When Avicii released True back in 2013, with an unexpected combination of dance and country music, people didn’t know what to think. Some praised the move, some hated it, but everybody heard it. Now, just shy of its three year anniversary, “Wake Me Up” has joined the coveted billion views club.
This has Avicii joining the likes of PSY‘s “Gangnam Style,” which was the first YouTube video to clear 1,000,000,000 plays.
The video itself marks a special point in dance music, documenting Avicii’s quizzical Ultra performance which drew both acclaim and criticism. That Ultra also happened to be the final performance of Swedish House Mafia, further engraining a spot in electronic dance music’s rich history. Click below to re-live one of the most omnipresent tracks of 2013.
“Wake Me Up” is the second EDM track to breach the One Billion club, after the wildly successful “Lean On” by DJ Snake and Major Lazer with MØ.