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Friends Arena in Stockholm held its breath on a December night in 2019 as the lights dropped and a single voice rose from the stage. This was Tim Bergling’s city, the place where he was born and where he grew up, and more than 50,000 people from around the world had come back to it, back to him, to sing.
The opening dedication landed across the arena before the first chord: ‘This evening is a tribute to one of the greatest artists of our time,’ and outside the walls, millions more were watching a worldwide stream. Tim Bergling, the Swedish producer and DJ the world knew as Avicii, was 28 when he passed in 2018. On this night, Stockholm was not grieving alone. The world had followed him home.
Avicii Tribute Concert celebrates the life and music of Tim Bergling (Tim Bergling Foundation) – AVICII – live at Friends Arena in Stockholm, Sweden together with +50,000 fans from all over the world. Click here to make a donation to mental health awareness: https://www.aviciitributeconcert.com/stream/
The night Sandro asked 50,000 people to sing for their friend
Sandro Cavazza, one of Tim’s closest collaborators, walked out first and opened the night with ‘Without You,’ a song built from their friendship. Before a note played, he asked the arena for a moment of silence. Then, quietly and clearly, he told them: ‘Feels so strange not to have you here with us tonight. But tonight is about you, your music and your legacy. So tonight, we will all sing for you.’ Fifty thousand voices answered him. What followed was a two-hour-and-fifteen-minute arc of twenty-eight performances, each one a different artist stepping forward to carry one of Tim’s songs. Aloe Blacc, who had given ‘Wake Me Up’ its soul, sang ‘So wake me up when it’s all over’ to an arena that already knew every word.
Rita Ora brought the ache of ‘Lonely Together.’ Imagine Dragons arrived. A Coldplay song moved through the crowd. Every performer came with the same intention: one of them put it plainly, speaking between songs, saying they were there ‘to celebrate his life,’ adding ‘Tim, this one’s for you.’ The arena, unprompted, answered back: ‘Tim, we love you, we miss you.’ Another collaborator, remembering the studio, spoke to the crowd about the first time Tim played him a song in progress: ‘I knew the bones of a good song, and I could tell that he knew it too. I trusted him, and I believed in his artistic vision. It changed my life forever. Thank you, Tim.’
David Guetta’s goodbye, played only once
When David Guetta took the stage in Tim’s hometown, he was not just a DJ filling a slot. He was a friend. He had memories he carried with him, including the afternoon in Ibiza when Avicii came to his house and played him a new album. The first song was ‘Wake Me Up.’ Guetta recalled being ‘so in shock because it was such a fresh approach,’ and thinking immediately that it was ‘going to take you to be the biggest EDM artist on the planet.’ He spoke about ‘Levels’ the same way: hearing it for the first time and being ‘completely in shock,’ struck by the sample, the chord progression, the melodies, all of it feeling, in his words, ‘so fresh and strong musically.’ What he kept returning to was something harder to quantify: ‘The way Tim was playing the piano was always very unique, he had a certain feel,’ something Guetta had experienced up close in the studio.
At Friends Arena, Guetta told Stockholm, ‘This is a special night for all of us… we’re all still here to celebrate a friend, celebrate an artist.’ He asked the crowd for a blackout, lights off, phones out, and played a track he and Avicii had built together in Los Angeles. Then he introduced something he had never played before. ‘The week Avicii passed away, together with a friend, we wrote a song for him,’ he said. He told the arena it was ‘the very first time’ he would play it, ‘and probably the last time.’
The song opened with the line ‘I wish I had a little more time to say the things that’s on my mind,’ and moved toward its quiet resolution: ‘before I say goodbye.’ When it finished, Guetta rallied the arena back to its feet: ‘I felt like the best way to give a tribute to one of my favorite artists ever was to just prepare a set and combine my music with his music. One more time for Avicii, make some noise!’ The tribute was held in the name of mental-health awareness, raising attention and pointing people toward the cause that the Tim Bergling Foundation carries forward in his name.
What the fans keep leaving behind
Years after that December night, people still find their way to this tribute and stay a while. They leave messages from countries far from Stockholm, many in tears, and the thread running through nearly all of them is the same: his music is timeless, it reaches them in moments they cannot always explain, and they choose to hold onto how he lived rather than how he lost his years. Many of them note that every vocal across the night was live, nothing smoothed over or digitally softened, and that the raw human quality of it made the love feel real. The line fans return to most often is the one from ‘The Nights’: ‘Live a life you will remember.’ For them, it is not an instruction. It is an observation about Tim himself. More than a few write simply: ‘You did it, Tim.’ The concert ended where it had to end, with ‘Levels,’ its opening riff lifting 50,000 people off the ground one last time in the city where Tim Bergling grew up. The arena filled with light. Stockholm held him gently, then let the music carry on.
A song Guetta wrote in a week and played exactly once
Somewhere in the run of that night, Guetta stood at his decks in a darkened arena with a song on his hands that had no home except this one room, on this one night, in Tim’s own city. Sandro Cavazza had opened the concert with ‘I gotta learn how to love without you,’ and 50,000 people had sung it with him in the dark. Whatever comes after grief, the music already knows the way.
David Guetta also had his own Tribute Concert for Avicii –
A song Guetta wrote in a week and played exactly once
Somewhere in the run of that night, Guetta stood at his decks in a darkened arena with a song on his hands that had no home except this one room, on this one night, in Tim’s own city. Sandro Cavazza had opened the concert with ‘I gotta learn how to love without you,’ and 50,000 people had sung it with him in the dark. Whatever comes after grief, the music already knows the way.
David Guetta also had his own Tribute Concert for Avicii –
David Guetta shares his memories of his friend Avicii:
The full Avicii Tribuite Concert setlist that night
- 01:10 Avicii – Without You ft. Sandro Cavazza
- 05:45 Avicii – Tweet It
- 08:03 David Guetta & Avicii – Sunshine
- 10:03 Avicii – Bromance (Live Vocals by Amanda Wilson)
- 15:19 Avicii – SOS ft. Aloe Blacc
- 18:30 Avicii – Blessed (Live Vocals by Dorothy Sherman, Andy Sherman and Hedvig Eleonora Gospel Choir)
- 23:38 Avicii – Fade Into Darkness (Live Vocals by Andreas Moe)
- 28:04 Avicii – Ten More Days (Live Vocals by Zak Abel)
- 32:53 Avicii – Silhouettes (Live Vocals by Vargas & Lagola)
- 37:03 Avicii & Nicky Romero – I Could Be The One (Live Vocals by Johanna Söderberg)
- 43:07 Avicii – Dear Boy (Live Vocals by Audra Mae)
- 47:17 Avicii – Addicted To You (Live Vocals by Audra Mae)
- 52:17 Avicii – Bad Reputation ft. Joe Janiak
- 57:45 Avicii – Friend Of Mine ft. Vargas & Lagola
- 01:01:54 Avicii – You Make Me (Live Vocals by Vargas & Lagola)
- 01:05:52 Avicii – Tough Love ft. Agnes, Vargas & Lagola
- 01:09:53 Avicii – Sunset Jesus (Live Vocals by Gavin DeGraw)
- 01:14:40 Avicii – Lay Me Down (Live Vocals by Adam Lambert)
- 01:20:47 Avicii – Heart Upon My Sleeve ft. Imagine Dragons (Live Vocals by Lucas Krüger)
- 01:26:22 Avicii – Fades Away ft. Noonie Bao (Live Vocals by MishCatt)
- 01:29:39 Avicii – Lonely Together ft. Rita Ora
- 01:34:00 Avicii – The Nights (Live Vocals by Nick Furlong)
- 01:38:00 Avicii – Hey Brother (Live Vocals by Dan Tyminski)
- 01:43:43 Avicii – Heaven (Live Vocals by Simon Aldred)
- 01:48:30 Avicii – Waiting For Love (Live Vocals by Simon Aldred)
- 01:53:27 Avicii – Wake Me Up (Live Vocals by Aloe Blacc)
- 01:57:43 Coldplay & Avicii – A Sky Full Of Stars (Live Vocals by Simon Aldred)
- 02:04:16 Avicii – Levels
See All Avicii Featured Articles on Only Happy News
Avicii Tribute Concert celebrates the life and music of Tim Bergling – AVICII – live at Friends Arena in Stockholm, Sweden together with +50,000 fans from all over the world. Click here to make a donation to mental health awareness: https://www.aviciitributeconcert.com/stream/
🔺🔻 Tim Bergling Foundation 🔺🔻
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