Avicii

Avicii — real name Tim Bergling — was a Swedish DJ, producer, and songwriter who did as much as anyone to push electronic music into the mainstream. He broke through in 2011 with “Levels,” a track built around a soulful Etta James sample that turned into one of the defining anthems of the EDM boom. That one record put a teenager from Stockholm on the map worldwide, and dance music hasn’t sounded the same since.

Avicii released his debut studio album, True, in 2013. It leaned harder into songwriting and live instrumentation than most dance records of the era, blending house music with folk, country, and bluegrass textures — banjo included. The single “Wake Me Up,” featuring Aloe Blacc, became a genuine global crossover smash, proving EDM could live on pop and even country radio without losing its dancefloor DNA. “Hey Brother” and “You Make Me” rounded out an album that basically rewrote what a dance record could sound like.

He followed it up with his second studio album, Stories, in 2015, continuing to chase that same genre-blending sound across singles like “Waiting for Love” and “Without You,” which found success at radio and streaming around the world.

Behind the massive hits, Avicii was candid about how brutal the touring lifestyle was on his health. In 2016 he announced he was stepping away from the road for good, choosing to focus on studio work instead of the relentless tour schedule that had worn him down. It was a rare, honest moment from someone at the absolute top of the industry, and it helped kick off a real conversation about mental health in dance music — one that’s still going today.

Tim Bergling passed away on April 20, 2018, in Muscat, Oman, at age 28. His death was later confirmed as a suicide. The loss hit the entire dance music community hard — Avicii wasn’t just a hitmaker, he was someone whose music soundtracked a generation of festivals, road trips, and nights out.

In his memory, his family established the Tim Bergling Foundation to support mental health awareness and suicide prevention, with a particular focus on young people and touring musicians. In 2019, his collaborators and family helped finish and release TIM, a posthumous album built from music he’d been working on, giving fans one more chapter of his catalog. Stockholm’s Ericsson Globe arena was later renamed Avicii Arena in his honor — a permanent tribute in his hometown.

Avicii’s fingerprints are all over modern pop and dance music. The melodic, emotionally direct, genre-blending style he pioneered on “Levels” and “Wake Me Up” opened the door for a wave of producers who followed him, and his catalog remains a staple of festival sets and playlists years after his death. Few artists have shaped the sound of a genre as fast, or as lastingly, as he did.

Avicii in the News