- Born Tim Bergling, in Sweden, 1989. Died in 2018, in Oman. Cause of death was suicide due to injuries with a broken wine bottle, leading to his death due to blood loss.
- The stagename Avicii means “the lowest level of Buddhist hell.” While his earliest work used his given name, he changed it when he tried to set up a MySpace page, and Tim Bergling was already taken.
- Avicii’s work as a DJ started as a teenager. His remixes started to reach hit status in 2010. Much of his work was released as singles while not part of an album, common with DJ/remixers. That said, he did have three studio albums – True from 2013, Stories from 2015 and Tim from 2019.
- All profits from his final album go to his foundation, which was created by his family after his death. The foundation was set up to tackle mental health awareness and suicide prevention issues.
- The songs on these albums and many of the singles were written by Avicii with various co-writers. For example, his biggest hit, Levels, includes a co-writer credit for Etta James, because it includes a vocal sample of James’ 1962 song Something’s Got A Hold On Me (James died less than six months after Avicii’s song was released, at age 73).
- Avicii was prolific at making remixes of other artists’ work, moving those works into Electronic Dance Music (EDM) space. His success led to accolades in his field – he was recognized as a top ten DJ from 2011 to 2015.
- Touring for DJs is all about playing their remixes at festivals and nightclubs. Avicii announced in March 2016 that he was finished with touring due to health concerns. He had acute pancreatitis (partially due to heavy alcohol consumption), and had his gallbladder and appendix removed.
- He was nominated twice for Grammy Awards – once for Levels and once for his collaboration with David Guetta, Sunshine.
- A museum opened in 2022 in Sweden called The Avicii Experience. His parents initiated it, and it is a tribute museum that celebrates his work and his creative process.
- One way to tell if an artist is popular is YouTube views. I guess Avicii is popular – Wake Me Up has over 2.4 BILLION views since its release in June 2013. Click below to add one to that number.