Kygo

Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll (Norwegian pronunciation: ['ɕyʷ:ɾə 'gø:rvɛɫ̪ daːɫ̪]; born 11 September 1991), commonly known by his stage name Kygo, is a Norwegian DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. He garnered international attention with his remix of the track "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran, which has received over 50 million plays on SoundCloud and 65 million views on YouTube and his single "Firestone" which has over 370 million views on YouTube with an additional 400 million plays on the music streaming service Spotify, as of August 2016. Kygo has accumulated over 300 million views on his music on SoundCloud and YouTube.
Kygo has since released several singles, such as "ID", "Stole the Show", "Here for You", and "Stay", which have debuted on several international charts. Kygo's debut studio album, Cloud Nine, was released on 13 May 2016. Kygo made history on 21 August 2016 at the 2016 Rio Olympics, when he became the first house music producer to perform at an Olympics closing ceremony.

Life and career

Early life

Kygo was born 11 September, 1991 in Singapore, the son of Kjersti Gjerde a dentist and Lars Gørvell-Dahll a worker in the maritime industry. He has an older stepbrother Mads, two older sisters Johanne and Jenny, and a younger half-brother Sondre. During his younger years, he "liv[ed] travel[ed] with his family in Brazil, Japan, Kenya and Egypt."

Kygo started getting piano lessons at the age of 6. He stopped when he was 15 or 16 and started producing music with Logic Studio and a MIDI keyboard while watching several tutorials on YouTube. When he decided to pursue music full-time he was halfway through a degree in business and finance at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland.

2014: Breakthrough

On 1 December 2014, he released the single "Firestone", featuring vocals from Conrad (mononym for Conrad Sewell), which gained international recognition and debuted on several charts worldwide. After receiving over 80 million views on YouTube and SoundCloud, Kygo was contacted by both Avicii and Chris Martin of Coldplay to create an official remix of the song "Midnight". He has also supported Avicii at Findings Festival in Oslo, Norway, in 2014. On 19 September 2014, it was confirmed that Kygo was to replace Avicii at mainstage in TomorrowWorld, due to Avicii's health concerns.

He was also featured in an interview for the official Billboard magazine, where he talked to writer Matt Medved about his remixes for Diplo and Coldplay, and talked about his upcoming tour in North America. In July 2014, Kygo partnered with EDM lifestyle brand Electric Family to produce a collaboration bracelet for which 100% of the proceeds are donated to Doctors Without Borders. In that same month, he signed a record label deal with Sony International and Ultra Music.

2015–present: Cloud Nine and Kygo Life

In February 2015, Kygo's song "ID" was featured in the official trailer for Ultra Music Festival. The same track is also featured on FIFA 16, a popular video game by EA Sports. In August 2015, Kygo was a featured headliner at Lollapalooza in Chicago, one of the biggest music festivals in the world. He made his U.S. television debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden in October 2015.

On 21 March 2015, he released his second single, titled "Stole the Show", featuring Parson James, which as of 11 April 2015, had 1.4 million online streams. On 31 July 2015, he released his third single, "Nothing Left", featuring Will Heard. "Nothing Left" reached number one on the Norwegian Singles Chart. On 4 September 2015, he released his fourth single, titled "Here for You", featuring Ella Henderson, which was revealed to be the vocal version of the song "ID" that was released as part of the Ultra Music Festival.

Three months later, his fifth single, "Stay", produced with fellow Norwegian record producer William Larsen and featuring vocals by Maty Noyes, was released on 4 December 2015.

After the release of the single, Kygo announced that he was embarking on a worldwide tour to promote his debut studio album. Soon after, he revealed that his debut studio album was going to be released on 19 February 2016, but was delayed to a later date. He, instead, released a teaser of the songs that he was working on that were on his debut studio album and released it through SoundCloud.

In the beginning of March 2016, Kygo officially announced and confirmed his debut studio album was going to be released on 13 May 2016, under the title Cloud Nine. He also announced that he would be releasing three promotional singles, leading up to the release of the album. The first of these singles, which was released 18 March 2016, was entitled "Fragile", which features vocals and was collaborated with Labrinth. The second single came out on 1 April 2016, and was called "Raging", which features vocals from the Irish band Kodaline and was also co-written by James Bay. The third and last single was released on 22 April 2016 and was entitled "I'm In Love", featuring vocals from James Vincent McMorrow.

Kygo's debut studio album was released on 13 May 2016. Other collaborations were revealed to include Parson James, Tom Odell, Kodaline, Conrad Sewell, John Legend, James Vincent McMorrow, Foxes, RHODES, Matt Corby, Maty Noyes, Julia Michaels and Angus and Julia Stone

Kygo launched a new lifestyle brand called Kygo Life on 17 August 2016. The brand consists of two collections of both high-fashion and relaxed wear, in addition to hardware such as headphones. Kygo Life is at the moment only available in Europe.

He performed "Carry Me" with American singer and songwriter Julia Michaels at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics on 21 August at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, as part of a segment that promoted the new Olympic Channel service launching after the Games.

Philanthropy

In June 2016, NRK said that Kygo is "giving 50 000 USD [...] of the profits [of his sold-out festival on 20 August]" to Frank Mugisha; Kygo was quoted: "Everyone should be permitted to live with one's sexual orientation. That is not the situation in Uganda and quite a few other countries across the world".

Discography

• Cloud Nine (2016)

Awards and nominations