Avicii Releases “Tough Love” Posthumously

Avicii the ever so talented, young artist left behind a wealth of unproduced material at the time of his death. Now, fans worldwide can hear one of his latest songs called, “Tough Love,” which is the second track from the upcoming album, Tim set to release on June 6, 2019. The lyrics are uplifting, “Tough love, there’s no place that I’d rather be then in your arms.”

Avicii, whose real name was Tim Bergling, had been working on many songs, closely collaborating with various producers and performers. The two producers of the album, Tim are Vincent Pontare and Salem Al Fakir (Vargas & Lagola). The tracks on the new album were 80% finished at the time of Avicii’s death. The song, “Tough Love” features vocals from Pontare’s wife Agnes. The team have a long  history of collaborating with Avicii on tracks like 2012’s “Silhouettes” and 2014’s “The Days.”

The first single from the album, Tim is called “S.O.S.,”  was released in April. Coldplay singer Chris Martin also appears on one of the tracks. In regard to the song, “Tough Love” Avicii left notes on how he wanted the song to sound. He wrote, “This one needs to be a duet. Coolest thing would be a real couple, or a couple that have worked together enough to be almost considered a couple!” To honor Avicii’s wishes, Vargas asked his wife and Swedish pop and R&B singer Agnes (Carlsson) to sing on the track.

Proceeds of the album will be donated to the Tim Bergling Foundation which focuses on mental health advocacy and suicide prevention. Avicii’s family announced the establishment “will initially focus on supporting people and organizations working in the field of mental illness and suicide prevention,” the brief announcement reads, noting that it will also be active in climate change, development assistance, nature conservation and endangered species.

The single “SOS,” from the new album features Aloe Blacc, a good friend of Bergling’s. Blacc was also the singer on Avicii’s worldwide hit song “Wake Me Up.” Alongside the track, three videos were also released. The first was a lyric video for the track and the second was a fan tribute video, the main music video for the single. The third video was a behind the scenes look at how his collaborators worked together to do as much as they could to honor the legacy of Avicii with this upcoming project, especially with recording “SOS.”

Bergling tragically passed away last year at the age of 28 in Muscat, Oman. The cause of his death was revealed as suicide. Avicii had announced his retirement from touring in 2016 due to health complications.

Photo Credit: Pamela Lin

Kelly Tucker: Originally from Los Angeles, I grew up listening to all types of music. My first concert was Aerosmith with Skid Row, then moved on to concerts with Metallica, Lollapalooza, Guns N’ Roses, Soundgarden and more. One of my favorite shows of all time was when I was in college and someone took me to see the Allman Brothers play. I also scalped a ticket to see Pearl Jam and the amazing Eddie Vedder sing his heart out. My professional career started in 2000 at Nielsen Business Media where I was an assistant in a sales department and later got promoted to advertising account executive. When the recession hit in 2008 and the magazine was sold, I took a job at a call center and later got promoted to assistant to the CEO and COO of a global company. In 2017, I took a position at a pharmaceutical agency, and now currently responsible for coordinating meeting logistics for physicians and pharma reps throughout the United States. In my spare time, I work at Peace4Kids a non-profit in South Los Angeles and write screenplays in hopes to make a breakthrough.
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