Swedish House Mafia are a Swedish house music supergroup consisting of Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. The group officially formed in late 2008, and were placed at number ten on the DJ Mag Top 100 DJ Poll 2011 and have been called "the faces of mainstream progressive house music." In 2012, they were ranked at number twelve on the DJ Mag Top 100 Poll. On June 24, 2012 the group announced they would split up. Their final performance was at Ultra Miami on March 24, 2013. For the next five years Angello worked solo, while Axwell and Ingrosso performed as a duo.
On March 25, 2018, the group reunited with their surprise closing set at the 20th Anniversary of Ultra Music Festival in Miami, 2018.
Video Swedish House Mafia
History
Pre-2008: Formation and prior endeavors
Before the official formation in late 2008, the trio would often play shows together, with fellow Swedish DJ Eric Prydz joining them for some shows. The name Swedish House Mafia came about after friends and fans began labelling the four as they played more shows together. Eventually, the group adopted the name. Prydz decided not to join the group, describing himself as a 'control freak' in the studio who can't abide collaboration, even with close friends.
2009-2010: Until One
The first production that was released by the group was "Get Dumb" which was produced with Laidback Luke and released in 2007. In 2009, Swedish House Mafia teamed up with Laidback Luke again to produce the track "Leave the World Behind" which featured vocals by Deborah Cox. Although none of these songs were released under the name Swedish House Mafia, the latter would eventually feature on the group's first compilation album Until One.
In 2010, Swedish House Mafia signed a record deal with UMG's Polydor Records (formerly Polygram) after a falling-out with previous record label EMI, due to differing ideas. They released "One", their first official single under the name Swedish House Mafia, on Beatport on May 2, 2010, where it achieved international success, charting at number 7 in the UK Singles Chart. The group followed this with an equally well received vocal version featuring Pharrell Williams, retitled "One (Your Name)". Their next single, "Miami 2 Ibiza", with Tinie Tempah, was released on October 1, 2010. It charted at number 4 on the UK Chart and was featured on Tempah's debut studio album Disc-Overy. Both tracks were taken from the group's debut compilation album Until One; a collection of productions and remixes from both Swedish House Mafia as a group and as individuals along with other artists as well. It has achieved a BPI Gold Sales award in the United Kingdom and a GLF Platinum Sales award in Sweden.
2010: Take One documentary
On November 29, 2010, Swedish House Mafia released their first DVD documentary called Take One. The movie was filmed over the course of 2 years, 253 gigs and 15 countries by Swedish director Christian Larson. He commented on Take One by saying "It's not narrated at all. It's just sequences of them and it's made into a story. It's all chronological. It's just me following them around and they become characters in their own film. It all happened pretty naturally because they are all such strong characters, all three of them." The documentary starts with Swedish House Mafia in the studio with Laidback Luke working on "Leave the World Behind" and concludes at Ultra Music Festival in 2010 premiering their hit "One".
2011-2012: Until Now
In May 2011, Swedish House Mafia released a new single, "Save the World", featuring John Martin on vocals, the song was a commercial success and charted at number 10 in the UK Chart and 4 in Sweden. Later that year on December 16, they released the track "Antidote" with Knife Party and their solo effort "Greyhound" on March 12, 2012. Their final and most commercially successful track "Don't You Worry Child", also featuring John Martin, was released on September 14, 2012 becoming number 1 in Australia, Sweden, and the UK as well as becoming a top 10 hit in most other countries. That same month on September 17, the group announced the release of a second compilation album titled Until Now, with the album later forming the official soundtrack to their One Last Tour. It contained the four mentioned singles plus the singles from "Until One" anlong with songs and remixes from the individual band members and other DJs. The album also contained two exclusive Swedish House Mafia remixes, of Coldplay's "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall", and Usher's "Euphoria". Until Now was released on October 22, 2012, exactly two years after the release of their first compilation album Until One. The album charted in the top twentys in various countries across Europe, North America, and Oceania including number 3 in Sweden, as well as charting number 1 on both the British and Irish compilation album charts. Until Now has since certified Gold in Australia, plus Platinum in both the United Kingdom and Sweden.
2012: Concerts and charity endeavours
Milton Keynes Bowl
On June 26, 2012, Swedish House Mafia confirmed they would be playing at the Milton Keynes National Bowl on July 14 along with the likes of Calvin Harris, Alesso, and Example -- these artists to be the first to perform in the newly renovated grounds. The trio also confirmed that their closing set would be their last ever UK show as no dates were planned for the UK during the group's One Last Tour. During their performance, they premiered their new single "Don't You Worry Child" to a 60,000 strong crowd at the end of their set, which would eventually become the group's first and only UK Singles Chart number 1. Footage from the two hour long performance was used in the music video for the song which was uploaded to YouTube on September 14 that year and has over 501,000,000 views as of April 2018.
Phoenix Park Incident
On July 7, 2012, Swedish House Mafia played for a sold-out crowd in Phoenix Park, Dublin. The concert descended into chaos, with a "significant number" of random unprovoked attacks at the show, leading to comments from the Irish justice minister concerning the "very unusual" nature of the events. A total of nine people were stabbed. The possibility of multiple attackers was not immediately ruled out. All those attacked were in their teens or twenties. One man was stabbed five times as his girlfriend looked on in horror, receiving wounds to the liver and requiring stitches to his elbow and head. Another man was left in a critical condition after being stabbed four times in the back and kidneys. Two young men, Lee Scanlon (20) and Shane Brophy (21), also died during the concert; the circumstances of their deaths were not immediately clear. Brophy, from County Laois, was rushed to hospital but died there.
Swedish House Mafia released a statement upon learning of the events:
"We played a festival in Ireland at the weekend and reports of incidents are coming to us. We didn't see anything but have asked for all the info and are respectful of the promoter's need to wait and give us all the clear facts. When we know more we will liaise with the festival promoter directly on what we can do to help but for now, we have to respect their request for us to remain quiet and respectful of their event-safety processes. The festival itself was amazing and we had no idea this had happened and neither did the other numerous artists who played. Once we know all the facts we will deal with it in the best way we can. Thank you. Swedish House Mafia."
Taoiseach Enda Kenny was appalled when he learned of the events: "Absolutely disgraceful, appalling and simply scandalous". Kenny also wondered "whether it's in relation to the sort of music that is played there or not", observing that "800,000 people turned up in Galway for the Volvo finale without any incident and this particular concert in Phoenix Park was in between two others where there were no incidents at all." Another minister, Brian Hayes, said the incidents were "unacceptable [...] very serious, it is wrong and we need to find out what went wrong". Jim Carroll from The Irish Times wrote, "The off-stage events which have dominated the news agenda since the Swedish House Mafia show [...] will forevermore be associated with stabbings and suspected drug deaths rather than the music." Also writing in The Irish Times, Brian Boyd stated that 'the comment [that] "the genre of music has a lot to do with it" bears further examination. Swedish House Mafia are broadly speaking a "dance culture" act [...] and always had a drug component. [...] Today's generation - brought up with binge alcohol tendencies - is popping and dropping indiscriminately. And when you mix a rave drug with large quantities of alcohol, it really is time (for the rest of us) to batten down the hatches.'
Hurricane Sandy relief
On December 11, 2012, Swedish House Mafia announced that they would throw a Black Tie Rave on February 28, 2013 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City to benefit Hurricane Sandy relief, with 100 percent of the net proceeds going to Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. The proceeds benefited both the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City and the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund.
2012-2013: Breakup and One Last Tour
On June 24, 2012, it was announced via the group's website that the final leg of their 2012 tour would be their last: "Today we want to share with you, that the tour we are about to go on will be our last. We want to thank every single one of you that came with us on this journey. We came, we raved, we loved." They stated three show dates, with the last leg of their tour set to be announced in August. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in regards to the group's breakup, Angello said that "we just decided that we reached a point where we didn't know what the next move would be," and that "we've had beyond our dreams and we've come very, very far"; Angello also stated that he is focusing on developing his own brand, Size Records, while on hiatus.
On September 24, 2012, Swedish House Mafia announced the dates for their farewell tour, called "One Last Tour". The tour kicked off in November 2012 and concluded in March 2013. The tour was taken across the world with the group performing in Russia, India, and South Africa for the first time. Tickets sold out in minutes and due to extremely high demand, additional shows were added. Part of the tour saw the trio play three nights at Stockholm's Friends Arena, performing to over 100,000 people across the three nights of November 2012. This marked their first and only performances on Swedish soil. The group made their final appearance together at the Ultra Music Festival in 2013, rounding off their final tour. On night one, Friday 15 March, they were the opening acts and on the final night, Sunday 24 March 24, they closed the show ending with the phrase "We Came, We Raved, We Loved" appearing on screen, which became the mantra of the whole tour. During this performance frequent collaborator John Martin joined the trio on stage to give his farewells and performed their songs "Save the World" and "Don't You Worry Child" which ended in a huge crowd singalong which Billboard described as "a powerful ending [for the] three-DJ Juggernauts".
2014: Leave the World Behind documentary
After the end of their One Last Tour, it was confirmed that the group would create a second documentary called Leave the World Behind, which was released in select theatres during spring 2014. It was officially premiered at SXSW film festival on March 27. "Leave the World Behind" is currently available for rental and purchase on iTunes and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 2, 2014.
2018--Present: Reunion and Upcoming Tour
On March 25, 2018, Swedish House Mafia were confirmed to be playing at Ultra Miami 2018 with the announcement being made by the German edition of DJ Mag only 24 hours before the performance. 2018 marked the festival's 20th anniversary and five years since the group split up at Ultra Miami 2013, marking the conclusion of the group's One Last Tour. The set started after a 30-minute production break with their opening song "Miami 2 Ibiza" and Axwell announcing, "My name is Axwell, this is Sebastian Ingrosso, and this is Steve Angello, and Miami, you know that we are the Swedish House Mafia." Both music from the Swedish House Mafia and the individual artist's solo projects, old and new, were played including their massive hits "Save the World" and "Don't You Worry Child" which, like in 2013, ended with a huge crowd singalong. The performance ended with an encore of "One (Your Name)" mixed with "Dream Bigger" and Axwell announcing, "It's Swedish House Mafia for life this time.", possibly hinting on the trio's future. Billboard described it as one of Miami's historical musical experiences.
During an Axwell ? Ingrosso show held in New York on May 27, 2018, the duo teased an upcoming Swedish House Mafia tour for 2019, with Axwell asking, "What do we do now? This is a big move. This has never happened before. Should we cancel the Swedish House Mafia gig we're planning next year? We are not sure they are ready for Swedish House Mafia in 2019," to the crowd before closing the set. This was later confirmed by Steve Angello in an interview with Sydsvenskan saying, "It's happening, obviously... Not all the details are set, but we will be back in 2019."
Maps Swedish House Mafia
Group members
Axwell
Axwell (born 18 December 1977) placed at #12 on the DJ Magazine Top 100 DJ Poll in 2011. In late 2004, Axwell released a global hit, "Feel the Vibe", which was re-released under Ministry of Sound in 2005 with added vocals from Tara McDonald as "Feel the Vibe ('Til the Morning Comes)". In the spring of 2006, Axwell and Steve Angello, under the Supermode alias, remixed Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy", producing "Tell Me Why". In August 2007, Axwell teamed up with performer Max'C to create the track "I Found U", which peaked #6 in the UK Singles Chart. Axwell has been producing remixes for other artists - mixes have included Usher's "Burn" (BMG), Room 5's "Make Luv" (Positiva), Clipse & Faith Evans "Ma, I Don't Love Her" (RCA), Stonebridge's "Put 'Em High" (Hed Kandi), N*E*R*D's single "Maybe" (Virgin), and more recently Hard-Fi's "Hard to Beat", Deep Dish's "Dreams", Pharrell's "Angel", Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous" and Madonna's "Jump". In 2012, Axwell released the 'Axwell Mix' of the progressive house track, "In My Mind", which was originally released by Ivan Gough and Feenixpawl through Axtone. The mix would eventually go on to become a global success.
Steve Angello
Steve Angello (born 22 November 1982) placed at #23 on the DJ Magazine Top 100 DJ Poll 2011. Steve Angello's claim to fame came when he released his remix of Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams" in late 2004. In 2007 his remix with Laidback Luke of "Show Me Love" by Robin S. was released on Data Records. Angello produces under several different aliases. On his own, he has called himself Who's Who and released tracks called "Not So Dirty" and "Sexy Fuck". He often works closely with his childhood friend Sebastian Ingrosso on many projects. Aside from DJing together, they have also produced under the names Buy Now, Fireflies, General Moders, Mode Hookers, Outfunk, and The Sinners. Most recently, they released "Bodycrash" under their Buy Now alias, sampling the 1978 disco hit "Let's All Chant" by the Michael Zager Band. The track was first played by Pete Tong on his Radio 1 show in late 2007. Eventually, the Dirty South remix of the tune leaked out onto the Internet in January 2008. The track has since received a much larger release via Positiva Records, also including the Laidback Luke remix. He has produced with Eric Prydz under the name A&P Project. Also, he has created a track with his friend Axwell under the name Supermongo, later renamed Supermode. They made a cover of an old Bronski Beat track, calling it "Tell Me Why". This was released via Ministry of Sound's Data Records imprint in summer 2006. Steve Angello's productions can mainly be classified as House ("Summer Noize"), Progressive ("Yeah"), Tech house ("Partouze") and Electro House ("Raining Again"). He also owns his own record label, Size Records. Angello's brother, Antoine Josefsson, is a DJ and a producer who goes by the name AN21. Together they have released the tracks "Valodja", "Flonko" & "Swing N Swoosh".
Sebastian Ingrosso
Sebastian Ingrosso (born 20 April 1983) ranked at #26 in 2011 on DJ Magazine Top 100 DJ list, ranked at #18 in 2013, and won the award for the highest new entry into the chart in 2009, a record beaten only by Deadmau5 into the 2008 Top 100 DJ list at #11. In 2009, Sebastian Ingrosso saw the releases of Laktos, Kidsos, Echo Vibes and Meich (with Dirty South) on his own imprint Refune, "How Soon Is Now" (featuring Julie McKnight with David Guetta and Dirty South) and the vocal stormer House anthem "Leave the World Behind" together with Axwell, Steve Angello and Laidback Luke, with Deborah Cox on vocals. He has co-written and co-produced the track "Cupid Boy" on the Kylie Minogue album Aphrodite along with Magnus Lidehäll, Nick Clow and Luciana Caporaso. Ingrosso has also produced tracks for Lazee ("Rock Away") and Kid Sister ("Right Hand Hi" with Steve Angello). Remixed artists during the years includes Justin Timberlake, Moby, Röyksopp, Hard-Fi and Deep Dish. In 2012, Sebastian Ingrosso released his early summer anthem of 2011 "Calling" with Alesso. The following year, a vocal version of the anthem was released in August featuring Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, titled Calling (Lose My Mind). The song reached #2 on Beatport's Top 10. His latest single with Tommy Trash, "Reload", was released in 2012, and then a vocal version featuring John Martin in June 2013.
Discography
- Compilation albums
- Until One (2010)
- Until Now (2012)
Work on Hiatus
After the conclusion of the group's One Last Tour the three DJs continued their solo careers; some of their most notable singles include: "Center of the Universe", "Wasted Love", "Dark River", "I Am", "Reload", and "Children of the Wild". Steve Angello released his debut studio album on January 22, 2016 entitled Wild Youth, charting number 20 in Sweden. In June 2014, Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso performed together at the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City, debuting their new collective Axwell ? Ingrosso. Since then, the duo have released many new singles such as "Something New", "More Than You Know", and "Sun Is Shining", the latter achieving number 1 in Sweden. On December 8, 2017, the group released their debut studio album More Than You Know, which consists of all their previous music and peaked at number 12 on the Swedish album charts. Steve Angello's second studio album, Human, was released on April 27, 2018, a month after the group's reunion at Ultra Miami 2018.
Legacy
The Swedish supergroup are said to have inspired many musicians in the EDM genre, most notably fellow Swedish DJs Alesso and Avicii. Swedish House Mafia are also credited with helping house music conquer America in the late 2000s along with the likes of Calvin Harris, Tiësto, and Carl Cox.
See also
- Swedish popular music
References
External links
- Swedish House Mafia's channel on YouTube
Source of article : Wikipedia
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