Kygo

Early life

Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll was born on 11 September 1991 in Singapore to Norwegian parents and raised in Bergen, Norway. He is the son of Kjersti Gjerde, a dentist in Norway, and Lars Gørvell-Dahll, who was working abroad in the maritime industry. He has an older stepbrother Mads, two older sisters Johanne and Jenny, and a younger half-brother Sondre. During his childhood, he lived and travelled with his family in Brazil, Japan, Kenya and Egypt.

Kygo started taking piano lessons at the age of six and considers himself more of a pianist than a disc jockey. 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. He has cited Avicii as his main inspiration.

Career

2014: Breakthrough

On 15 May 2013, Kygo released his first single called "Epsilon" on the Romanian record label Ensis Records. On 1 December 2014, he released the single "Firestone", featuring vocals from Conrad Sewell, which gained international recognition and debuted on several charts worldwide, being streamed 810 million times on YouTube and 1 billion times on Spotify, as of April 2024. After receiving over 80 million views on YouTube and SoundCloud, Kygo was contacted by Avicii and by Chris Martin of Coldplay to create a 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 Tomorrowland, due to Avicii's health concerns.

He was also featured in an interview for Billboard magazine, where he talked to writer Matt Medved about his remixes for musicians Diplo and Coldplay, and talked about his upcoming tour in North America. In July 2014, Kygo entered into a partnership with EDM lifestyle brand Electric Family to produce a collaboration bracelet for which one hundred per cent of the proceeds are donated to Médecins Sans Frontières. In the same month, he signed a record label deal with Sony International and Ultra Music.

2015–2016: ''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 association football video game by EA Sports. On 21 March 2015, he released his second single, titled "Stole the Show", featuring Parson James, which as of 2 January 2019, had 326 million views on YouTube and 1 billion streams on Spotify. On 31 July 2015, he released his third single, "Nothing Left", featuring Will Heard. "Nothing Left" reached number one on the Norwegian Singles Chart. In August 2015, Kygo was a featured headliner at Lollapalooza in Chicago, one of the biggest music festivals in the world. 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. He made his U.S. television debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden in October 2015.

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. In December 2015, Kygo became the fastest artist in history to reach one billion streams on Spotify.

On 12 February 2016, Kygo released a single with Dillon Francis and James Hersey called "Coming Over".

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

In the beginning of March 2016, Kygo announced that 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 & Julia Stone.

Kygo launched a new lifestyle brand called Kygo Life AS on 17 August 2016 in Europe, the United States and Canada.. The brand consists of two collections of high-fashion and relaxed wear, in addition to hardware such as headphones.

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. His performance in the Olympics helped grow his popularity.

2017–2018: ''Stargazing'' and ''Kids in Love''

On 9 February 2017, Kygo posted a snippet of his collaboration with American singer Selena Gomez. They confirmed the single titled "It Ain't Me", via their social media accounts on 13 February. It was released on 16 February. The song is the lead single from Kygo's first EP, Stargazing. It the first song by Kygo to reach over a billion streams on Spotify. In addition to reaching number one in Croatia, Lebanon and Norway, the song attained top five peaks in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. It also reached the top 10 in Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. On 28 April, Kygo released the second single from the EP, "First Time", with English singer Ellie Goulding. This track was certified gold in UK on 20 February 2020 selling over 400,000 copies.

On 19 October 2017, Kygo announced via Facebook that his second studio album is called Kids in Love, which was released on 3 November. On 20 October, he released the lead single and title track "Kids in Love", which features The Night Game. Shortly after releasing the album, Kygo announced the Kids in Love Tour. On 16 March 2018, Kygo released "Remind Me to Forget", a track featuring American singer Miguel, as the third single from the album, which streamed 400 million times on Spotify as of 2 January 2020, following "Stranger Things" featuring the American pop rock band OneRepublic. "Stranger Things" received a remix from Alan Walker.

2018–2020: ''Golden Hour''

In June 2018, Kygo announced a collaboration with Imagine Dragons titled "Born to Be Yours". The single was released on 11 June. On 21 September, Kygo debuted "Happy Now", a collaboration with Sandro Cavazza, during his set at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, held at the T-Mobile Arena. On 24 October, Kygo posted a clip from the single's music video on his social media account. The single was released on 26 October. In October 2018, Kygo and his manager, Myles Shear, partnered with Sony Music Entertainment and launched the Palm Tree Records label. Palm Tree Records aims to be a platform for up-and-coming artists.

"Think About You" featuring American singer Valerie Broussard was released as a single on 14 February 2019 and considered timed for Valentine's Day. "Carry On", a song with English singer Rita Ora, was released as a standalone single for the 2019 film Detective Pikachu. The song was released on 19 April 2019 through RCA Records. It has been streamed more than 174 million times on Spotify.

On 23 May 2019, Kygo released "Not OK" with Chelsea Cutler. On 14 June 2019, Kygo released his first Norwegian-language song, with Bergen rappers Store P and Lars Vaular called "Kem kan eg ringe". On 28 June, having been asked to by Whitney Houston's estate, he remixed Houston's cover version of Steve Winwood's song "Higher Love". On 21 August, "Higher Love" reached the No. 1 position on Billboard magazine's Dance Club Songs chart, making it Houston's highest-charting posthumous release to date. "Higher Love" has been streamed over 917 million times on Spotify as of April 2024. On 6 December, Kygo collaborated with The Chainsmokers on a track, named "Family".

After his fellow and frequent collaborator, Sandro Cavazza, sent him an unreleased Avicii track known as "Forever Yours" and with due consent from Avicii's family, Kygo completed the song while adding his signature tropical house elements. The track was released on 24 January 2020. On 23 March 2020, Kygo announced that he had completed his third album titled Golden Hour. He released the single "Like It Is", with Zara Larsson and Tyga, on 27 March 2020. On 2 April 2020, Kygo released "I'll Wait" with vocals by Sasha Sloan. The next day, a music video was released starring real-life American couple Rob Gronkowski and Camille Kostek containing personal footage of their life together. On 16 April 2020, Kygo collaborated with Moroccan-English singer Zak Abel on a track titled "Freedom".

On 11 May 2020, Kygo announced the track list for the Golden Hour album. On 15 May 2020, he released "Lose Somebody", with OneRepublic. Kygo released the next single from the album, "The Truth", featuring Valerie Broussard (with whom he previously collaborated on "Think About You"), on 22 May 2020. Golden Hour was released on 29 May 2020. Kygo also collaborates with Jay Sean on the track: "Out Of My Mind", but the song is not released.

On 11 July 2020, Kygo released a music video for the album track "Broken Glass" with German singer Kim Petras, and 6 days later, Kygo released a remix of Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do with It".

On 18 September 2020, Kygo released a remix of Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff".

2021–2023: ''Thrill of the Chase''

On 15 April 2021, Kygo released the track "Gone Are The Days" with singer James Gillespie.

On 13 August 2021, Kygo released a music video for the track "Love Me Now" featuring German singer Zoe Wees.

On 15 October 2021, Kygo released the single "Undeniable" featuring American pop-rock band X Ambassadors.

On 25 February 2022, Kygo released a song with DNCE called "Dancing Feet".

On 11 November 2022, Kygo released his fourth album, Thrill of the Chase as a surprise album.

On 31 March 2023, Kygo released a remix of the song "Say Say Say" by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.

2024–present: ''Kygo''

On 19 January 2024, Kygo released a song with Ava Max called "Whatever" which interpolates "Whenever, Wherever" by Shakira.

On 19 April, he released "For Life" with Zak Abel and Nile Rodgers, which interpolates "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)" by Modjo. After this release, Kygo announced his Kygo World Tour on social media, which is scheduled for late 2024.

On 30 May 2024, he announced a new album, simply called Kygo, which was released on 21 June 2024 as he commemorates 10 years of his career. A day later, he released "Without You", in collaboration with singer-songwriter Hayla. On 14 June 2024, Kygo released "Me Before You" with singer-songwriter Plested, as the fourth single from Kygo. The song was already played by him in some shows before its release.

On 21st June 2024, Kygo released KYGO, which contains 18 tracks and runs for 1 hour and 4 minutes. The album peaked No.1 in Norway and No.2 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Charts.

On the 27th of September, during his KYGO World Tour, he released "Stars Will Align" with Imagine Dragons.

On the 15th of November, he released the song "Hold On Me" with Sandro Cavazza.

On the 24th of January 2025, he released "Chasing Paradise" with OneRepublic.

On the 2nd of May, he released "Can't Get Enough" with Victoria Nadine.

Personal life

As of May 2025, Kygo was dating Victoria Nadine, a Norwegian musician. Kygo is a supporter of British football club Manchester United, and his favourite player was Juan Mata. He also supports his local team, SK Brann. He is also a fan of Formula One and performed a concert at the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix. He also performed at the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix and the inaugural 2022 Miami Grand Prix.

Philanthropy

In June 2016, NRK reported that Kygo is "giving 50 000 USD [...] of the profits [of his sold-out festival on 20 August]" to Ugandan LGBT advocate 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

Main article: Kygo discography

;Studio albums

• Cloud Nine (2016)
• Kids in Love (2017)
• Golden Hour (2020)
• Thrill of the Chase (2022)
• Kygo (2024)

Filmography

;Film

;Television

Tour

• Endless Summer Tour (2014)
• Cloud Nine Tour (2016)
• Kids in Love Tour (2018)
• KYGO World Tour (2024)

Awards and nominations

DJ Magazine Top 100 DJ

References

References

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