Alan Walker (born 24 August 1997) is a Norwegian music producer and DJ primarily known for his single "Faded" (2015), which was certified platinum in 14 countries. He has also made several songs including "Force" (2015), "Sing Me To Sleep" (2016), "All Falls Down" (featuring Noah Cyrus and Digital Farm Animals), (2017), "Darkside" (2018), "Diamond Heart" (2018), "On My Way" (featuring Sabrina Carpenter and Farruko), (2019) and "Alone, Pt. II" (featuring Ava Max), (2019), all of which attracted hundreds of millions of views on YouTube. 3 of his songs, "Faded" (2015), "Alone" (2016) and "The Spectre" (2017) have passed 1 billion views on YouTube.
In early 2017, Walker's channel emerged as the most subscribed YouTube channel registered in Norway, with then having 6 million subscribers. As of March 2023, his channel is still most subscribed in Norway, and has 43.4 million subscribers as of June 5, 2023. He also has the most views of any Norwegian creator, with approximately 12.9 billion views as of May 17, 2023. As of June 5, 2023, he has 32 370 556 monthly listeners on Spotify, making him 103rd most-followed artist on the platform.
Alan Walker was born on 24 August 1997 in Northampton, England, to Anglo-Scottish British Philip Alan Walker, and his Norwegian wife Hilde Omdal Walker. As a result, by his international parental inheritance, he was granted dual citizenship from both the United Kingdom and Norway.
He grew up with two siblings, an elder sister named Camilla, who was also born in England; and a younger brother named Andreas, who was born in Norway. At the age of two, he and his family moved to Bergen. Walker later found interest in computers, a hobby which has driven him deeper to computing graphical design, and musical programming. He initially had no musical background, but was able to teach himself by watching YouTube tutorials based on musical production.
In 2012, Walker was listening to a song by Italian DJ David Whistle (also known as DJ Ness) and reached out to him to find out how he produced his music. He was inspired by EDM producers K-391 and Ahrix, and by film composers like Hans Zimmer and Steve Jablonsky. He started producing his music on his laptop using FL Studio. In July 2012, with the help and feedback from his fans online, he began pursuing his music production career and slowly began posting his music to YouTube and SoundCloud. Starting as a bedroom producer, he was better known as DJ Walkzz before signing a record deal and releasing his debut single in 2014.
Walker released the track "Fade" on 17 August 2014. The track gained attention after its re-release via the record label NoCopyrightSounds on 19 November 2014, it was quickest to reach 1 million views on NoCopyrightSounds. Walker stated that the creation of the track was inspired by K-391 and Ahrix, whose tracks were also picked up by the record label. The track has over 400 million views on YouTube, 115 million plays on Spotify, and 41 million streams on SoundCloud. The tracks "Spectre" and "Force" followed in 2015.
Walker signed with MER Musikk under Sony Music Sweden and released his next single, "Faded", a remastered vocal version of "Fade". It was released on 8 December 2015 and featured uncredited Naustdal pop singer Iselin Solheim. The single topped the year-end charts in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, iTunes charts in 33 countries, as well as entering top 10 in Spotify Global Chart. The music video on YouTube has over 3.4 billion views and 26 million likes, placing it among the top 10 most-liked YouTube videos. It has over 1.7 billion plays on Spotify, and is also one of the Top 10 Most Shazamed tracks of 2016. The single also received official remixes from Tiësto, Dash Berlin, and Hardwell. He later released an acoustic "restrung" version of the song, with all the EDM elements taken out. Walker performing at the Stavernfestivalen in 2016. Walker quit high school in January to pursue his music career. On 27 February, Walker made his performance debut at the Winter X Games in Oslo, where he performed 15 tracks including the song "Faded" together with Iselin Solheim. By March, Walker had produced 30 to 40 songs in total, but "Faded" marks his first single with Sony Music Sweden, and the first to achieve such global success. On 7 April, Walker teamed up with Zara Larsson at the Echo Awards in Germany. Together they performed each other's songs "Faded" and "Never Forget You". Four weeks previously, he achieved the first place on NRJ Euro Hot 30 for the first time, which only has been achieved by one other Norwegian artist, Kygo.
The single "Sing Me to Sleep" was released on 3 June, featuring female vocalist Iselin Solheim, the same vocalist as in "Faded". The song topped iTunes charts in 7 countries. Its music video on YouTube has over 570 million views, and it also reached 250 million plays on Spotify. Another single titled "Alone" was also released on 2 December of that same year, incoperating uncredited Swedish singer Noonie Bao. The music video on YouTube has over 1 billion views, the track also gained over 390 million plays on Spotify. The song was described as "the final piece of a trilogy consisting of 'Faded', 'Sing Me To Sleep' and 'Alone'" by Gunnar Greeve, Walker's manager and co-writer for the single.
In 2022, Walker signed with the Swedish crowdfunding website Corite, which allows fans to invest in a music project. Walker has raised over $100,000 from fans for his next musical products, the first being a compilation EP called "Origins", while the second was a collaboration with his online community of fans known as The Walkers, called "Unity".
Releases[]
Sets[]
2023[]
- Alan Walker - Mega Konser Idols x Alan Walker, Indonesia
- Alan Walker - Fun Radio Ibiza Experience, Accor Arena Paris, France
- Alan Walker - Mainstage, Ultra Peru
- Alan Walker - Queen's Domain, Beyond Wonderland
- Alan Walker - 1001tracklists Miami Rooftop Sessions, Miami Music Week, United States
- Alan Walker - GMO Sonic, Japan
- Alan Walker - Walkerverse The Tour, AsiaWorld-Arena, Hong Kong
2022[]
2021[]
- Steve Aoki & Zedd & Alan Walker - Supersonic, Japan
2020[]
- Alan Walker - Maya Music Festival, Thailand
2019[]
2018[]
- Alan Walker - Mainstage, Tomorrowland Weekend 2
- Alan Walker - Mainstage, Tomorrowland Weekend 1
- Alan Walker - Mainstage, Ultra Music Festival Miami
2017[]
- Alan Walker - Mainstage, Tomorrowland Weekend 2
- Alan Walker - circuitGROUNDS, EDC Las Vegas