Swedish House Mafia
Swedish House Mafia are a Swedish house supergroup consisting of Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. The group officially formed in late 2008, were placed at number ten on the DJ Mag Top 100 DJ Poll 2011, and have been called "the faces of mainstream progressive house music", while being credited for "setting the tone for the EDM boom of the early 2010s, more than any other act in modern dance music". In 2012, they were ranked at number twelve on the DJ Mag Top 100 Poll. They are recognized for bringing the progressive house genre into the mainstream around 2009–2010, together with their compatriot Avicii, standardizing a sound that until recently was relegated to the underground EDM.
The group scored international hits in 2010 with tracks such as "One " and "Miami 2 Ibiza", and their compilation album Until One the top five in the UK and US dance charts. Two years later, Swedish House Mafia embarked on an extensive farewell tour in support of their second compilation album, Until Now. The compilation album of previously released tracks was certified platinum in Sweden and peaked at number 14 on the Billboard 200.
On 24 June 2012, the group announced they would disband. Their final performance before their breakup was at Ultra Miami on 24 March 2013. For the next five years, Angello worked solo, while Axwell and Ingrosso performed as the duo Axwell & Ingrosso. On 25 March 2018, the group reunited with a surprise closing set at the 20th anniversary of Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Florida.
Starting in 2021, the group began releasing singles from their first proper studio album, including "It Gets Better" and "Moth to a Flame" featuring The Weeknd. The single "Redlight" featuring Sting was released in 2022 ahead of the album Paradise Again. The album reached number one on both the UK Dance Albums chart and Billboard
History
Pre-2008: Formation and prior endeavors
Before Swedish House Mafia, Axwell, Steve Angello, and Sebastian Ingrosso performed as solo DJs in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Angello and Ingrosso knew each other as children growing up in Stockholm, and would often collaborate under various aliases in their early careers. Collaborations with Axwell came later in the decade as the pair discovered the Swedish DJ by a chance meeting. Towards the mid-2000s Axwell, Angello, and Ingrosso found themselves often playing shows together, with fellow Swedish DJ Eric Prydz joining them for some shows. The name Swedish House Mafia came about after friends and fans began labelling the four as they played more and more shows together with the four being first officially referred to as "Swedish House Mafia" in March 2007 by the Winter Music Conference. Eventually, the group officially adopted the name in late 2008, with Prydz deciding not to join the group, describing himself as a "control freak" in the studio who can't abide collaboration, even with close friends. Prydz announced he would be leaving the group, soon after the collective officially formed, in November 2008.2009–2010: ''Until One'' and ''Take One'' documentary
The first production that was released by the group was "Get Dumb" which was produced with Laidback Luke and released in 2007. In 2009, Swedish House Mafia teamed up with Laidback Luke again to produce the track "Leave the World Behind" which featured vocals by Deborah Cox. Although none of these songs were released under the name Swedish House Mafia, the latter would eventually feature on the group's first compilation album Until One.In 2010, Swedish House Mafia signed a record deal with UMG's Polydor Records after a falling-out with previous record label EMI, due to differing ideas. They released "One", their first official single under the name Swedish House Mafia, on Beatport on 2 May 2010, where it achieved international success, charting at number 7 in the UK Singles Chart. The group followed this with an equally well-received vocal version featuring Pharrell Williams, retitled "One ". Their next single, "Miami 2 Ibiza", with Tinie Tempah, was released on 1 October 2010. It charted at number 4 on the UK Chart and was featured on Tempah's debut studio album Disc-Overy. Both tracks were taken from the group's debut compilation album Until One; a collection of productions and remixes from both Swedish House Mafia as a group and as individuals along with other artists as well. It has achieved a BPI Gold Sales award in the United Kingdom and a GLF Platinum Sales award in Sweden.
On 29 November 2010, Swedish House Mafia released their first DVD documentary called Take One. The movie was filmed over the course of 2 years, 253 gigs and 15 countries by Swedish directors Henrik Hanson & Christian Larson. He commented on Take One by saying "It's not narrated at all. It's just sequences of them and it's made into a story. It's all chronological. It's just me following them around and they become characters in their own film. It all happened pretty naturally because they are all such strong characters, all three of them."
The documentary starts with Swedish House Mafia in the studio with Laidback Luke working on "Leave the World Behind" and concludes at Ultra Music Festival in 2010 premiering their hit "One".
2011–2012: ''Until Now'', breakup and One Last Tour
In May 2011, Swedish House Mafia released a new single, "Save the World", featuring John Martin on vocals, the song was a commercial success and charted at number 10 in the UK Chart and 4 in Sweden. Later that year on 16 December, they released the track "Antidote" with Knife Party and their solo effort "Greyhound" on 12 March 2012.On 24 June 2012, it was announced via the group's website that the final leg of their 2012 tour would be their last: "Today we want to share with you, that the tour we are about to go on will be our last. We want to thank every single one of you that came with us on this journey. We came, we raved, we loved." They stated three show dates, with the last leg of their tour that was announced in August. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in regard to the group's breakup, Angello said that "we just decided that we reached a point where we didn't know what the next move would be," and that "we've had beyond our dreams and we've come very, very far"; Angello also stated that he was focusing on developing his own brand, Size Records, while on hiatus.
On 26 June 2012, Swedish House Mafia confirmed they would be playing at the Milton Keynes National Bowl on 14 July along with the likes of Calvin Harris, Alesso, and Example—these artists to be the first to perform in the newly renovated grounds. The trio also confirmed that their closing set would be their last UK show as no dates were planned for the UK during the group's One Last Tour. During their performance, they premiered their new single "Don't You Worry Child" to a 60,000-strong crowd at the end of their set, which would eventually become the group's first and only UK Singles Chart number 1 single. Footage from the two-hour-long performance was used in the music video for the song which was uploaded to YouTube on 14 September that year and has over 1 billion views as of 2025.
On 7 July 2012, Swedish House Mafia played for a sold-out crowd in Phoenix Park, Dublin. The concert descended into chaos, with a "significant number" of random unprovoked attacks at the show, leading to comments from the Irish justice minister concerning the "very unusual" nature of the events. A total of nine people were stabbed. The possibility of multiple attackers was not immediately ruled out. All those attacked were in their teens or twenties. One man was stabbed five times as his girlfriend looked on in horror, receiving wounds to the liver and requiring stitches to his elbow and head. Another man was left in a critical condition after being stabbed four times in the back and kidneys. Two young men, Lee Scanlon and Shane Brophy, also died during the concert; the circumstances of their deaths were not immediately clear. Brophy, from County Laois, was rushed to the hospital but died there.
Swedish House Mafia released a statement upon learning of the events:
Taoiseach Enda Kenny was appalled when he learned of the events: "Absolutely disgraceful, appalling and simply scandalous". Kenny also wondered "whether it's in relation to the sort of music that is played there or not", observing that "800,000 people turned up in Galway for the Volvo finale without any incident and this particular concert in Phoenix Park was in between two others where there were no incidents at all." Another minister, Brian Hayes, said the incidents were "unacceptable very serious, it is wrong and we need to find out what went wrong". Jim Carroll from The Irish Times wrote, "The off-stage events which have dominated the news agenda since the Swedish House Mafia show will forevermore be associated with stabbings and suspected drug deaths rather than the music." Also writing in The Irish Times, Brian Boyd stated that 'the comment "the genre of music has a lot to do with it" bears further examination. Swedish House Mafia are broadly speaking a "dance culture" act and always had a drug component. Today's generation—brought up with binge alcohol tendencies—is popping and dropping indiscriminately. And when you mix a rave drug with large quantities of alcohol, it really is time to batten down the hatches.'
Their final and most commercially successful track "Don't You Worry Child", also featuring John Martin, was released on 14 September 2012 becoming number 1 in Australia, Sweden, and the UK as well as becoming a top 10 hit in most other countries. That same month on 17 September, the group announced the release of a second compilation album titled Until Now, with the album later forming the official soundtrack to their One Last Tour.
On 24 September 2012, Swedish House Mafia announced the dates for their farewell tour, called "One Last Tour". The tour kicked off in November 2012 and concluded in March 2013. The tour was taken across the world with the group performing in Russia, India, and South Africa for the first time. Tickets sold out in minutes and due to extremely high demand, additional shows were added. Part of the tour saw the trio play three nights at Stockholm's Friends Arena, performing to over 100,000 people across the three nights of November 2012. This marked their first performances on Swedish soil.
Until Now was released on 22 October 2012, exactly two years after the release of their first compilation album Until One. It contained "Save the World", "Antidote", "Greyhound" and "Don't You Worry Child", plus the singles from Until One along with songs and remixes from the individual group members and other DJs. The album also contained two exclusive Swedish House Mafia remixes, of Coldplay's "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall", and Usher's "Euphoria". The album charted in the top twenties in various countries across Europe, North America, and Oceania including number 3 in Sweden, as well as charting number 1 on both the British and Irish compilation album charts. Until Now has since been certified Gold in Australia, plus Platinum in both the United Kingdom and Sweden.
On 11 December 2012, Swedish House Mafia announced that they would throw a Black Tie Rave on 28 February 2013 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City to benefit Hurricane Sandy relief, with 100 percent of the net proceeds going to Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. The proceeds benefited both the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City and the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund.
The group made their final appearance together at the Ultra Music Festival in 2013, rounding off their final tour. On night one, Friday 15 March, they were the opening acts and on the final night, Sunday 24 March, they closed the show ending with the phrase "We Came, We Raved, We Loved" appearing on-screen, which became the mantra of the whole tour. During this performance frequent collaborator John Martin joined the trio on stage to give his farewells and performed their songs "Save the World" and "Don't You Worry Child" which ended in a huge crowd singalong which Billboard described as "a powerful ending three-DJ Juggernauts".