About Levels

"Levels"[a] is a progressive house song by Swedish DJ Avicii that was released on 28 October 2011 through Universal Music Group on iTunes. "Levels" topped the Swedish Singles Chart. Outside Sweden, "Levels" topped the charts in Norway and peaked within the top ten of the charts in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and received a platinum certification eight times in Sweden, twice in the United Kingdom, and once in the United States.

Before the song's release, an early version known as "Unnamed" played during a radio program on BBC Radio 1 in the United Kingdom on 11 December 2010. The final version was not played until the Ultra Music Festival in March 2011, where it was referred to as "ID." Afterward, "Levels" played in many clubs and festivals around the world before its eventual release on iTunes. Avicii has stated that he made the song so that he could incorporate a vocal sample from the 1962 gospel-inspired song "Something's Got a Hold on Me" by Etta James. The music video was directed by Petro Papahadjopoulos, who came up with the concept after a phone interview with Avicii about the supposed "symbolism" behind "Levels." The video is about a businessman who starts dancing in his office in front of his co-workers and boss before being stunned by an officer and sent to the hospital. All the hospital workers slowly start dancing against their own free will after two of them touch a flower sprouted out of the businessman's mouth.