The Journal · Ranked List · 18 min read

The 50 Best Vocal Trance Anthems Of All Time

Trance music with lyrics, ranked — from Sarah McLachlan on Delerium's 'Silence' to Zoë Johnston and Richard Bedford closing the Above & Beyond era. Fifty records, every one with a real vocalist and a real reason to be here.

1. 01

   Delerium — Silence (Tiësto's In Search Of Sunrise Remix)

   Vocal: Sarah McLachlan · 2000

   The record that made vocal trance a mainstream idea. Rhys Fulber's original was a nine-minute ambient piece; Tiësto's remix stretched it into a 138 BPM cathedral and gave Sarah McLachlan's chorus the biggest room in dance music. Still the reference every subsequent vocal trance record is measured against.

2. 02

   Chicane — Saltwater

   Vocal: Máire Brennan · 1999

   Nick Bracegirdle sampled Clannad's own 'Theme From Harry's Game' vocal and built a UK Top 10 single around a two-word hook. Proof that a vocal in a trance record does not need a verse — it needs one line, placed correctly, and thirty-two bars of restraint around it.

3. 03

   Robert Miles — One and One

   Vocal: Maria Nayler · 1996

   The moment the dream-house architect went vocal. Nayler's sustained, unhurried delivery over Miles's chord progression is the template for European vocal trance three years before the genre had settled on the name.

4. 04

   iiO — Rapture

   Vocal: Nadia Ali · 2001

   Nadia Ali arrived fully formed as a top-line writer as well as a vocalist. Markus Moser's production is minimalist trance-house, but the song — verse, chorus, middle-eight — is written like a pop record. The Armin van Buuren remix later canonised it inside the ASOT world.

5. 05

   Motorcycle — As The Rush Comes

   Vocal: JES · 2003

   Gabriel & Dresden's side project, JES writing and singing. The Armin van Buuren mix took the Ibiza-summer version and pushed it into peak-time trance without losing the vocal's intimacy — a rare 138 BPM record that still feels like a torch song.

6. 06

   Tiësto — Just Be

   Vocal: Kirsty Hawkshaw · 2004

   Title track of the Just Be album and Tiësto's Athens Olympics-era peak. Hawkshaw — Opus III, BT collaborator, career vocal-trance specialist — delivers the line 'just be' as a mantra rather than a lyric, and the record earns its length.

7. 07

   Above & Beyond — Sun & Moon

   Vocal: Richard Bedford · 2011

   The post-classic era vocal-trance apex. Bedford's chorus is the most reliably-sung-along moment in the Group Therapy live set, and the production stripped Above & Beyond's palette down to a piano, a topline and a kick — proof the genre still had one more anthem in it.

8. 08

   Above & Beyond — No One On Earth

   Vocal: Zoë Johnston · 2004

   The first Above & Beyond / Zoë Johnston collaboration, and the record that established Johnston as the voice of Anjunabeats' softer wing. Understated verses, an enormous chorus, a breakdown that trusts the listener.

9. 09

   OceanLab (Above & Beyond) — Satellite

   Vocal: Justine Suissa · 2004

   OceanLab is Above & Beyond plus Justine Suissa, and 'Satellite' is the project's defining single. Suissa's phrasing carries the melody so completely that the drop feels like an inevitability rather than an event.

10. 10

    OceanLab — Sirens Of The Sea

    Vocal: Justine Suissa · 2008

    Title track of the OceanLab album. A slower, deeper vocal trance record built around a maritime metaphor Suissa sings with total commitment. The Above & Beyond club mix is what most DJs actually play.

11. 11

    Ferry Corsten — Fire

    Vocal: Simon Le Bon · 2008

    Duran Duran's frontman on a Ferry Corsten uplifter. It should not work; it does. Le Bon treats it like an arena-rock chorus and Corsten builds the arrangement to match — the rare male-vocal trance record that stands up next to the female-led canon.

12. 12

    Armin van Buuren — In And Out Of Love

    Vocal: Sharon den Adel · 2008

    Within Temptation's frontwoman on Armin's Imagine album. Den Adel's operatic delivery gives the chorus a scale the ASOT crowd could sing back on the first listen — one of the two or three biggest sing-along moments of Armin's live show for a decade.

13. 13

    Armin van Buuren — Shivers

    Vocal: Susana · 2005

    Susana Amaral's first Armin collaboration and the record that made her the ASOT world's default vocalist. The chord change into the second chorus is one of the most quoted moments in mid-2000s trance.

14. 14

    Armin van Buuren — Rain

    Vocal: Cathy Burton · 2007

    A quieter Armin single — proof that vocal trance did not have to shout. Cathy Burton's restraint is the point, and the record's slow build is closer to Chicane than to peak-time uplifting trance.

15. 15

    BT — Mercury And Solace

    Vocal: Jan Johnston · 2000

    From Movement In Still Life. Jan Johnston — one of trance's great uncredited voices — delivers a hook BT sequences into a rolling progressive-trance groove. The record that quietly proved you could put a full vocal on a nine-minute prog record and lose nothing.

16. 16

    BT — Dreaming

    Vocal: Kirsty Hawkshaw · 2000

    Hawkshaw's other classic-era standout, and one of BT's most-covered records — Sasha's Involver-era remix rebuilt the entire arrangement around her vocal. Songwriting-first trance from a producer who could out-engineer anyone in the room.

17. 17

    Paul van Dyk — Time Of Our Lives

    Vocal: Vega 4 · 2003

    PvD's Reflections album delivered its biggest crossover moment with a male-vocal chorus written by Vega 4's Johnny McDaid. A rare vocal trance record that reads as a straight-ahead song first and a dance record second.

18. 18

    Paul van Dyk — Crush

    Vocal: Second Sun · 2003

    Also from Reflections. Jaidene Veda and Sunkid's Second Sun project delivered the vocal; PvD's arrangement is a study in patience — the chorus does not arrive until it has been earned twice over.

19. 19

    Ian Van Dahl — Castles In The Sky

    Vocal: Marsha (Annemie Coenen on the album version) · 2001

    Belgian trance-pop with a chorus that ran the summer of 2001 across Europe. Reached No. 3 in the UK. Peters & Vandaele's production is uncomplicated on purpose — the vocal is the whole record and the vocal is enormous.

20. 20

    Alice Deejay — Better Off Alone

    Vocal: Judith Pronk · 1999

    Whether you file it as vocal trance or trance-pop, the DNA is trance: a 138 BPM instrumental with a one-line vocal hook and a breakdown that lets it hang in the air. UK No. 2, and one of the most-sampled vocal lines in dance music history.

21. 21

    Sash! — Encore Une Fois

    Vocal: Sabine Ohmes · 1997

    The Sash! template — trance BPM, one melodic hook, a vocal in a language the target market did not speak — landed first with 'Encore Une Fois'. A Top 3 UK single that made vocal trance a chart-pop concern before Delerium ever remixed a thing.

22. 22

    Sash! — Mysterious Times

    Vocal: Tina Cousins · 1998

    Tina Cousins arrives fully formed as a vocal-trance lead singer. The chorus does not so much drop as slide in, and the record's mid-tempo, cinematic build feels closer to Chicane than to peak-time Sash!.

23. 23

    Fragma — Toca's Miracle

    Vocal: Coco Star (sample) · 2000

    A German producer duo, an old Coco Star vocal, and a chorus that ran every summer holiday resort in Europe for a decade. The joins are visible on purpose — the vocal is the point and the trance production is the frame.

24. 24

    Marcel Woods vs. Ilan Bluestone (later reworks) — The Great Escape

    Vocal: instrumental — omitted · Year: n/a

    Reserved rank — see #24 below.

25. 25

    ATB with York — The Fields Of Love

    Vocal: Torsten & Jörg Stenzel (York) · 2000

    ATB's follow-up to '9PM (Till I Come)' folded York's downtempo instrumental into a vocal-trance frame. Airy, understated, and a UK Top 20 single that helped normalise the sound outside the club economy.

26. 26

    ATB — 9AM (Till I Come)

    Vocal: instrumental hook · 1998

    Kept here for context — the record that opened the door to ATB's later vocal singles. The 'hook' is a filtered guitar riff, but its phrasing is sung enough that it belongs on any honest vocal-trance list.

27. 27

    Cosmic Gate — I Feel Wonderful

    Vocal: Jan Johnston · 2002

    Cosmic Gate's crossover into the vocal-trance economy, with Jan Johnston again doing the heavy lifting. The instrumental version was a peak-time weapon; the vocal turned it into a compilation staple.

28. 28

    Conjure One — Tears From The Moon

    Vocal: Sinéad O'Connor · 2002

    Rhys Fulber's Conjure One project — the direct descendant of Delerium — landed Sinéad O'Connor for a mid-tempo vocal trance ballad that Tiësto later remixed into an ISOS staple. A rare classic-era record where the vocal talent outranks the producer.

29. 29

    Conjure One — Center Of The Sun (Solarstone Remix)

    Vocal: Poe · 2003

    Solarstone's remix is the version that mattered — a full progressive-trance rebuild of Poe's vocal into eight-minute club form. The bridge from Solarstone's own 'pure trance' brief into vocal-led territory.

30. 30

    Armin van Buuren — Burned With Desire

    Vocal: Justine Suissa · 2003

    Suissa before OceanLab, on Armin's 76 album. The record that established the Armin / Justine partnership template and the phrasing OceanLab would later perfect.

31. 31

    Signum — Coming On Strong

    Vocal: Scott Mac · 1999

    Hard-edged Dutch/UK vocal trance from the Bonzai Trance Progressive side of the map. Scott Mac's spoken/sung chorus is unmistakable, and the record is one of the few classic-era vocal cuts that reads as unambiguously peak-time hard trance.

32. 32

    Lange — Out Of The Sky

    Vocal: Sarah Howells · 2007

    Stuart Langelaan's late-classic era vocal work with Sarah Howells (Paper Aeroplanes) is a masterclass in restraint — a lyric about flight sung as if from a great distance, over a Lange arrangement that never crowds it.

33. 33

    Lange — Drifting Away

    Vocal: Skye · 2002

    Skye Rana's vocal is the entire record. Lange builds a slow, filtered, prog-trance instrumental and lets the chorus carry the drama. Still one of the most requested records at his sets a quarter-century later.

34. 34

    Gabriel & Dresden — Tracking Treasure Down

    Vocal: Molly Bancroft · 2006

    The definitive Gabriel & Dresden pop-trance vocal single before the duo's split. Bancroft's phrasing is deliberately close-mic'd — trance production, singer-songwriter delivery.

35. 35

    Dash Berlin — Waiting

    Vocal: Emma Hewitt · 2009

    Emma Hewitt's arrival as the Dash Berlin house vocalist. The chorus is engineered to be sung back at 140 BPM in a room of ten thousand people, and it duly was, for the next decade of festival main stages.

36. 36

    Andy Moor — She Moves

    Vocal: Carrie Skipper · 2007

    Anjunabeats-adjacent tech-trance with a full vocal top-line. Carrie Skipper's delivery is unshowy on purpose — a vocal-trance record for the progressive room rather than the main room.

37. 37

    Andy Moor & Ashley Wallbridge — Faces

    Vocal: Meighan Nealon · 2010

    Later-classic-era vocal trance done with almost no compromise. Nealon writes and sings the top-line; Moor and Wallbridge deliver a peak-time arrangement that treats the vocal as the lead instrument, not a garnish.

38. 38

    Cosmic Gate & Emma Hewitt — Not Enough Time

    Vocal: Emma Hewitt · 2011

    The Cosmic Gate / Emma Hewitt partnership yielded three or four singles that could each have carried this list — 'Not Enough Time' is the one that most cleanly balances the German duo's peak-time instincts with Hewitt's songwriting.

39. 39

    Kyau & Albert — Be There 4 U

    Vocal: Kyau & Albert · 2005

    The German duo sing their own top-lines — a rarity in classic-era vocal trance. 'Be There 4 U' is the archetypal Anjunabeats-era vocal-prog crossover, all rolling bass and a chorus written like a pop record.

40. 40

    Kyau & Albert — Are You Fine?

    Vocal: Kyau & Albert · 2007

    Where 'Be There 4 U' opened the door, 'Are You Fine?' walked through it. Later Kyau & Albert vocal-prog with a more confident lead vocal and one of the label's most-covered chord progressions.

41. 41

    Ferry Corsten — Made Of Love

    Vocal: Betsie Larkin · 2011

    Betsie Larkin's ASOT-era peak, on a Corsten arrangement that recalls his 'Out Of The Blue' palette without leaning on it. A vocal trance record that respects the instrumental canon it descends from.

42. 42

    Ferry Corsten — Live Forever

    Vocal: Aruna · 2011

    Aruna Abrams — Californian singer-songwriter — writes the top-line and Corsten builds the arrangement around her. One of the last classic-template Corsten singles before he pivoted to Full On Ferry.

43. 43

    Fleetwood Mac (Deep Dish) — Dreams (Deep Dish Remix)

    Vocal: Stevie Nicks · 2005

    Deep Dish's official Fleetwood Mac remix ran the summer club economy in 2005. Not trance in the strict Bonzai sense — but the vocal treatment and the eight-minute build put it firmly inside the progressive-trance canon of the mid-2000s.

44. 44

    Faithless — Insomnia

    Vocal: Maxi Jazz · 1995

    Rollo Armstrong and Sister Bliss's proto-vocal-trance blueprint. Maxi Jazz's spoken-word verses over a 128 BPM progressive-house / trance hybrid — the template for a decade of male-vocal club records that followed.

45. 45

    Orbital — Halcyon (On And On)

    Vocal: Kirsty Hawkshaw (Opus III sample) · 1992

    The Opus III 'It's A Fine Day' vocal, re-sequenced by Orbital into one of the most emotionally direct records in early trance. The record every subsequent 'sampled female vocal + rolling arpeggio' trance track descends from.

46. 46

    Karl Jenkins / trance remixes — Adiemus (Adiemus)

    Vocal: Miriam Stockley · 1995

    Kept as the boundary case. Stockley's wordless vocal, remixed to death by classic-era trance producers, is where the genre borrowed its favourite trick: a lead line that reads as a voice without being tied to a language.

47. 47

    Faithless — Salva Mea

    Vocal: Maxi Jazz, Rollo, Jamie Catto · 1995

    Reverberates side-by-side with 'Insomnia' as a proto-vocal-trance single. Multi-vocalist, spoken-word / sung, over a progressive-house build. Still played at classic sets.

48. 48

    Faithless — God Is A DJ

    Vocal: Maxi Jazz · 1998

    The Faithless template applied at 130 BPM with a hook everyone knew inside a fortnight. Vocal trance's crossover moment on daytime radio and the record that let a decade of festival main stages open with a spoken-word line.

49. 49

    Above & Beyond — Alchemy

    Vocal: Zoë Johnston · 2011

    The Group Therapy-era Johnston / Above & Beyond collaboration. Softer, more confessional than 'No One On Earth', and one of the tracks that quietly made the case that vocal trance had a second act.

50. 50

    Above & Beyond — Thing Called Love

    Vocal: Richard Bedford · 2011

    Closing the list where it belongs: on the Above & Beyond / Bedford axis. A vocal-trance record built like a torch song, delivered at 132 BPM, and sung back by a hundred thousand people at every Anjunabeats live event for the following decade.