NEW YORK: Award-winning Swedish musician, DJ, remixer and record producer Avicii has died in Oman.
Publicist Diana Baron said in a statement that the 28-year-old DJ, born Tim Bergling, was in Muscat when he passed.
“The family is devastated and we ask everyone to please respect their need for privacy in this difficult time,” the statement said.
Avicii was a pioneer of the contemporary Electronic Dance Movement and a rare DJ capable of a worldwide arena tour. He won two MTV Music Awards, one Billboard Music Award and earned two Grammy nominations. His biggest hit was “Le7els.”
His death comes just days after he was nominated for a Billboard Music Award for top dance/electronic album for his EP “Avicii (01).”
His hits include “Wake Me Up!” “The Days” and “You Make Me.” He is the subject of the 2017 Levan Tsikurishvil documentary “Avicii: True Stories.”
Avicii was part of the wave of DJ-producers, like David Guetta, Calvin Harris and Swedish House Mafia, who broke out on the scene as lead performers in their own right, earning international hits, fame, awards and more like typical pop stars.
He collaborated with high-profile acts, producing Madonna’s “Devil Pray” and the Coldplay hits “A Sky Full of Stars” and “Hymn for the Weekend.”
Avicii had in the past suffered acute pancreatitis. After having his gallbladder and appendix removed in 2014, he canceled a series of shows in an attempt to recover. He quit touring in 2016 but continued making music in the studio.
“It’s been a very crazy journey. I started producing when I was 16. I started touring when I was 18. From that point on, I just jumped into it 100 percent,” Avicii told Billboard magazine in 2016.
“When I look back on my life, I think: whoa, did I do that? It was the best time of my life in a sense. It came with a price — a lot of stress a lot of anxiety for me — but it was the best journey of my life.”
