It was the summer of 2013, and a weird, twangy acoustic guitar riff started blasting out of every car window and festival speaker from Ibiza to Los Angeles. It didn't sound like EDM. At least, not at first. Then that massive, soaring voice kicked in—soulful, gritty, and sounding like it belonged in a Nashville honky-tonk rather than a Swedish DJ's deck. Everyone was asking the same thing: who sings on Wake Me Up?
The answer is Aloe Blacc.
Honestly, it’s one of those tracks that changed music history by accident. If you were around when it debuted at Ultra Music Festival, you might remember the crowd actually booing. People were confused. They wanted heavy synth drops, not a "soul-folk" hybrid. But Tim Bergling, known to the world as Avicii, knew exactly what he was doing. He had tapped into something visceral. But the story of how Aloe Blacc ended up on the track—and why many people still think it’s someone else—is actually a bit of a wild ride through the music industry's inner workings.
The Man Behind the Voice: Aloe Blacc
Aloe Blacc wasn't a newcomer when he sat down to write with Avicii and Mike Einziger (the guitarist from Incubus). He already had a massive solo hit with "I Need a Dollar." But "Wake Me Up" was a different beast entirely. It’s funny because Blacc actually showed up to the session with the lyrics already brewing in his head.
He had been traveling on a plane, thinking about his life and his career, and the phrase "Wake me up when it's all over" just sort of stuck. He felt like his life was moving so fast it was almost a dream. When he got to Mike Einziger’s house, Mike was strumming that now-iconic guitar part. Avicii was there, absorbing it all. They tracked the vocals in a single night.
That’s the thing about the voice on "Wake Me Up." It sounds lived-in. Aloe Blacc has this incredible ability to sound both vulnerable and powerful at the same time. It’s a baritone that cuts through the electronic production. It's real.
Why the Confusion?
A lot of people struggled with identifying who sings on Wake Me Up because, for a long time, the singer wasn't featured in the song title. It was just "Avicii - Wake Me Up." This was a standard practice in the EDM world back then. The DJ was the "star," and the vocalists were often uncredited or relegated to the liner notes.
Also, Blacc’s voice is remarkably versatile. Some people thought it was a folk singer from the UK. Others genuinely thought it might be a pitched-down sample. It wasn’t until the music video dropped—which currently has billions of views—and Blacc started performing it live with Avicii that the connection became common knowledge for the general public.
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The Making of a Genre-Bending Masterpiece
To understand the vocal performance, you have to understand the room where it happened. Mike Einziger brought a hippie-rock vibe. Avicii brought the European dance sensibility. Aloe Blacc brought the soul.
They weren't trying to make a radio hit.
They were just experimenting.
Avicii actually wanted a "storyteller" voice. He didn't want a standard pop singer who would hit perfect, sterile notes. He wanted grit. Aloe Blacc delivered that by tapping into his own influences, which range from Marvin Gaye to Bill Withers. If you listen closely to the bridge—"I tried carrying the weight of the world"—you can hear the strain in his voice. That wasn't a mistake. It was the point.
The Lyrics and Their Meaning
The lyrics are surprisingly deep for a song that became a club anthem. It’s essentially about the fear of growing up and the feeling of being lost in your own success.
- "I didn't know I was lost."
- "They tell me I'm too young to understand."
- "I'm caught up in a dream."
Aloe Blacc has said in multiple interviews, including conversations with Billboard and The Huffington Post, that he wrote those lines as a way of processing his own journey. He was "young" in the sense of being new to that level of global fame, even though he was in his 30s at the time.
The Impact of the Vocal Performance
When we talk about who sings on Wake Me Up, we are talking about a performance that effectively killed the "pure" EDM era and started the "acoustic-electronic" trend. After this song blew up, every DJ on the planet was looking for a soulful singer and a guitar player.
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But nobody did it quite like Aloe.
The song went 6x Platinum in the US. It hit number one in over 20 countries. And yet, the core of it remains that one man’s voice. It’s a testament to the power of a great vocal. You can have the best production in the world, but if the person behind the microphone isn't feeling it, the audience won't either.
Other Collaborations
Aloe Blacc and Avicii didn't stop there. They actually worked together on "Liar Liar" and, later, "SOS," which was released after Avicii’s tragic passing in 2018. "SOS" was particularly emotional because the lyrics felt like a cry for help that Avicii had written, and Aloe was the only one who could truly bring that message to life with the right amount of gravity.
Beyond the DJ Booth
If you’re looking into Aloe Blacc because you love his work on "Wake Me Up," you should definitely check out his solo albums like Lift Your Spirit. He’s not just a "featured artist." He’s a songwriter of the highest caliber.
He has this way of blending social commentary with catchy hooks.
It’s rare.
It’s also worth noting that the success of this track allowed him to reach a global audience that might never have found his soul music. It was a trade-off. He gave the song its soul; the song gave him a permanent place in the pop culture pantheon.
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Myths vs. Reality
There’s a persistent rumor that some of the vocals were AI-generated or heavily manipulated. This is 100% false. In 2013, we didn't have the sophisticated AI vocal tools we have now. What you hear on the track is Aloe Blacc’s raw talent, layered slightly to give it that "chorus" feel during the hook.
Another misconception is that the song was written by a massive team of 20 people in a corporate office. Nope. It was three guys in a home studio in Malibu.
Sometimes, the best things are the simplest.
Actionable Insights for Music Fans
If you're a fan of the vocal style on this track, there are a few things you can do to dive deeper into this specific sound:
- Listen to the Acoustic Version: Aloe Blacc released a solo, stripped-back version of "Wake Me Up" on his Wake Me Up EP. It removes the EDM "drop" entirely and focuses on the storytelling. It’s arguably more powerful than the original.
- Explore the "Soul-Pop" Genre: Check out artists like Michael Kiwanuka, Leon Bridges, or even early Ray Charles to see where Aloe gets his inspiration.
- Study the Lyrics: Take a moment to read the lyrics without the music. They read like a poem about the transition from youth to adulthood, which is why the song resonates with so many different age groups.
- Watch the Live Performances: Go to YouTube and find the tribute concert for Avicii at the Friends Arena in Stockholm. Seeing Aloe Blacc sing this song in front of 50,000 people, with a full orchestra, is an experience that puts the entire "who sings on Wake Me Up" question into a much more emotional perspective.
The song is more than just a dance track. It's a snapshot of a moment in time when a Swedish producer and an American soul singer decided to ignore the rules of the genre. They created something that felt human in an era of digital perfection. That’s why, over a decade later, we’re still talking about it.
To truly appreciate the track, you have to recognize the synergy between Avicii’s vision and Aloe Blacc’s delivery. One provided the heartbeat, the other provided the breath. Without Aloe’s specific tone, the song likely would have been just another forgotten summer anthem. Instead, it became a timeless classic that defines an entire decade of music.
If you ever find yourself at a karaoke bar or a wedding and this song comes on, you now have the full backstory. It wasn't just a "feature." It was a career-defining performance by a man who knew exactly what it felt like to be "lost" and "caught up in a dream."
Take a listen to Aloe Blacc’s other work, specifically All Love Everything. You’ll hear that same honesty. You’ll hear the same man who, on a random night in Malibu, helped change the sound of the radio forever.