Background and career
Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll (Norwegian pronunciation: [çʏrːə ˈɡøːrʋelː dɑːl]; born 11 September 1991), known professionally as Kygo (Norwegian: [ˈkỳːɡuː]), is a Singapore-born Norwegian DJ and record producer. He is regarded as one of the key figures that brought tropical house music to the commercial mainstream in the mid 2010s. He first received international attention with his December 2013 remix of the track "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran and his December 2014 single "Firestone" (featuring Conrad Sewell). In late 2015, he reached one billion streams on Spotify faster than any other artist, and by June 2016, he had reached two billion streams. He also experienced commercial success with the singles "Stole the Show" (2015), "Here for You" (2015), "Stay" (2015), "It Ain't Me" with Selena Gomez (2017), aremix of "Higher Love" (2019), a remix of "What's Love Got To Do With It" (2020), and two singles from his self-titled album, Kygo (2024), “Whatever" and “For Life”. His debut album, Cloud Nine, was released on 13 May 2016. Kygo became the first house music producer to perform at an Olympics closing ceremony in August 2016 at the 2016 Rio Olympics. In March 2018, Billboard ranked Kygo third on its 2018 ranking of dance musicians titled Billboard Dance 100. The same year, he was ranked 32 on DJ Mag's top 100 DJs of the world, and in October 2019, he was ranked 42. Kygo's stage name is a portmanteau derived from the first two letters of his first and last names (replacing ø with o). Kyrre got the idea for his stage name through a username he received in high school for the learning management system platform itslearning.
Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll was born on 11 September 1991 in Singapore to Norwegian parents and raised in Bergen, Norway. He is the son of Kjersti Gjerde, a dentist in Norway, and Lars Gørvell-Dahll, who was working abroad in the maritime industry. He has an older stepbrother Mads, two older sisters Johanne and Jenny, and a younger half-brother Sondre. During his childhood, he lived and travelled with his family in Brazil, Japan, Kenya and Egypt. Kygo started taking piano lessons at the age of six and considers himself more of a pianist than a disc jockey. He stopped when he was 15 or 16 and started producing music with Logic Studio and a MIDI keyboard while watching several tutorials on YouTube. When he decided to pursue music full-time, he was halfway through a degree in business and finance at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has cited Avicii as his main inspiration.
On 15 May 2013, Kygo released his first single called "Epsilon" on the Romanian record label Ensis Records. On 1 December 2014, he released the single "Firestone", featuring vocals from Conrad Sewell, which gained international recognition and debuted on several charts worldwide, being streamed 810 million times on YouTube and 1 billion times on Spotify, as of April 2024. After receiving over 80 million views on YouTube and SoundCloud, Kygo was contacted by Avicii and by Chris Martin of Coldplay to create a remix of the song "Midnight". He also supported Avicii at Findings Festival in Oslo, Norway, in 2014. On 19 September 2014, it was confirmed that Kygo was to replace Avicii at mainstage in Tomorrowland, due to Avicii's health concerns.
He was also featured in an interview for Billboard magazine, where he talked to writer Matt Medved about his remixes for musicians Diplo and Coldplay, and talked about his upcoming tour in North America. In July 2014, Kygo entered into a partnership with EDM lifestyle brand Electric Family to produce a collaboration bracelet for which one hundred per cent of the proceeds are donated to Médecins Sans Frontières. In the same month, he signed a record label deal with Sony International and Ultra Music.
In February 2015, Kygo's song "ID" was featured in the official trailer for Ultra Music Festival. The same track is also featured on FIFA 16, a popular association football video game by EA Sports. On 21 March 2015, he released his second single, titled "Stole the Show", featuring Parson James, which as of 2 January 2019, had 326 million views on YouTube and 1 billion streams on Spotify. On 31 July 2015, he released his third single, "Nothing Left", featuring Will Heard. "Nothing Left" reached number one on the Norwegian Singles Chart. In August 2015, Kygo was a featured headliner at Lollapalooza in Chicago, one of the biggest music festivals in the world. On 4 September 2015, he released his fourth single, titled "Here for You", featuring Ella Henderson. Three months later, his fifth single, "Stay", produced with fellow Norwegian record producer William Larsen and featuring vocals by Maty Noyes, was released on 4 December 2015. In December 2015, Kygo became the fastest artist in history to reach one billion streams on Spotify. On 12 February 2016, Kygo released a single with Dillon Francis and James Hersey called "Coming Over". Kygo then announced that he was embarking on a worldwide tour to promote his album.
In the beginning of March 2016, Kygo announced that his debut studio album was going to be released on 13 May 2016, under the title Cloud Nine. He also announced that he would be releasing three promotional singles, leading up to the release of the album. The first of these singles, which was released 18 March 2016, was entitled "Fragile", which features vocals and was collaborated with Labrinth. The second single came out on 1 April 2016 and was called "Raging", which features vocals from the Irish band Kodaline and was also co-written by James Bay. The third and last single was released on 22 April 2016 and was entitled "I'm In Love", featuring vocals from James Vincent McMorrow. Kygo's debut studio album was released on 13 May 2016. Kygo launched a new lifestyle brand called Kygo Life on 17 August 2016 in Europe, the United States and Canada. The brand consists of two collections of high-fashion and relaxed wear, in addition to hardware such as headphones. He performed "Carry Me" with American singer and songwriter Julia Michaels at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics on 21 August at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, as part of a segment that promoted the new Olympic Channel service launching after the Games. His performance in the Olympics helped grow his popularity.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
