The dance and pop music world is reeling today following confirmation that Oliver Tree — born Oliver Tree Nickell — has died at age 32 following a mid-air helicopter collision over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Argentine YouTuber Gaspi was also one of the victims of the crash.
According to CNN Brazil and the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, two helicopters collided Sunday morning over the coastal neighborhood of Recreio dos Bandeirantes in the city’s southwest zone. One aircraft went down in a parking area, sparking a large fire that damaged roughly 20 vehicles. Six people in total were killed across both aircraft, with no survivors. Brazilian Air Force investigators have been deployed to the crash site as authorities work to determine the cause of the collision.
Tree had been performing in Brazil as part of the world tour behind his fourth studio album, Love You Madly, Hate You Badly, which kicked off in Mexico City on May 30 and was slated to continue with dates across multiple continents, including a run beginning July 1 in Portugal. He had performed in São Paulo just over a week before the crash.
Long before he became one of the most recognizable — and most parodied — figures in pop and electronic music, Oliver Tree got his start producing dubstep out of the San Francisco Bay Area under the simple stage name “Tree,” releasing his debut EP Demons in 2013 through R&S Records.
His breakthrough arrived in 2016 when he appeared on Whethan’s “When I’m Down,” a track that introduced his voice to a much wider audience and led to a deal with Atlantic Records. From there, Tree leaned fully into the absurdist, retro-styled visual persona — bowl cut, oversized clothes, deadpan humor — that would define his brand. His 2018 EP Alien Boy and its accompanying self-directed music videos became viral hits, racking up tens of millions of views and cementing his reputation as an artist as much about performance art and internet culture as music.
His debut full-length album, Ugly Is Beautiful, arrived in 2020, but it was the deluxe edition’s lead single “Life Goes On” that turned Tree into a global phenomenon. The track became a defining sound of TikTok in 2021, amassing billions of views across the platform and spawning remixes featuring Trippie Redd, Ski Mask the Slump God, Clean Bandit, Ty Dolla $ign, and ALOK.
He followed that success with 2022’s Cowboy Tears, a collaboration with David Guetta on “Here We Go Again,” and 2023’s Alone in a Crowd, which introduced his fictional fashion-designer alter ego Cornelius Cummings and included the hit “Miss You” alongside Robin Schulz. Across his catalog, Tree built a reported audience of more than 4 billion global streams and tens of millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram.
Tree’s close, longtime relationship with Diplo stands out as one of the more visible friendships of his career. The two had crossed paths repeatedly over the years — Diplo appeared in and helped shape the rollout of the star-studded “Life Goes On” remix video in 2021, directed by Cole Bennett.
Their bond extended well beyond the studio. In late 2023, the pair embarked on a widely shared “wellness adventure” to Antarctica, spending a week aboard a private yacht with friends doing yoga, breathwork, and a polar plunge — a trip that became a memorable moment for fans of both artists.
That friendship eventually turned into a full creative collaboration in 2024, when Diplo tapped Tree for “Ultraman,” their first official joint single, created for Netflix’s animated film Ultraman: Rising. The phonk-leaning track, inspired by ’90s Memphis rap, marked a new sonic direction for both artists and was one of several high-profile original songs Diplo has produced for major film projects.
