When Avicii received an honorary award at the 2019 Grammis gala, the late producer’s father, Klas Bergling, was there to accept the posthumous award on his son’s behalf. A Swedish version of the American Grammy Awards ceremony, the Grammis were hosted in Stockholm on Feb. 7.
“As Tim’s father, I am very honored to receive this great prize,” Bergling reads the Swedish Aftonbladet newspaper’s translation of his acceptance speech on behalf of his son. “Tim was a friendly person with humor and very serious, humble, and stubborn as sin. When it came to the music, he was on the verge of obsessed to reach the optimal he had imagined.”
“He was a shy person who didn’t want to be in the center and he had a hard time with the official role,” Bergling added. “He had a need to withdraw, and peace, and find himself–something that many of us probably recognize.”
Klas Bergling concluded the acceptance speech through tears with an address to his son. “Tim,” Bergling said, “we think your music will live and continue to delight people.”
Avicii’s 2019 Grammis acknowledgement is not his first Grammis award; he previously won a Grammis in 2012 for his landmark production, “Levels.”
Photo credit: Sean Erikkson
