Avicii

Not to be confused with Avīci.

Avicii
Avicii in 2014
Background information
Birth name	Tim Bergling
Also known as	Tim Berg Tim Lidén Tom Hangs Timberman
Born	(1989-09-08) 8 September 1989 Stockholm, Sweden
Origin	Östermalm, Stockholm, Sweden
Genres	EDM progressive house electro house
Occupations	Electronic musician DJ remixer record producer
Instruments	Guitar piano synthesizer FL Studio Logic Pro
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Island LE7ELS Vicious Big Beat Size Armada Spinnin' Ultra Joia UMG PRMD
Website	avicii.com

Tim Bergling (Swedish pronunciation: [tɪm ˈbærjˈlɪŋ]; born 8 September 1989), better known by his stage name Avicii (/əˈviːtʃi/, a-VEE-chee; Swedish pronunciation: [aˈvɪtɕɪ]; stylized as File:Avicii New Logo.png), is a Swedish musician, DJ, remixer and record producer. Avicii was ranked third on DJ Mag in 2012 and 2013 and has been nominated twice for a Grammy Award, once for his work on "Sunshine" with David Guetta in 2012 and once for his song "Levels" in 2013. Some of his most famous songs are "I Could Be the One" with Nicky Romero, "Wake Me Up", "You Make Me", "X You", "Hey Brother", "Addicted to You", "The Days", "The Nights", "Levels" and "Waiting for Love". He released his debut studio album, True, in 2013. It received generally positive reviews from music critics, peaked within the top ten in more than fifteen countries and topped the Australian, Swedish, Danish and US charts. In 2015, Avicii released his second studio album, Stories.

Early life

Tim Bergling was born on 8 September 1989 in Stockholm, Sweden, to Klas Bergling and actress Anki Lidén. In May 2007, Avicii signed on with the Dejfitts Plays label. Then, in 2010, Avicii released the hit song "Seek Bromance", which reached the top 20 in several countries including Belgium, France, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Sweden. He also remixed Nadia Ali's classic single "Rapture" for her album Queen of Clubs Trilogy: Onyx Edition. In October 2010, Avicii signed with the European A&R team with EMI Music Publishing.

Career

Origin of the name "Avicii"

Bergling explained that the name Avicii means "the lowest level of Buddhist hell” and he chose the moniker because his real name was already used upon creating his MySpace page.

2011–12: "Levels" and international breakthrough

File:Avicii New Logo.png

Avicii wordmark, 2008–

In 2011, Avicii released "Levels", which launched him into the mainstream. The song was produced and written by Tim Bergling and contains a vocal sample from the 1962 gospel-inspired "Something's Got a Hold on Me" by Etta James. The same vocal sample was used first by Pretty Lights in his 2006 song "Finally Moving". This sample was also used by Drum and Bass producer Logistics on "Call Me Back" and by Flo Rida in his single "Good Feeling", which was produced by DJ Prak and Cirkut. "Levels" reached the top ten in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, 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, his collaboration track "Sunshine" with David Guetta was nominated for a Grammy award under the category for Best Dance Recording. His track "Fade into Darkness" was sampled by Leona Lewis on her single "Collide". The sampling was not accredited and led to controversy as Avicii attempted to block the single's release. However, the matter was resolved outside of court with representatives stating "that Leona Lewis and Avicii will work together on the forthcoming single of Collide".

On 23 March 2012, Avicii's unsigned single "Last Dance" was previewed on Pete Tong's show on BBC Radio 1. The song was later released on 27 August 2012. At Ultra Music Festival 2012 in Miami, he premiered two tracks, "Girl Gone Wild" (Avicii's UMF Remix) with Madonna and "Superlove" with Lenny Kravitz. Avicii's UMF Remix of "Girl Gone Wild" was released on 20 April 2012, and "Superlove" with Kravitz was released on 29 May 2012. After reaching two million followers on Facebook, Avicii released a new song titled "Two Million". It was put out as a free download on his official Soundcloud page. On 27 April 2012, Avicii released "Silhouettes". The song featured vocals from Salem Al Fakir and peaked at number 5 on the UK Dance charts and number 4 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs.

Avicii was a featured performer on 4 August 2012 at Lollapalooza festival in Chicago's Grant Park. On 12 August 2012, he released "Dancing in My Head" (Avicii's 'Been Cursed' Mix) on Beatport. The track features vocals from Eric Turner. A radio edit of the track, titled "Dancing in My Head" (Tom Hangs Mix) was released on 14 August 2012 on iTunes, and a remix EP was later released on 30 October 2012 featuring remixes from Charlie Bernardo and Michael Woods. On 26 September 2012, Avicii made history by being the first DJ to headline the world-famous Radio City Music Hall in New York City. He performed two sold out shows on 26 and 27 September. He was supported by Matt Goldman and Cazzette at the two shows. At his Radio City Music Hall shows, he played a preview of his new track with Mike Posner titled "Stay with You".

On 29 December 2012, Avicii premiered many new songs at Lights All Night, Dallas Convention Center, some of which made it into his first album, True. These unreleased songs included "I'll Be Gone" and "Let It Go". The instrumental of "Let It Go" was mixed with the a capella of "Addicted to You" to become "Addicted to You (Avicii by Avicii)".

On 29 December 2012, Avicii released "I Could Be the One" with Nicky Romero. After first being debuted at his shows almost a year earlier, the track finally got released via Avicii's record label LE7ELS. The new vocal version was released along with an instrumental version, a radio edit, and remixes from Audrio and Didrick. On 9 January 2013, Avicii launched the Avicii X You project, a partnership with Ericsson designed to create the world's first "crowdsourced" hit song. The project enabled fans to send in basslines, effects, melodies, rhythms and vocals to Avicii as sound files over the Internet. The song features sequences from Kian Sang (melody), Naxsy (bassline), Martin Kupilas (beat), ВАНЯ ХАКСИ (break), Jonathan Madray, Mateusz Kolata, and Christian Westphalen (effects). Avicii acted as executive producer and created the finished song officially titled X You, which was released on 26 February 2013. On 30 January 2013, Avicii released "Three Million" featuring Negin to mark the three millionth fan on his Facebook page.

Avicii was nominated for a Grammy for Best Dance Recording with "Levels" at the 2013 Grammy Awards. He was nominated alongside Calvin Harris and Ne-Yo, Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia and John Martin, and Al Walser. The award show took place on 10 February 2013. From late February to early March 2013, Avicii toured Australia as one of the headline acts in the Future Music Festival alongside The Prodigy and The Stone Roses. In late February 2013, Avicii made his first South American tour, with concerts in Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Chile.

2013: True

Main article: True (Avicii album)

Avicii at Inox Festival, 2011.

In March 2013, Avicii announced and premiered many new tracks from his new album True, which would later be set to be released in September, during his Main Stage set at Ultra Music Festival in Miami. The new tracks were experimental in nature. For example, Avicii brought out a stomping band to play through the new bluegrass-tinged song "Wake Me Up". Many of these new songs, however, received mixed critical reviews after the concert.

On 11 April 2013, Avicii released his new album promo mix on SoundCloud. It contained some songs from True and some of his non-album singles. It also contained some of his ID's such as "Black and Blue" and "Enough is Enough (Don't Give Up On Us)".

The EBU and SVT announced on 15 April that Avicii, along with 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, the world premiere of Avicii's new single, "Wake Me Up", was previewed by Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1, featuring vocals from Aloe Blacc. The song was later released on iTunes and radio on 25 June 2013. It is the first single from Avicii's album True, which was released on 16 September 2013. "Wake Me Up" was number 1 on the Spotify Global Chart and Avicii was at 2 in most streamed artist worldwide. "Wake Me Up" later went on to set a then record of 14 weeks as the number one hit on Billboards Dance/Electronic Songs list. The Official Charts Company announced on 21 July that "Wake Me Up" had become the UK's fastest selling single of 2013 after overtaking Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines", having sold 267,000 copies in its first week on sale in the UK. "Wake Me Up" subsequently became a major hit, topping the charts in over 20 countries including Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.

On 19 October 2013, the DJ Mag 2013 Top 100 DJs List was announced, with Avicii ranking number 3 on the list. Hardwell became the new World No.1 displacing Armin Van Buuren. On 28 October 2013, Avicii released the single "Hey Brother" with vocals by Dan Tyminski. On 10 November, Avicii won his first award "Best Electronic" at the MTV EMA's.

On 24 November 2013 he won the American Music Award for favorite Electronic Dance Music Artist.

In December 2013, Avicii released his fourth single off the album, "Addicted To You", which reached number 1 in Australia, with vocals from Audra Mae, who also sings on Shame on Me and Long Road to Hell, both tracks on the album. Avicii also released the single, "Lay Me Down" featuring vocals from Adam Lambert and guitar from Nile Rodgers. On 29 December 2013, Avicii debuted his new track "Dreaming of Me", featuring vocals from Audra Mae, via episode 19 of his LE7ELS podcast. It is unknown whether it will be released in the future.

In January 2014, the French hit music radio station NRJ released a new web radio station called "NRJ AVICII", which plays songs only by Avicii.

On 8 March 2014, Avicii's Instagram account confirmed a collaboration with Madonna. The extent of the collaboration is unknown. On 21 March 2014, Avicii released a remixed edition of his album True titled True: Avicii By Avicii containing remixes by himself of all the tracks, excluding "Heart Upon My Sleeve" for unknown reasons. The promotion of this album was supposed to begin at the 2014 Ultra Music Festival, but unfortunately Avicii announced he had been hospitalised on 28 March, and was unable to play his closing set at the festival. On 28 March 2014, FIFA and Sony Music Entertainment announced that Avicii would be collaborating with Carlos Santana, Wyclef Jean and Alexandre Pires for the official FIFA World Cup Anthem titled "Dar um Jeito (We Will Find a Way)". The anthem was performed at the FIFA World Cup Closing Ceremony on 13 July 2014.

In 2014, following the FIFA World Cup, Avicii released his single "Lay Me Down". He also produced and 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, released on 19 May 2014. He 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. He has also worked with Wyclef Jean on a single titled "Divine Sorrow" off his upcoming album Clefication.

2014–2015: Stories and major collaborations

Main article: Stories (Avicii album)

In July 2014, Avicii told Rolling Stone that he had worked on 70 songs for his next album Stories, which would include collaborations with Jon Bon Jovi, Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Chris Martin, Wyclef Jean and Matisyahu. Describing the album, Avicii said: "It's going to be a lot more song-oriented."

During his tour for True, he also performed his upcoming single "No Pleasing A Woman" with vocals from Billie Joe Armstrong of American rock band Green Day. It has a similar instrumental to "Wake Me Up" albeit different chord progressions, along with "No Pleasing A Woman." Avicii also performed other upcoming songs like "In Love With Your Ghost" with Daniel "Danne" Adams-Ray, "Love To Fall" with Tom Odell and "Million Miles" with LP which is the demo version of "Trouble", a song from "Stories" with vocals from Wayne Hector.

"Lose Myself", a collaboration between Avicii and Chinese singer Wang Leehom, was released on 1 September 2014. On 8 September 2014, his 25th birthday, Avicii decided to cancel all of his remaining performances of 2014 due to health concerns. The following day, he announced through Denim & Supply that he would release his new single "The Days" later in 2014; a video was also featured with a preview of the track. "The Days" is a collaboration between Avicii and Robbie Williams, and was released on 3 October 2014 via PRMD. On 16 September 2014, it was announced through EA Sports that Avicii was debuting a brand new track called "The Nights" exclusively on FIFA 15. On 17 November 2014, it was officially announced that the track is to be released as a part of an EP together with "The Days".

On 17 November 2014, Wyclef Jean released a track titled "Divine Sorrow" featuring Avicii.

On 2 March 2015, Avicii performed live at Australia's Future Music Festival his upcoming single "Heaven", a collaboration with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin on vocals. However, the vocals were later resung by singer Simon Aldred from Cherry Ghost; Chris Martin will receive writing credits on "Heaven". A lot of songs were leaked into the internet via Avicii's UMF set 2015. These songs include "Heaven", "Waiting For Love," and some of his ID's "For A Better Day", "City Lights", "Can't Catch Me", "True Believer", "What Would I Change It To", "Can't Love You Again" (previously leaked on the internet under the name "Don't Call") and "Attack".

On 25 April 2015, Avicii announced on episode 35 of his LE7ELS podcast that he would be playing some of his unreleased songs on his show. He also previewed his bootleg of Kings of Tomorrow's song "Finally" and one of his old songs that he did with ASH, titled "Papa Was a Rolling Stone".

On 6 May 2015, Avicii released his rework of Nina Simone's version of "Feeling Good", composed in 1964 by the English songwriters Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. On 8 May 2015, Avicii previewed his song "I'll Be Gone" via episode 422 of Tiësto's Club Life Podcast which has a very similar instrumental to Liar Liar (Avicii by Avicii) albeit different vocals and chord progressions. It was leaked into the internet between 2013–2014 via the name "Stars" and is yet to be released. It also shares a similar drop to one of Avicii's ID's "Black and Blue". On 22 May 2015, Avicii premiered another single from Stories, "Waiting for Love". The track was co-produced by fellow DJ and producer Martin Garrix, and featured vocals from Simon Aldred of Cherry Ghost. On 25 May 2015, Avicii previewed three old tracks on episode 36 of his LE7ELS podcast: "Tracks of My Tears", "Sorry Mr. Atari" and "Time to Get lll", all of which are songs that Avicii had made years ago. "Tracks of My Tears" is the original version of Avicii's "All You Need is Love". On 27 May 2015, it was confirmed by a Swedish newspaper through an interview with Avicii that his sophomore album Stories would be released in fall 2015.

On 3 July 2015, Avicii previewed two tracks from his album Stories on episode 37 of his LE7ELS podcast: "Broken Arrows" featuring Zac Brown Band and "Can’t Catch Me" featuring Wyclef Jean and Matisyahu. He also played a full version of his track "Heaven" and also revealed that he was doing another track with Chris Martin on vocals called "True Believer". Later, Avicii also revealed that he is also singing on that track. On 18 July 2015, it was announced by Avicii that he had finally finished production on Stories after 2 years of work.

A couple of weeks later, on 4 August 2015, it was announced that the final singles before the release of Stories would be "For a Better Day" featuring American singer Alex Ebert and "Pure Grinding" featuring vocals from Kristoffer Fogelmark and Earl St. Clair. On 27 August, Avicii released a teaser video on Instagram with the song "Pure Grinding" playing. The tracks "For a Better Day" and "Pure Grinding" were released the following day through Spotify and iTunes. On 26 September, Avicii announced "Stories – Megamix" on Spotify.

Stories was released on 2 October 2015 alongside 3 promotional singles: "Broken Arrows" with Zac Brown, "Ten More Days" with Zak Abel and "Gonna Love Ya" with Sandro Cavazza.

2016: New music and upcoming third studio album

On 15 January 2016, Avicii released his remix of Morten's "Beautiful Heartbeat". Coke partners with Avicii for global campaign anthem featuring Conrad Sewell. The song was released on 19 January. On 25 January, Avicii teamed up again with Coldplay to co-produce the band's single "Hymn for the Weekend", which was released as the second single from their album A Head Full of Dreams. In 2016, according to a report by Inc magazine, Avicii was 6th fastest growing company in Europe, with a revenue of €7.7 million in 2014.

On 19 March, Avicii performed live at Ultra Music Festival and premiered new IDs (Including a song called "Without You" with Sandro Cavazza). On 29 March, Avicii announced on Facebook that he would be retiring from performing live and touring in 2016.

On 7 April, Avicii announced that he's working on a third studio album.

On 3 June, Avicii released his collaboration with Otto Knows titled "Back Where I Belong". It's the second collaboration with the two producers after "Itrack", back in 2011.

On 15 July, Avicii released a remix of his own song, 'Feeling Good'. The remix was titled "Feeling Good (Avicii By Avicii)". This track was only released on Avicii's official YouTube channel. However, on 1 August, it appears to have been pulled with the YouTube video being made private.

On 28 August, Avicii performed his final live performance in Ibiza, before retiring from touring citing health concerns. His initial announcement was made on his website in April.

Influences

Avicii's influences include Daft Punk, former trio Swedish House Mafia (Sebastian Ingrosso, Steve Angello, Axwell) and Eric Prydz.

Avicii has described his earliest entree to electronic music as "listening to a lot of Daft Punk, way before I knew what house music was."

Avicii is named in the song "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" by American singer and songwriter Mike Posner. The song was made in the week they wrote a song together in Sweden called “Stay With You”. Posner went to a show of Avicii in Ibiza and got a mystery pill from someone. The song starts with:

"I took a pill in Ibiza. To show Avicii I was cool."

Charitable work

Since achieving widespread commercial success, Avicii began working with his manager and executive producer Ash Pournouri to start House for Hunger in 2011, a charity dedicated to alleviating global hunger. The pair wanted to showcase the giving spirit fostered by the house music community. Avicii explained, "You have to give something back. I am so fortunate to be in the position where I can actually do that. I feel lucky every day when I wake up and am able to do what I love and make a living." In addition to donating $1 million to Feeding America, a charity founded by John van Hengel, House for Hunger has helped fund the efforts of The Feed Foundation, started by Laura Bush, allowing it to distribute over two million school meals throughout Africa.

Discography

Main article: Avicii discography

Studio albums

• True (2013)
• Stories (2015)

Concert tours

• True Tour (2014)
• Stories World Tour (2015)

Awards and nominations

American Music Awards

The American Music Awards is an annual American music awards show created by Dick Clark in 1973, which airs on ABC. Avicii received two nominations and won one.

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2013	Avicii	Favorite Electronic Dance Music Artist	Won
2014		Favorite Electronic Dance Music Artist	Nominated

Billboard Music Awards

The Billboard Music Awards are an annual awards show from Billboard Magazine, Avicii received six nominations.

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2014	Avicii	Top Dance/Electronic Artist	Nominated
	True	Top Dance/Electronic Album	Nominated
	"Wake Me Up"	Top Radio Song	Nominated
		Top Dance/Electronic Song	Won
2015	Avicii	Top Dance/Electronic Artist	Nominated
	True	Top Dance/Electronic Album	Nominated

Echo Music Awards

The Echo Music Awards is an annual music awards ceremony presented by Deutsche Phono-Akademie in Germany. Avicii won two awards.

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2014	Avicii	Electronic Dance Music National/International	Won
		Hit des Jahres

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States. Avicii received one nomination in 2012 and one nomination in 2013.

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2012	"Sunshine" (David Guetta & Avicii)	Best Dance Recording	Nominated
2013	"Levels"	Best Dance Recording	Nominated

iHeartRadio Music Awards

The iHeartRadio Music Awards is an awards show created by iHeartRadio. Avicii received two nominations and won an award.

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2014	"Wake Me Up"	Best Lyrics	Nominated
		EDM Song of the Year	Won

International Dance Music Awards

The International Dance Music Awards are held annually as part of the Winter Music Conference. Avicii has received four nominations and won one.

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2013	Avicii	Best European DJ	Nominated
		Best Remixer
	Levels Podcast	Best Podcast
	Avicii	Best Artist (Solo)	Won

MTV Europe Music Awards

The MTV Europe Music Awards were established in 1994 by MTV Networks Europe, Avicii received five nominations and won two.

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2012	Avicii	Best Electronic	Nominated
		Best Swedish Act	Nominated
2013		Best Electronic	Won
		Best Swedish Act	Won
		Best Northern European Act	Nominated
2015		Best Electronic	Nominated
		Best Swedish Act	Nominated

MTV Video Music Awards

The MTV Video Music Awards are presented annually by MTV and honor accomplishments in the music video medium. Avicii has received two nominations.

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2014	"Wake Me Up"	Best Pop Video	Nominated
	"Hey Brother"	Best Video with a Social Message

Teen Choice Awards

The Teen Choice Awards is an annual award ceremony to honour the year's biggest achievements in entertainment and is voted by teen viewers. Avicii has won an award.

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2014	"Wake Me Up"	Choice EDM Song	Won

World Music Awards

The World Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that honors best selling artists in the record industry. Avicii received eight nominations.

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
2014	"Wake Me Up"	World's Best Song	Nominated
		World's Best Video	Nominated
	True	World's Best Album	Nominated
	Avicii	World's Best Male	Nominated
		World's Best Live Act	Nominated
		World's Best Electronic Dance Artist	Won
		World's Best Entertainer of the Year	Nominated
		World's Best Swedish Act	Won

See also

• Swedish popular music

External links

• Official website