Background and career
Tim Bergling (8 September 1989 – 20 April 2018), known professionally as Avicii, was a Swedish DJ, remixer, and record producer. His music consisted primarily of pop-oriented house music, often blended with other genres such as folk, country, bluegrass, soul, and blues. He is considered one of the most popular and successful electronic dance music (EDM) artists of all time, and was credited with "leading EDM into the mainstream" by Variety. Avicii began posting remixes on Internet forums when he was 16 and in 2007 signed with the Dejfitts Plays record label. After winning a BBC Radio 1 competition in 2008, he signed a talent management agreement with Arash Pournouri. "Levels" (2011) was his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100. His debut studio album, True (2013), peaked in the top 10 in more than 15 countries; the lead single, "Wake Me Up", became a most-streamed song on Spotify. Both his album Stories (2015) and the EP Avīci (01) (2017) reached number one on the Swedish Sverigetopplistan chart. His third and final album, Tim (2019), was released posthumously and reached number one on the Billboard Top Dance Albums chart. Avicii, a self-described shy person, suffered from anxiety and depression and used alcohol as a coping mechanism. In 2012, Avicii was hospitalized for 11 days in New York City with acute pancreatitis caused by alcoholism. Between 2012 and 2014, to treat pain from the pancreatitis, Avicii was prescribed opioids and became addicted. In March 2014, he underwent surgery to remove his appendix and gallbladder and entered a drug rehabilitation facility in 2015. Due to these health issues, Avicii announced his retirement from touring in March 2016. He experienced significant anxiety and in 2018, while on vacation in Muscat, Oman, Avicii died by suicide at the age of 28, using a broken wine bottle to cause "massive bleeding". Avicii's accolades included 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.
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, one of whom is the actor Anton Körberg. At age eight, Tim started mixing music in his bedroom. Inspired by one of his brothers 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 a recording contract with the Dejfitts Plays record label. He was a member of the Laidback Luke Internet forum under the user name "Timberman", where he posted to get feedback on his music. During this period, he remixed tracks by Little Boots, Robyn, and Dizzee Rascal. Bergling adopted his moniker Avicii, a respelling of Avīci, the lowest level of naraka, or hell, in Buddhism. He chose the moniker because his real name was already in use when he created his page on Myspace. In April 2010, under the name Tim Berg, Avicii released "Bromance", an instrumental track, via Joia Records, a Swedish independent dance label. After the track became popular, in October 2010, Avicii added vocal elements from Samuele Sartini's track "Love U Seek" (featuring singer Amanda Wilson) to the track and released the song "Seek Bromance" via Ministry of Sound under license from Sirup Music. It reached the top 20 in several countries, including Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. In 2010, he signed with the European A&R team at EMI Music Publishing.
"Fade into Darkness", which samples a track from Penguin Cafe Orchestra, was released in July 2011. Leona Lewis sampled the track on her single "Collide", released in August 2011. The samples were not credited to Avicii as he thought Lewis was only going to sample the original track by Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Avicii then attempted to legally block the release of the single; Lewis agreed to give Avicii credits on her track. In October 2011, Avicii released "Levels", which launched him into the mainstream. "Levels" reached the top ten in 15 countries. The song is considered to be his "career-making early signature song". Avicii's collaboration track "Sunshine" with David Guetta was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording in February 2012 but lost to "Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites" by Skrillex. In April 2012, he released "Silhouettes", which features vocals from Salem Al Fakir. It charted in several European countries.
In June 2012, after reaching two million followers on Facebook, Avicii released "Two Million". In August 2012, Avicii performed at the 2012 Lollapalooza festival in Grant Park in Chicago. He toured the U.S. that summer, playing bigger venues than on his previous tour, but the tour was regarded as a flop as many seats were empty. Also in August 2012, he released "Dancing in My Head" (Avicii's 'Been Cursed' Mix), featuring vocals from Eric Turner, on Beatport. In September 2012, Avicii became the first DJ to headline Radio City Music Hall. At his performance at Radio City Music Hall, he gave a preview of "Stay with You," a collaboration with Mike Posner. In November 2012, Avicii's song "Last Dance" was released. In December 2012, Avicii released the song "I Could Be the One", a collaboration with Nicky Romero that features 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. In January 2013, Avicii partnered with Ericsson to create the world's first "crowdsourced" hit song. It led to the song "X You", released in February 2013; Avicii acted as executive producer and created the song. Also in January 2013, Avicii released "Three Million" featuring Negin to celebrate his Facebook page reaching three million followers. In February 2013, at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, Avicii was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording for "Levels". 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 Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, and Chile.
In March 2013, during his Main Stage set at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Avicii premiered new experimental tracks from his upcoming album True, with a live band including Mac Davis, Dan Tyminski, Audra Mae, Aloe Blacc, Mike Einziger, Ben Kenney, and Jose Pasillis II. Many of the new songs received mixed critical reviews; the audience "booed" him as it was not the house music that they expected. That same month, Avicii won Best Artist (Solo) at the 28th Annual International Dance Music Awards. In April 2013, Avicii and ex-ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson composed the anthem for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. The song was performed for the first time in the final in May 2013. In June 2013, "Wake Me Up", featuring vocals from Aloe Blacc was released. It 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 the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, a record at that time. "Wake Me Up" sold 267,000 copies in its first week on sale and overtook Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" as the UK's fastest-selling single of 2013. The song peaked at number one in 22 countries. In August 2013, Avicii performed "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. True was released in September 2013. The single "Hey Brother", with vocals by Dan Tyminski, was released in October. That same month, DJ Mag ranked Avicii third on the 2013 list of "Top 100 DJs". In November 2013, Avicii won his first award—"Best Electronic"—at the MTV Europe Music Awards. That same month 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", with vocals by Audra Mae. In 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. In 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 was hospitalised on 28 March and was unable to play his closing set at the festival. In April 2014, in collaboration with Carlos Santana, Wyclef Jean, and Alexandre Pires, Avicii released the official 2014 FIFA World Cup anthem, "Dar um Jeito (We Will Find a Way)", which was performed at the closing ceremony in July 2014. It was also included on the album 2014 FIFA World Cup, which was released in the US in May 2014. In May 2014, "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, co-producing, and playing piano for the track "A Sky Full of Stars" from the band's sixth studio album, Ghost Stories, which was released in May 2014. "Lovers on the Sun", a track Avicii co-produced with David Guetta, was released in June 2014. In 2014, Avicii collaborated with Madonna to produce the tracks "Wash All Over Me" and "Rebel Heart" for her 2015 album, Rebel Heart; the tracks were leaked in December 2014.
In July 2014, Avicii told Rolling Stone his next album, Stories, would include collaborations with Jon Bon Jovi, Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Chris Martin, Wyclef Jean, and Matisyahu. Avicii described the album as "a lot more song-oriented". "Lose Myself", a collaboration between Avicii and Chinese singer Wang Leehom, was released on 1 September 2014. The song was created as the theme song for the Storm Electronic Music Festival in Shanghai. On 8 September 2014, Avicii's 25th birthday, he decided to cancel his remaining performances that year due to health concerns. Still, the following day he announced through the release of a new single, "The Days" later in 2014; the song is a collaboration between Avicii and Robbie Williams and was released as the first single from Avicii's album Stories on 3 October 2014. On 17 November 2014, Wyclef Jean released a track titled "Divine Sorrow" featuring Avicii that was part of Product Red's campaign "Share the Sound of an AIDS-Free Generation".
