The music world lost one of its most unpredictable voices today. Oliver Tree, the singer, songwriter, producer, and filmmaker known for his bowl cut, wide-leg pants, and genre-bending catalog, died June 14, 2026, in a mid-air helicopter collision over the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. He was 32. Brazilian outlet O Dia named him among the six victims identified by Rio de Janeiro Civil Police following the crash. Authorities confirmed one aircraft carried five people while the other carried only its pilot, with no survivors.
Born Oliver Tree Nickell in Santa Cruz, California, on June 29, 1993, Tree built a career that refused easy categories. He moved through ska, dubstep, indie pop, hip-hop, and alternative rock, often blurring the line between earnest songwriting and absurdist performance art. He launched his recording career as “Tree” in 2010, signed to London’s R&S Records at 20, and released his debut EP ‘Demons’ in 2013, drawing early attention when Radiohead’s Thom Yorke praised his cover of “Karma Police.”
His breakthrough arrived after “When I’m Down,” his 2016 collaboration with Whethan, went viral and led to a deal with Atlantic Records. His major-label debut EP ‘Alien Boy’ followed in 2018, complete with the freestyle monster truck stunts that became part of his legend. Tree spent years cultivating a persona that was equal parts pop star and internet provocateur, setting a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest kick scooter along the way.
The albums kept coming. His debut full-length ‘Ugly Is Beautiful’ landed in 2020, followed by ‘Cowboy Tears’ in 2022 and ‘Alone in a Crowd’ in 2023. Singles like “Life Goes On” and “Miss You,” the latter a chart-climbing collaboration with Robin Schulz, gave him real international reach and platinum certifications across multiple territories.
This year marked a new chapter. Tree released his fourth and final studio album, ‘Love You Madly Hate You Badly’, on April 24, 2026, stepping away from Atlantic to put it out independently through his own Alien Boy Records. In May he announced his most ambitious run yet, a world tour spanning all seven continents, 30-plus countries, and 70-plus shows. He had been in Brazil following a June 6 performance in São Paulo, part of that ongoing world tour. The European leg was set to begin in Lisbon on July 13.
Tree leaves behind a body of work that turned self-deprecation, surrealism, and pop hooks into something wholly his own. He was a rare figure who treated the music video, the live show, and the meme as one continuous canvas.
