Sweden honors star DJ Avicii with museum | Music | DW
Four years ago, the dance music scene lost one of its biggest DJs: Avicii died unexpectedly in 2018, only 28 years old. He had taken his life during a vacation in Oman.
The news that the Swedish star DJ, whose real name was Tim Bergling, died prematurely shook the music world. However, his legacy continues to echo to this day.
“Avicii Experience”: an interactive insight
Starting on February 26, the interactive museum “Avicii Experience” in Stockholm will offer an insight into his life and artistic work. Visitors can not only see his photos, videos and private belongings, but also listen to the unreleased music of the star DJ and relive intimate moments of his life. His childhood room, for example, where he started making music as a teenager, has been faithfully recreated.
Per Sundin is CEO of Pophouse Entertainment Group and co-founder of “Avicii Experience”
In an interview with DW, Per Sundin, co-founder of “Avicii Experience”, emphasizes the exhibition’s interactivity. “You can go into the studio where he recorded all his great songs and into his house in Los Angeles with virtual reality glasses.”
In the virtual studio, for example, visitors can even record a version of the song “Wake Me Up”. “There are also videos and interviews with Tim. We have a couple of songs from demos and you can hear how they sounded before the producers finished them,” Sundin added.
Avicii’s musical heritage
Even though it has been four years since his death, Avicii’s musical heritage is still felt today. His fans praise the discography he left behind, and his influence is still strong even in the music industry.
In fact, in 2019, just over a year after his death, Avicii’s third studio album “TIM” was released posthumously. Its twelve tracks were completed and recorded using notes and messages from the DJ.
![Posthumes Avicii-Album: Tim Posthumes Avicii-Album: Tim](https://static.dw.com/image/60869483_401.jpg)
The studio album “TIM” was released posthumously in 2019
Shortly afterwards, the video game developers Hello There Games, in collaboration with Avicii’s father Klas Bergling, immortalized the exceptional DJ’s vision to experience his music in a new game called “AVICII Invector”.
An earlier version had already existed during Avicii’s lifetime – and the game makers stopped it. With the “Encore Edition” of the game, a sequel came on the market in January 2022 that made fans’ hearts beat faster. In it, players can immerse themselves in the Swedish DJ’s world and navigate through various Avicii music tracks – with the task of beating the “musical beat”.
There are many other projects that posthumously pay tribute to this DJ of electronic dance music or the EDM: a wax figure at Madame Tussauds in New York, a biography released in 2021, and in Stockholm even a well-known event hall has been renamed Avicii Arena. There are also plans to erect a statue in his honor on Östermalm – the Stockholm district where the DJ grew up. But what made him so popular?
Revolutionary dance music
Avicii had long shown through his music that the opinions of others had no effect on his creativity.
This was obvious in 2013 at the Ultra Music Festival, for example, says Avicii cinema Mans Mosesson in an interview with DW. The then 23-year-old played several tracks from his debut album “True” in Miami. Among them was one of the biggest hits of his career – “Wake Me Up” – a mix of beats of electronic dance music (EDM), soul and country music, also known as folktronica.
“When he first played his song ‘Wake Me Up’ in Miami in 2013, people were surprised by it,” Mosesson looks back. “The audience thought he was just going to play a regular set – possibly with some new songs. But he played with a full live band, with acoustic guitars, violins and banjos.”
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In 2021, the Swedish author Mans Mosesson published an official Avicii biography
It became too much for the audience, who only expected normal house music from the DJ booth, the cinema continued. “People were confused by it, even angry. Many started tweeting, ‘What the hell is this?'” In their ears, the music sounded strange at the time – even though Avicii played many of the songs at the concert that later became legendary. ”
When the album was released in September of the same year, people reacted differently to it. “Wake Me Up” climbed to the top of the charts in more than 60 countries. Within six months, “Avicii went from being outlawed to becoming a global pop star, which is crazy,” Mans Mosesson develops. “And that’s what makes him so special. He was really at the forefront of making house music something that went from the club scene to something that was played on radio stations globally.”
Creates waves long after his death
His discography contains lasting earworms: “Wake Me Up”, “Hey Brother”, “Waiting For Love” or “The Nights” are hits that are hard to forget once you hear them. “Wake Me Up” is still one of the most streamed songs of all time on Spotify.
There has been frequent speculation about Avicii’s remaining unreleased music. Per Sundin, who has worked near Avicii for a long time, says that there are over 100 song drafts, demo versions, ideas and half-finished songs on Avicii’s private laptop. Unfortunately, all of these will not be heard in ‘Avicii Experiences’ exhibition.’
![Stockholm Concert in memory of deceased DJ Avicii Stockholm Concert in memory of deceased DJ Avicii](https://static.dw.com/image/60882607_401.jpg)
American soul musician and rapper Aloe Blacc produced the global hit “Wake Me Up” with Avicii
His creative collaborators, such as Aloe Blacc, insist that more of Avicii’s work should see the light of day. Fans can expect that to come true. A documentary commissioned by Sveriges Riks-TV about Avicii is planned to be released in 2023, with previously unreleased material. So it is highly likely that we will hear more from Avicii’s legacy in the coming years.
Help other artists with mental health problems
After Avicii’s tragic death due to persistent mental problems, his family acted quickly. They tried to talk to artists in need and continue to offer help today through the Tim Bergling Foundation.
In an interview with CNN 2019, Avicii’s father Klas Bergling commented on his son’s death and said that a strenuous and exhausting tour schedule was one reason for the deterioration of his mental health that eventually led to his suicide. “Our theory is that he did not plan the suicide. It was more like a traffic accident,” said Klas Bergling.
![Avicii Experience | Consider Bergling class +++ DEADLINE +++ Avicii Experience | Class Bergling +++ Consider DEADLINE +++](https://static.dw.com/image/60880613_401.jpeg)
Klas Bergling, who founded the Tim Bergling Foundation in 2019, was also instrumental in creating the exhibition “Avicii Experience”
On the tour, Avicii could not have received adequate care due to lack of resources to address these issues.
That’s why his family established the Tim Bergling Foundation, which has made it his mission to at least help other artists detect early signs of deteriorating mental health so they can seek treatment.
In memory of a national idol
“Tim’s mental problems are also addressed in the exhibition ‘Avicii Experience’,” says Per Sundin. “We have set up a room where you can understand the stress in Tim’s life. There you can relate to how it feels to constantly fly and go on stages. ”
Sundin added that at the end of the exhibition there is a kind of church where visitors can “sit and reflect on what you have seen in the exhibition.” Next door, he said, is a wall, a prop from the Tim Bergling Foundation, with information about organizations that can help with mental health issues.
Avicii’s father Klas helped with the conceptualization of the exhibition. “We discussed everything with him,” says Sundin. “Today, just before lunch, we gave the whole family a special tour. They were very moved but also happy and said to me, ‘It was Tim.’ They had tears of joy and sorrow in their eyes.”
The exhibition is also a way of dealing with grief – for a father and for an entire nation. Because in Sweden today, Avicii is “largely considered one of the greats now – in the same light as ABBA or Roxette”, emphasizes Mans Mosesson.
This article was originally written in German.