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Breakthrough

In the summer of 1998, they released XXL Live Met Het Zeeuws Orkest, a live album recorded with an orchestra from Zeeland. With the help of Peter Bauwers (2 Unlimited) and Ronald Vanhuffel, they released studio album Boven. This album had a stronger rock sound and saw the single Harder Dan Ik Hebben Kan become a hit in less than a month. In 2000, the band received an Edison Award for Best Dutch Band and the group performed for the Dutch Olympians and their crew at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

After this, the successful Watermakers was released and in 2001, the band once again won an Edison for Best Dutch Band.

On 17 March 2001, Drummer Chris Götte was killed in a motorcycle accident while riding from his home to the venue where the band was scheduled to perform later that day. The band took a hiatus from performing and one year later, they released a live CD Oog In Oog — Live In Ahoy, the last concert with Götte. Gotte was replaced by drummer Norman Bonink, who had previously played in Frank Boeijen's band. Their next album, Blauwe Ruis, released in 2002 was dedicated to Chris Götte and his family. In 2003 the band released a lighter, more positive album called Omarm.

In 2003 BLØF travelled to Kenya to play with local musicians. They used this experience as an inspiration for their seventh studio album.

In 2004, the American band Counting Crows toured with BLØF, and together they rerecorded "Holiday in Spain", a duet sung in both English and Dutch, which gave BLØF exposure in the United States.

In 2005, BLØF traveled around the world in order to be exposed to new cultures and inspirations for a new album. These efforts saw the release of a new album, Umoja in 2006. The goal of the Umoja project was to raise awareness for the Millennium Development Goals. The band collaborated with artists from the 12 countries they visited. The project resulted in a book, Umoja Travel Lodge, concerts in the Netherlands and a DVD of the Umoja concerts the band performed in Netherlands with some of the international musicians that participated in the project. The project was very demanding for the band and they have said they greatly underestimated the amount of work involved with a project like this.

For BLØF's next album, Oktober, released in October 2008, the band decided on a stripped-down sound. All tracks were recorded in one take with no overdubs. Further recording sessions in January and February 2008 produced enough additional material so a next album, was released in early 2009.

Neither Oktober nor April were successful, so the band went back to the drawing board with the promise of returning to the sound that made the band successful previously. This album, Alles Blijft Anders, was released in February 2011.

In 2015, BLØF celebrated the 10th edition of Concert at SEA, an annual multi-day music festival organized by the band in Brouwersdam in Zeeland.

In 2016, the band members took time out for solo projects: Jakobsen embarked on a theater tour performing his favourite songs and Slager released a solo album (Slik).

In April 2017 BLØF released the album AAN, featuring a collaboration with rapper Typhoon and a tribute to the late frontman of The Scene, who was a close friend of Jakobsen's. Zoutelande, a Dutch cover of the German song "Frankfurt Oder" by Bosse was rerecorded as a duet with Belgian singer Geike Arnaert. It reached #1 in January 2018 and stayed there for more than ten weeks. Later in 2018 they released Omarm me in collaboration with Dutch rapper Ronnie Flex.