Avicii Biography

Tim Bergling (born 8 September 1989), better known as Avicii, is a Swedish DJ, remixer, and record producer. Avicii is a dance-genre DJ who ranked No. 6 on the Top 100 DJs list by DJ Magazine in 2011, and higher in 2012, coming at No. 3 on the list by the publication.

Influences

Avicii's influences include Tiësto, Daft Punk, Laidback Luke, Eric Prydz, Sebastian Ingrosso, Steve Angello, and Axwell. Said Avicii in April 2011, "I've always been into music, and growing up with older siblings I've also had loads of different influences when it comes to my music taste. There are loads of other people that have influenced me but I think the biggest inspirations I've had aside from my manager has been the Swedish House Mafia guys and Eric Prydz, they were the ones who first got me into house!"

Musical career

2008

In May 2008, Avicii signed to At Night Management.

2010"2011

In 2010, Avicii released a collaboration with John Dahlbäck, titled "Don't Hold Back". He additionally worked on projects with internationally-recognized DJs Tiësto and Sebastian Ingrosso. While his work is primarily electronic synthetic tracks, EMI released a vocal version of his track "Bromance", titled "Seek Bromance". "Seek Bromance" 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, one of the recording industry's "big four".

In 2011, 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 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". In 2011, Avicii released "Levels", which reached the top ten in India, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and topped the charts in Hungary, Norway and Sweden.

"Levels"

Avicii's most notable song has been the single "Levels" which was released officially on 28 October 2011. The song had already been a major hit in the electronic music world all through 2011, but after its official release it became a huge mainstream hit, greatly increasing Avicii's popularity. The song was 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 Dr. Luke and Cirkut.

2012

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". Featuring vocals from Salem Al Fakir, this song peaked at #5 on the UK Dance charts and #4 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs. Later in the summer, he was a featured performer on 4 August 2012 at Lollapalooza festival in Chicago's Grant Park. His performance was streamed online. On 12 August 2012, Avicii 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 world famous Radio City Music Hall in New York City. He performed two sold out shows on 26 and 27 September. The 27 September show sold out in less than one minute. 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". This track has yet to be released.

On 29 December 2012, Avicii released his highly anticipated "I Could Be the One" with Nicky Romero. Formerly known as "Nicktim", the song's title was changed after vocals by Noonie Bao were added. 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. Avicii is currently ranked number 3 on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs List for 2012, moving up three spots from his position at number six in 2011.

2013"present

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. Avicii acted as executive producer and created the finished song, which released on 26 February 2013.

On 30 January 2013, Avicii released "Three Million" featuring Negin to mark the 3 millionth fan on his Facebook page. Avicii previously released "Two Million", again when he reached 2 million fans 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 and the award was won by Skrillex.

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 including concerts in Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Chile.

In March 2013, Avicii announced and premiered many new tracks from his new album, 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, and received mixed critical reviews.

On 11 April 2013, Avicii has released his new album promo mix on SoundCloud.

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 premier of Avicii's new single, "Wake Me Up!" was previewed by Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1 featuring vocals from Aloe Blacc. Tong described the single as a 'complete change in style' from previous singles. 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 17 September 2013. "Wake Me Up!" was #1 on the Spotify Global Chart and Avicii was at 2 in most streamed artist worldwide.

The Official Charts Company announced on 21 July that "Wake Me Up!" has become the UK's fastest selling single of 2013 after overtaking Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines", to sell 267,000 copies in its first week on sale in the UK. "Wake Me Up!" has subsequently become a major hit, topping the charts in over 20 countries including Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

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 Lauren Bush, House for Hunger has helped fund the efforts of The Feed Foundation, allowing it to distribute over two million school meals throughout Africa.

Discography

Albums

• 2013: True

Compilations

• 2011: Avicii Presents Strictly Miami
• 2011: The Singles

See also

• Swedish pop music