legend once again used his performances across two stages in Miami to officially unveil new music and collaborations, including those with Eli Brown, Argy and others, while also debuting a brand new track under his Rising Star alias
If A State Of Trance Festival in Rotterdam clearly represents the gateway to the trance festival season, the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, traditionally held on the last weekend of March, stands as the first major event capable of bringing together all EDM genres and officially kicking off the season. It’s here that most DJs and producers now test their latest music, with some tracks remaining IDs for quite a while and others revealed much sooner.
We saw Armin van Buuren perform on the ASOT Stage two days ago alongside artists such as Marlon Hoffstadt, Prada2000, Superstrings, Lilly Palmer, Matty Ralph and Vini Vici: this marked the second stop of the tour celebrating 25 years of the radio show, which will also reach Poland, Hong Kong, Vietnam and London in the coming months. Anticipation was just as high for his set on the Ultra Music Festival Mainstage, which took place yesterday.
In recent years, the gap between mainstream EDM and the concept of trance music has gradually narrowed, as many artists have begun experimenting with trance or trance-inspired sounds. As a result, collaborations by Armin van Buuren with artists traditionally far from this genre often take on a trance direction, and his live selections tend to align regardless of the type of event.
During the one-hour set, which opened with a new emotional track titled Awake, several IDs already played at ASOT in Rotterdam were finally revealed together with the artists involved. Among them was the collaboration with Argy and PollyAnna, now titled Like A Child, as well as a spectacular collaboration with Eli Brown: this is the same mysterious ID previously heard during his set at Ahoy Rotterdam, a truly outstanding track now titled Silence. Armin even joined Eli Brown on stage during his set to present the track.
His collaboration with Skytech, She’s A Freak, is also now well known, a track that blends progressive trance and electro influences. Staying on the theme of genre crossover, Armin van Buuren was recently back in the studio with Adam Beyer: after their Techno Trance work last year, the two presented a brand new unreleased track during the Ultra Miami set, still an ID.
Just as happened last year in the same context, Armin delivered another special moment for fans linked to his Rising Star alias. Last year, in fact, he introduced a track that was also performed live by Sacha during his set this year as Set Me Free, which went on to become one of the trance hits of 2025, and it seems the story has repeated itself this year. A little past the halfway point of the set, that unmistakable and magical trance sound emerged once again. The track recalls the structure and atmosphere of Just As You Are featuring Fiora (2018), but it remains an ID for now.
There was also no shortage of his collaboration with emerging artist Olive Anguz, who had already joined him on stage in Rotterdam a month ago for their “fiery” track Vem Comigo, set for release soon; and, of course, his current hit released last week could not be missing, the outstanding Lost In Time together with Alle Farben and ROSY. Another track, already previewed a month ago, still remains unreleased for now as an ID, but Armin made a point of describing it as a true anthem: it might be titled Love Is The Final Word.
The complete tracklist is available on 1001tracklist and the full set is available on YouTube: all that remains is to confirm yet another remarkable year ahead for Armin van Buuren and the trance scene.