Avicii

Did You Know?

• Avicii's early work was in deep house and progressive house, often based on a four-chord structure, sub-bass, and a simple synth melody.
• In 2011, he started House for Hunger, a charity to alleviate global hunger, raising $1 million from a US tour.
• He supported campaigns against human trafficking and gang violence by directing videos for 'For a Better Day' and 'Pure Grinding'.

Life and career

Tim Bergling came into the world on 8 September 1989 in Stockholm, Sweden. His father Klas ran an office supply business, and his mother Anki Lidén was an actress. He grew up with three siblings: David, Linda, and Anton Körberg, who became an actor. When Tim was eight, he began experimenting with music in his bedroom. At sixteen, following the example of his DJ brother, he taught himself to produce music using a pirated copy of FL Studio. In May 2007, he signed with the label Dejfitts Plays. He was active on the Laidback Luke Internet forum under the handle "Timberman," where he shared his work for critique. During this time, he remixed songs by Little Boots, Robyn, and Dizzee Rascal. He chose the name Avicii, a different spelling of Avīci, the deepest level of Buddhist hell, because his real name was unavailable on Myspace.

In April 2010, using the name Tim Berg, he put out the instrumental "Bromance" on Joia Records. After it caught on, he added vocals from Samuele Sartini's "Love U Seek" and released "Seek Bromance" through Ministry of Sound. The track landed in the top twenty in Sweden, the UK, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Later that year, he joined the European A&R team at EMI Music Publishing. July 2011 saw the release of "Fade into Darkness," which borrowed a sample from Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Leona Lewis used the same sample for her single "Collide," leading Avicii to try to block its release; Lewis eventually gave him credit. In October 2011, "Levels" came out, pushing him into the mainstream and reaching the top ten in fifteen countries. His collaboration with David Guetta, "Sunshine," earned a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording in February 2012. At the 2012 Ultra Music Festival in Miami, he debuted remixes and tracks with Madonna and Lenny Kravitz.

Personal life

Avicii met American student Emily Goldberg in 2011; they dated for two years. He then dated Canadian student and model Racquel Bettencourt, with whom he lived in California; they separated in late 2014. Bettencourt later said they restarted their relationship in 2016, and a pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage. At the time of his death, he was dating Czech model Tereza Kačerová, keeping the relationship private. As a teenager, Avicii smoked marijuana for the first time, leading to paranoia and derealization; he confessed to his parents, who took him to a child psychologist. He suffered from anxiety and depression, was self-conscious about his nose and acne, and used alcohol as a coping mechanism for the stress of performing and public recognition. He also had poor eating habits and slept little. In January 2012, he was hospitalized for 11 days in New York City with acute pancreatitis caused by alcoholism. Between 2012 and 2014, he was prescribed opioids including OxyContin and Vicodin for pain, to which he became addicted. He began taking buprenorphine/naloxone in 2014 to wean off the addiction. He ignored doctors' advice, leading to a ruptured appendix; in March 2014, he underwent surgery to remove his appendix and gallbladder. In 2015, after an intervention in Ibiza by his father, manager, tour manager, bodyguard, and older brother, he entered a drug rehabilitation facility. He announced his retirement from touring in March 2016. The documentary Avicii: True Stories (2017) depicted pressure from his management to continue performing.

Death

The pressure from his management and fanbase to keep touring and uphold his public image weighed heavily on Avicii. He worried intensely about letting his fans down and was stung by the hate mail that followed his show cancellations. In early April 2018, he took a holiday in Muscat, Oman, staying with friends connected to the Al Bu Said royal family. The next day, he joined a conference call with his management team to pick guest artists for new music, posed for fan photos at the Muscat Hills Resort, and spent time kite-surfing and sailing. The day before his death, a friend told his father that Avicii seemed unwell, wasn’t eating or talking, and was deep in meditation. His diary’s final entry read: “The shedding of the soul is the last attachment, before it restarts!” After a troubling phone call, his brother flew to Oman hoping to bring him home. On 20 April 2018, at a luxury estate and farmhouse owned by the Al Bu Said dynasty in Muscat, Avicii took his own life at 28, using a broken wine bottle that caused massive bleeding. The Royal Oman Police performed two autopsies and confirmed the next day that there was no criminal suspicion. A private funeral was held on 8 June 2018 at Stockholm’s Skogskyrkogården cemetery, with only close family and friends present. His body was cremated, and his ashes were buried later that month at Hedvig Eleonora Church, near his childhood home. He left no will, so under Swedish law his assets—worth $25.5 million after debts—went to his parents. In September 2022, his family sold 75% of his master recordings and publishing rights to Pophouse Entertainment for a nine-figure sum, donating the proceeds to the Tim Bergling Foundation to secure its long-term funding.

Legacy

Many EDM artists have cited Avicii as an influence. Alan Walker and DubVision described him as an icon; Kygo called him his biggest inspiration and the reason he started making electronic music. Diplo, Sebastian Ingrosso, Felix Jaehn, and Martin Garrix also cited him. The Washington Post called him a pioneer who bridged country and electronic music, crediting 'Wake Me Up' and 'Hey Brother' as examples. Mixmag described him as the artist most responsible for the mainstream pop crossover success of electronic music, and said 'Levels' elevated electro into the pop cultural stratosphere. Several publications credit him as one of the DJs who brought electronic music to Top 40 radio in the early 2010s. He influenced mainstream artists outside electronic music: Nile Rodgers called him maybe one of the best melody writers he had worked with; Mike Einziger of Incubus said some of their work together was music he was most proud of; Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons called working with him one of his favorite collaborative moments; Charlie Puth said Avicii opened his eyes to what his productions could sound like; Eric Clapton said he was inspired by Avicii and dedicated a song to him. In November 2019, Billboard named 'Levels' one of the 100 songs that define the 2010s, and 'Wake Me Up' came 13th on the Official Charts Company's chart of the decade.