Avicii
Tim Bergling, known professionally as Avicii, was a Swedish DJ, remixer, and record producer. His musical style is primarily House music, and he is an influence on many artists. Several music publications have credited Avicii as one of the DJs who took electronic music to Top 40 radio in the early 2010s. He is also considered one of the most popular and successful Electronic dance music genre artists of all time.
At the age of 16, Avicii began posting remixes on electronic music forums at the age of 16, and in May 2007, the label Dejfitts Plays signed him. Avicii rose to prominence in 2011 with his single "Levels". His debut studio album, True, blends electronic music with elements of other genres; it received generally positive reviews, peaked in the top 10 in more than 15 countries and topped international charts. The lead single, "Wake Me Up", became a most-streamed song on Spotify. Both his album Stories and the extended play Avīci reached number one on the Swedish Sverigetopplistan chart. His third and final album, Tim, was released posthumously and reached number one on Billboard Top Dance Albums chart.
Avicii had health issues throughout his life. In 2012, he was hospitalized for 11 days in New York City with acute pancreatitis caused by excessive alcohol consumption. Between 2012 and 2014, to treat pain from the pancreatitis, Avicii was prescribed opioids such as OxyContin and Vicodin, to which he developed an addiction. In 2014, he underwent surgery to remove his appendix and gallbladder, and entered a rehabilitation facility a year later. Due to these health issues, Avicii announced his retirement from touring in March 2016. In 2018, he died by suicide while holidaying in Muscat, Oman, at an estate owned by the Omani royal family.
Avicii's catalog also includes the singles "Seek Bromance", "Silhouettes", "I Could Be the One" with Nicky Romero, "You Make Me", "X You", "Hey Brother", "Addicted to You", "The Days", "The Nights", "SOS" and "Heaven". Avicii has won four MTV Europe Music Awards, two International Dance Music Awards, one American Music Award and one Billboard Music Award. He was nominated for a Grammy for his work on "Sunshine" with David Guetta in 2012 and "Levels" in 2013.
Life and career
1989–2010: Early life and career
Tim Bergling was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on 8 September, 1989; he was the son of Klas Bergling, who ran an office supply business, and actress Anki Lidén. He had three siblings: David Bergling, Linda Sterner, and actor Anton Körberg. At age eight, Tim started mixing in his bedroom.Inspired by his brother, who was also a DJ, Bergling began making music at the age of 16; he taught himself to use a pirated copy of FL Studio. In May 2007, Bergling signed with the label Dejfitts Plays. He was a member of the online forumLaidback Luke, where he refined his craft and, at times, demonstrated his distinctive deep house style. During this period, he remixed tracks by Little Boots, Robyn and Dizzee Rascal. Bergling adopted his moniker Avicii, a respelling of Avīci, which means "the lowest level of Buddhist hell", according to Bergling. He chose the moniker because his real name was already in use when he created his page on the social networking website Myspace. In 2010, Avicii released the song "Seek Bromance", which reached the top 20 in several countries, including Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. In October 2010, he signed with the European A&R team at EMI Music Publishing.
2011–2013: "Levels"
In 2011, Leona Lewis sampled Avicii's track "Fade into Darkness" on her single "Collide". The samples were not credited and led to controversy, and Avicii attempted to block the single's release. The matter was resolved out of court, and "Collide" was made a joint release between Lewis and Avicii. In October 2011, Avicii released the song "Levels", which launched him into the mainstream. "Levels" reached the top ten in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom, whilst topping the charts in Hungary, Norway and Sweden.In 2012, Avicii's collaboration track "Sunshine" with David Guetta was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Dance Recording. On 23 March 2012, Pete Tong reviewed Avicii's unsigned single "Last Dance" on Tong's show on BBC Radio 1. At Ultra Music Festival 2012 in Miami, he premiered the tracks "Girl Gone Wild" with Madonna and "Superlove" with Lenny Kravitz. After reaching two million followers on the social media platform Facebook, Avicii released a new song titled "Two Million". On 27 April 2012, he released "Silhouettes", which features vocals from Salem Al Fakir; the song peaked at number five on the UK Dance Singles charts, and number four on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs and the Belgian Ultratop chart.
Avicii was a featured performer on 4 August 2012 at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago's Grant Park. On 12 August 2012, he released "Dancing in My Head", featuring vocals from Eric Turner, on Beatport. On 26 September 2012, Avicii became the first DJ to headline Radio City Music Hall in New York City. He performed two sold-out shows supported by Matt Goldman and Cazzette on 26 and 27 September. At his Radio City Music Hall shows, he played a preview of his new track with Mike Posner titled "Stay with You".
On the same day, Avicii released the song "I Could Be the One", a collaboration with Nicky Romero that features Swedish singer Noonie Bao on vocals. The single entered at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 17 February 2013―for the week ending 23 February 2013―becoming both Avicii's and Nicky Romero's first chart-topping single in Britain. On 9 January 2013, Avicii launched the Avicii X You project, a partnership with Ericsson to create the world's first "crowdsourced" hit song. Avicii acted as executive producer and created the song, which is officially titled "X You" and was released on 26 February 2013. On 30 January 2013, Avicii released "Three Million" featuring Negin to celebrate his Facebook page reaching three million fans.
For "Levels", Avicii was nominated for Best Dance Recording at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on 10 February 2013. From late February to early March 2013, Avicii toured Australia as a headline act in the Future Music Festival alongside The Prodigy and The Stone Roses. In late February 2013, he embarked on his first South American tour, with concerts in Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Chile.
2013–2014: ''True''
In March 2013, during his Main Stage set at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Avicii announced and premiered new experimental tracks from his new album True, which was released in September that year. Avicii brought out a stomping band to play through the new bluegrass-tinged song "Wake Me Up". Many of the new songs received mixed critical reviews after the concert. That same month, Avicii won Best Artist at the 28th Annual International Dance Music Awards.The European Broadcasting Union and Sveriges Television announced on 15 April Avicii, and ex-ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson had composed the anthem for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. The song was performed for the first time in the final on 18 May.
On 14 June 2013, Pete Tong reviewed the world premiere of Avicii's new single "Wake Me Up" on BBC Radio 1; he song features vocals from Aloe Blacc and was released on 25 June 2013. It was the first single from Avicii's album, True, which was released on 16 September 2013. "Wake Me Up" peaked at number one on the Spotify Global Chart, and Avicii was the second-most-streamed artist worldwide. "Wake Me Up" spent 14 weeks as the number one hit on Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, a record at that time. The Official Charts Company announced on 21 July "Wake Me Up" had overtaken Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" as the UK's fastest-selling single of 2013, having sold 267,000 copies in its first week on sale. "Wake Me Up" peaked at number one in over 20 countries, including Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
In August 2013, Avicii performed his new song "Lay Me Down" with Nile Rodgers and Adam Lambert at Rodgers's fundraiser, "All For The East End". The song, which was released the following month, features Lambert on vocals and Rodgers on guitar. On 19 October, the DJ Mag 2013 "Top 100 DJs" placed Avicii at number three on the list. That same month, Avicii released his single "Hey Brother", with vocals by Dan Tyminski. On 10 November, Avicii won his first award—"Best Electronic"—at the MTV Europe Music Awards. On 24 November 2013, he won the American Music Award for favorite Electronic Dance Music Artist.
In December 2013, Avicii released the album's fourth single, "Addicted to You", which reached number five in Australia, with vocals from Audra Mae, who also sings on the tracks "Shame on Me" and "Long Road to Hell". On 29 December 2013, Avicii debuted his new track "Dreaming of Me", featuring vocals from Audra Mae, via episode 19 of his podcast LE7ELS. On 28 February 2014, his song "Wake Me Up" was Spotify's most-streamed song and became the first song to ever exceed 200 million listeners on the platform. "Wake Me Up" remained the most-streamed song on the platform for 506 days until it was overtaken by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran's song "Thinking Out Loud" in May 2015.
On March 8, 2014, Avicii's Instagram account confirmed his collaboration with Madonna, producing the tracks "Wash All Over Me" and "Rebel Heart" for her 2015 album, Rebel Heart. On 21 March 2014, Avicii released a remixed edition of his album True titled True: Avicii By Avicii, containing his remixes of all the tracks except "Heart Upon My Sleeve". The album's promotion was supposed to begin at the 2014 Ultra Music Festival, but Avicii announced he had been hospitalised on 28 March and was unable to play his closing set at the festival. On April 30, 2014,in collaboration with Carlos Santana, Wyclef Jean, and Alexandre Pires, Avicii released the official 2014 FIFA World Cup anthem, "Dar um Jeito ", which was performed at the closing ceremony on 13 July 2014. It was also included on the album 2014 FIFA World Cup, which was released in the US on May 12.
In May, "Wake Me Up" was nominated for Top Radio Song and won Top Dance/Electronic Song at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards. Avicii collaborated with Chris Martin from Coldplay, co-writing and co-producing the track "A Sky Full of Stars" from the band's sixth studio album, Ghost Stories, which was released on 19 May 2014. Avicii also played and recorded the piano parts on the track. "A Sky Full of Stars" was released on 3 May as the second single from Ghost Stories. "Lovers on the Sun", a track Avicii co-produced with David Guetta, was released on 30 June 2014.