How Did Tim Bergling Decide On His Name Avicii?
During a video interview with VEVO titled ‘Becoming: Avicii,’ Tim Bergling discusses the real meaning behind the name Avicii. In the video clip, Tim Bergling talks about his explosive career throughout the years as well as his early days as a musician. Tim explains that the name AVICI means the lowest level of Buddhist hell. When he tried to claim the name on Myspace however, AVICI was already taken. Tim decided to add an extra ‘i’ to be called AVICII.
Related: Avicii Net Worth
While looking for exposure, Avicii revealed “It was all about house blogs. I was always on those websites.” During his outreach phase, Avicii was discovered by Ash Pournouri (who has since parted ways with Avicii). Apparently Ash Pournouri spotted Tim, reached out and soon became his manager after Tim realized he wanted to make music his full-time business.
Watch the Avicii Meaning in the video below:
Once Pournouri came on board, everything moved fast. Bergling started uploading tracks under the Avicii name on those same house blogs and forums he’d been haunting, and it didn’t take long for the sound to catch on. Early bootlegs and mashups gave way to originals, and by 2011 he’d broken through in a huge way with “Bromance” and “Levels,” the latter becoming one of the defining anthems of the era’s big room and progressive house boom.
From there, the name kept climbing far past the dance floor. “Wake Me Up,” his 2013 collaboration with Aloe Blacc, folded folk and country instrumentation into a dance record and topped charts across the globe, a move that widened what “EDM” could even sound like. Tracks like “Hey Brother” and “Waiting For Love” kept that same genre-blending streak going, and Avicii became one of the few electronic producers to consistently cross over into mainstream pop and country radio.
It’s a wild thought looking back: a name born out of a rejected Myspace handle and a Buddhist term for the lowest hell realm ended up representing one of the most recognizable and influential sounds in modern dance music. Simple as the origin story is, it’s proof that sometimes the smallest decisions, like adding one extra letter, end up defining an entire career.
