AVICII – World Renowned Electronic Dance Music (EDM) Producer and DJ

Avicii otherwise known as Tim Bergling was a world renowned dj. He died at the young age of twenty-eight years old and I was very surprised to hear about his death. While I was not well versed in the body of work from Avicii’s career, I did recognize his famous name immediately upon hearing of his death. Some people are just “international” superstars and are known all around the world so even if a person does not know too much about his work, they might have at least recognized Avicii’s name like I recognized his name.

Learning about Avicii’s death definitely gave me a moment of pause and I decided to take a closer look at his catalog of work as well as watch some of the YouTube video clips about him and his life including some footage of a film documentary about him.

Avicii spent a lot of time on airplanes, traveling internationally to various venues for performances. The internationally famed dj, Avicii was originally from the country Sweden. In various interviews, he spoke about how when he was younger, it was easy to get bored in the area in Sweden where he lived and it was important for people there to find hobbies and an outlet especially during the winter months.

For Avicii, the hobby that he chose for himself was that of using computer software for music mixing and composition and all of this eventually parlayed into a hugely successful career for him. He has stated that he started out with putting out demos on platforms such as MySpace. It was not long before he was “discovered” for his talents. As Avicii gained superstar level success, his work ethic was tireless.

In the clips of one film documentary that I recently viewed about Avicii, it showed that Avicii struggled through some health problems and hospitalization but still continued to focus so intently on his work. He was using a laptop computer while in his hospital bed, at one point. Footage was also shown of just how much Avicii kept working so hard on his laptop computer to produce work. On some of the airplane flights, everyone around him would be sleeping while he was sitting up and working on the laptop. Up in the clouds, there was no time to be looking out of the airplane window which I love to do when I am on a flight. He was just relentlessly hard at work. There were a few light moments in the film such as showing how efficiently and neatly he was able to pack a suitcase of belongings for his next trip or showing how Avicii shuffled his feet as his way of dancing along while he was performing as a DJ. Performing for massive crowds of thousands of people, It was clear the Avicii moved people with his performances. The crowds became fired up and super excited with a palpable energy that you can feel just by looking at a video and not having been there at the concert performance in person. It is clear that Avicii’s performances had a powerful effect on audiences. Lots of impressive and technologically advanced props were used in these performances as well.

Avicii died in April 2018. Several YouTube video clips about his life showed the hustle and bustle of his lifestyle. He had to be on the computer so much, always carrying his laptop around with him to do edits to his work as needed. There was often a large entourage of security people surrounding him. He was often escorted up to the stage for performances and then quickly guided right off to board a plane and head to the next venue. There was a lot of living in hotel rooms but he spoke fondly of his family, Sweden, and the real estate that he had ownership of in America although he did not get to spend a lot of time at his home base.

Many celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith had been interviewed about their “Top Ten Rules for Success”. Avicii had done these types of interviews as well. In various interviews, Avicii offered the advice that If you work hard enough, you can eventually attain success. He also advised people to “get started”. Do something that will get you on your way to achieving that success, then keep up a routine and never give up. He spoke about how becoming a DJ is not as difficult as it once was, thanks to the many technological advances with computer software than can assist in the process of mixing music and editing.

Towards the end of his life, Avicii admitted that he was overworked and needed to take more breaks to tend to his health. Tragically, although he had been in ailing health, his death still seemed sudden and very unexpected to huge legions of his fans across the world, because it was ruled a suicide at the young age of 28 years old. His body was discovered in a hotel room near Muscat, Oman. His family members including his parents released various statements to the public including stating that Avicii was depressed and searching for meaning in his life.

Avicii’s name and legacy will remain well known across the globe. He got people on their dancing feet with a powerful energy. So many fans remember him fondly and find a way to pay tribute to him across the internet including in the comments sections of his videos on YouTube and on his Instagram page.

He is well known for songs such as:

Wake Me Up co-written by songwriters Avicii, Aloe Blacc, and Mike Einziger

“Wake me up when it’s all over,

When I’m wiser and I’m older.

All this time I’ve been lying to myself.

I didn’t know I was lost”