• September 8, 1989 - April 20, 2018
• The DJ/record producer Avicii was born in Stockholm, Sweden. As a teen, boredom took hold during the dark, cold months, and he downloaded the Fruity Loops software and taught himself how to create house music.
• His real name is Tim Bergling, but he started using the moniker Avicii back in his MySpace days. In Sanskrit, the term Avici (Bergling added an extra i) means "without waves," but in Buddhism, it's also the name for the lowest level of hell.
• His father ran an office-supply company in Stockholm, while his mother is Anki Liden, a famous Swedish actress who appeared in the Oscar-nominated film My Life as a Dog (1985).
• Although he first scored a hit with "Seek Bromance," his breakthrough performance was at Miami's Ultra Music Festival in 2011, and his smash single "Levels" launched him into the mainstream.
• His 24th birthday was spent at a shooting party in the Nevada desert. He told Rolling Stone: "We went out in the desert with, like, 30 guns and $400 of stuff we bought at Walmart to shoot at... lots of cantaloupes."
• He told Us Weekly his first DJ gig was a school prom for a crowd of 40 teenagers.
• Avicii was the most successful songwriter in Sweden in 2015. He claimed no less than six of the country's top 100 most popular songs of that year. Avicii ranked ahead of such prominent tunesmiths as singer-songwriter Tove Lo and international superstar hitmaker Max Martin.
• His brutal work schedule and indulgences caused a number of health issues: he was hospitalized a number of times to treat problems with his pancreas and gallbladder. For the sake of his physical and mental health, he stopped touring in 2016. Avicii died on April 20, 2018 at age 28.
• Longtime collaborator Carl Falk told Spin about Avicii's inability to rest or even eat. "He'd call eight hours after I left the studio and he'd still be there with his half-eaten cheeseburger laying on the laptop. It was horrible to see. We had to make sure that he slept, that he ate."
• The Stockholm venue formerly known as the Ericsson Globe changed its name to the Avicii Arena in memory of the "Levels" hitmaker in May 2021. To celebrate the announcement, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra recorded a symphonic version of the Avicii song "For A Better Day."
  
  The Avicii Arena is the largest hemispherical building on Earth.
• On February 26, 2022, a museum in Stockholm opened to celebrate the life of Avicii. Called The Avicii Experience, it's located in a gaming center called Space, which opened a few months earlier.

Comments

More Songfacts:

MickeyToni Basil

"Mickey" by Toni Basil was originally a song called "Kitty" by a male group. She picked the new name after Micky Dolenz of The Monkees.

UmbrellaRihanna

When Rihanna's "Umbrella" was a hit in the summer of 2007, it rained constantly in London, prompting their newspaper The Sun to suggest a "Rihanna Curse."

GloryJay-Z

Jay-Z's 2012 "Glory" features his daughter Blue Ivy Carter's cries and coos. At less than two days old, she became the youngest ever credited artist to feature on a Billboard chart when the song debuted on R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at #74.

Don't Mean NothingRichard Marx

Richard Marx' debut single "Don't Mean Nothing" features Joe Walsh on guitar.

Try AgainAaliyah

Until December 5, 1998, a song had to be issued as a single to make the Hot 100. Aaliyah's "Try Again" was the first tune to top the chart based on airplay alone, without any sales figures being included.

APT.Rosé

The chant in the Bruno Mars/Rosé hit "APT" is "apateu," the Korean word for apartment. It's named after a Korean drinking game called "Apartment" that Rosé told Bruno about.

Editor's Picks

Ron and Russell Mael of SparksSongwriter Interviews

The men of Sparks on their album Hippopotamus, and how Morrissey handled it when they suggested he lighten up.

Strange MagneticsSong Writing

How Bing Crosby, Les Paul, a US Army Signal Corps Officer, and the Nazis helped shape rock and Roll.

Elton JohnFact or Fiction

Does he have beef with Gaga? Is he Sean Lennon's godfather? See if you can tell fact from fiction in the Elton John edition.

Michael Glabicki of Rusted RootSongwriter Interviews

Michael tells the story of "Send Me On My Way," and explains why some of the words in the song don't have a literal meaning.

Bands Named After Real People (Who Aren't In The Band)Song Writing

How a gym teacher, a janitor, and a junkie became part of some very famous band names.

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in SongsSong Writing

Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.