Avicii

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Avicii
AviciiBergling.jpg
Avicii performs in Pelican Beach Club in 2013.
Background information
Birth name Tim Bergling
Also known as Tim Berg
Tom Hangs
Avicii
Born (1989-09-08) 8 September 1989 (age 23)
Origin Stockholm, Sweden
Genres House, electronic dance, progressive house, electro house
Occupations Electronic musician, DJ, record producer
Instruments Keyboard, FL Studio
Years active 2007–present
Labels Island Records,[1] LE7ELS, Vicious, Big Beat, Ultra, Capitol, Joia, UMG, Terminal Recordings.
Associated acts David Guetta, Brendan Ganesan, Sebastien Drums, Lenny Kravitz, Eric Turner, Nicky Romero, John Dahlback, Mike Posner, Skrillex, Afrojack, Nadia Ali
Website www.avicii.com

Tim Bergling (born 8 September 1989), known professionally as Avicii (pronounced ə-VEE-chee), is a Swedish DJ, remixer, and record producer.[2] Avicii ranked No. 6 on the Top 100 DJs list by DJ Magazine in 2011,[3] and ranked higher in 2012, coming at No. 3 on the Top 100 DJs list by the publication.[4]

Contents

Early life [edit]

Tim Bergling was born on 8 September 1989 in Stockholm, Sweden. He began remixing and producing tracks in his own bedroom at the age of 18. His friends convinced him to put his work on various music blogs online, which led to him gaining a huge following and led to support from legendary DJ and Producer Tiësto, who invited him to perform a weekly residency at Privilege Ibiza. Also, he gained support from Pete Tong who released his first single "Manman" through his Bedroom Bedlam label.[5] In May 2008, Avicii signed to At Night Management.

Influences [edit]

Avicii has said that his influences include Tiësto, Laidback Luke, Eric Prydz, Armand Van Helden, Daft Punk, Sebastian Ingrosso, Steve Angello and Axwell.[6]

"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!" Avicii – April 2011[7]

Musical career [edit]

2010–2011 [edit]

In 2010, Avicii released a collaboration with fellow Swedish DJ John Dahlbäck, titled "Don't Hold Back." He additionally worked on projects with internationally-recognized DJs Tiësto and Sebastian Ingrosso.[citation needed] While his work is primarily electronic synthetic tracks, EMI released a vocal version of his track "Bromance," titled "Seek Bromance."[citation needed] "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.[citation needed] 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".[citation needed] 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 [edit]

Avicii's most notable song has been the single "Levels" which was released officially 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 - "Call Me Back" and Flo Rida in his single "Good Feeling", which was produced by Dr. Luke and Cirkut.[8] It bears a close resemblance to the "Levels".

In the Britain's Got Talent semi-final, Greig Stewart performed this song on laser harp.

2012 [edit]

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. "Madonna vs. Avicii - Girl Gone Wild (Avicii's UMF Remix)" was released on 20 April 2012, and Avicii vs. Lenny Kravitz - "Superlove" 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. At his shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, 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 [edit]

On 30 January 2013, Avicii released "Three Million (ft. 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' for the 2013 Grammy Awards. He was nominated alongside Calvin Harris & Ne-Yo, Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia & John Martin, and Al Walser. The award show took place on 10 February 2013 and the award was won by Skrillex.

In late February - early March 2013, Avicii toured Australia as one of the headline acts in the Future Music Festival alongside The Prodigy and The Stone Roses.[9]

In late February 2013, Avicii made his first South American Tour including concerts in Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Chile.

On 11 April 2013, Avicii has released his new album promo mix on SoundCloud.[10]

On 15 April 2013, it was officially announced by the EBU and the SVT that Avicii along with the ex-ABBA members, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, have composed the anthem for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. The song will be performed for the first time in the Final on the 18 May.[11]

Avicii X You Project [edit]

On 9 January 2013, Avicii launched the Avicii X You project, a partnership with Ericsson[12] 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.

Avicii regularly posted updates on the Studio Blog of the Avicii X You website containing the winners of all the collaborate parts of the final song. He also announced almost every week how the song was going and did Skype interview calls with the winning collaborators.

On 26 February 2013, the music video to the final song was released on the Avicii Vevo YouTube channel, concluding that the title of the song would be 'X You'. He also released on the Avicii X You website a free play of the extended version of the song.

The winning collaborators were Kian Sang (melody), Naxsy (bassline), Martin Kupilas (beat & rhythm), ВАНЯ ХАКСИ (break) and Christian Westphalen, Mateusz Kolata & Jonathan Madray (effects).

Charitable Work [edit]

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 rural Africa.[13]

Radio City Music Hall [edit]

On 26 September 2012, Avicii made history by being the first DJ to headline world famous Radio City Music Hall in New York City.[citation needed] He performed two sold out shows on 26 and 27 September. The 27 September show sold out in under one minute. He was supported by Matt Goldman and Cazzette at the two shows.

Discography [edit]

Main article: Avicii discography
  • 2011: Avicii Presents Strictly Miami
  • 2011: The Singles

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "AVICII: Island Records". Island Records. Retrieved 27 January 2013. 
  2. ^ "AVICII: Biography". The DJ List. Retrieved 4 June 2011. 
  3. ^ "DJ Mag". DJ Mag. Retrieved 13 December 2011. 
  4. ^ "DJ Mag Top 100 Results". Music Week. Retrieved 19 October 2012. 
  5. ^ http://www.mtv.com/artists/avicii/biography/
  6. ^ "Avicci Bio, Music, News & Shows". DJZ.com. 
  7. ^ "Exclusive: Avicii / Tim Berg Interview | Maxumi Magazine | Maxumi Magazine". Maxumi.co.uk. Retrieved 4 June 2011. 
  8. ^ "Avicii Bio, Music, News & Shows". DJZ.com. Retrieved 28 February 2013. 
  9. ^ http://www.futureentertainment.com.au/futuremusicfestival/sydney/
  10. ^ https://soundcloud.com/aviciiofficial/avicii-promotional-mix-2013
  11. ^ "ABBA's Benny, Björn and Avicii to write 'Eurovision anthem'". EBU. Retrieved 15 April 2013. 
  12. ^ Ericsson sets tone for new music trends in project with Avicii, 8 January 2013.
  13. ^ Amorosi, A.D. "Avicci: Leading By Example With Charity". DJZ.com. Retrieved 28 February 2013. 

External links [edit]

Avicii
Singles
Other songs
Related articles
Spinnin' Records
Members
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