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DJ Mag Top100 DJs
12
Swedish House Mafia
2

In June this year, the Swedish House Mafia announced they were to split. It was unexpected. So for them, 2012 signified having done what they set out to do. However you feel about their crowd-pleasing output, these three Swedes broke the US, the UK and Europe in a little over three years, a feat that few other electronic acts have achieved in the history of dance music.

They collaborated with Pharrell Williams and Usher, made a clutch of platinum-selling singles and went to No.1 twice in the US dance chart. Whichever way you slice it, they took dance music to the masses. "We felt we surpassed any dreams that we had," says Axwell. The UK was among the band's most enthusiastic cheerleaders.

So it's heartening that the biggest moment for the band - not just for this year, but for the whole shebang - was selling out Milton Keynes Bowl this summer. Ask any of the band, and they will tell you the same. "When I watch the video for 'Don't You Worry Child', the live video from Milton Keynes, I look at it and I think, 'Did we actually fucking do that?'" says Sebastian Ingrosso.

"Three DJs producing music on our computers, this is what we do, and people actually like it? And sing along?! That's fucking weird. It's a blessing and something I can tell my grandkids. It was very emotional, because it was our last UK show together. There were a lot of feelings that night. Absolutely the biggest moment of Swedish House Mafia's career, I think." Axwell agrees. "It was insane, overwhelming," he says.

"It was like performing in front of 60,000 great friends. None of us are rock stars, but I guess that's as close as we're going to get. For that moment, we were." Each member has always maintained their own careers before and during their stint as the biggest Swedish supergroup since Abba, so it's unlikely we shall be seeing the last of them once their world tour runs its course, winding up in Los Angeles next March. But in what guise remains to be seen