World-renowned electronic musician Tim Bergling, most commonly known as Avicii, released a statement on Tuesday, March 29, announcing that his scheduled sets for 2016 will be the last of his live performances.
The Swedish DJ made his big break into the mainstream music scene back in 2011 with the wildly popular and famous song “Levels” that did very well on the U.S. Billboard Charts, as well as topping charts all over the world. The track sampled Etta James’ 1962 gospel piece entitled “Something’s Got A Hold On Me,” and this musical sampling also inspired many other references such as Flo Rida’s “Good Feeling” that was released a month after “Levels.” Other hits from the artist include “Hey Brother,” “Waiting For Love,” “The Nights” and “Wake Me Up,” which is one of the most streamed songs on Spotify in the history of the music service, having been listened to more than 421 million times to date. In addition, Avicii has more than one billion streams and over 13 million monthly listeners on Spotify, 19 million likes on his Facebook page, over three billion views on his YouTube VEVO account, as well as being named Forbes' sixth highest-paid DJ in the world last year.
The open letter was posted to the artist’s Facebook page, and it expressed his gratitude towards the opportunities he has received in the past few years, gave thanks to a long list of people that assisted in the journey of his success, and briefly explained his reasoning behind stepping away from the touring life. (Read it in full here.)
“My path has been filled with success but it hasn’t come without its bumps… I’ve come to know myself better and realize that there’s so much I want to do with my life… Two weeks ago, I took the time to drive across the U.S. with my friends and team, to just look and see and think about things in a new way. It really helped me realize that I needed to make the change that I’d been struggling with for a while… I have too little left for the life of a real person behind the artist.”
Speculation behind more specific reasoning as to his purpose in discontinuing his touring has been drawn form the fact that he has suffered from health issues in the past, such as having to remove his appendix and gall bladder back in 2014, for which he had to cancel many appearances at the time, due to repercussions of the surgeries. He has a list of performances remaining this year from April up until August 28, where he will play his last show in Ibiza, Spain.
“I will however never let go of music. I will continue to speak to my fans through it, but I’ve decided this 2016 run will be my last tour and last shows. One part of me can never say never, I could be back, but I won’t be right back." -- Tim Bergling / Avicii”
