What happened to Oliver Tree?

Oliver Tree, the American singer, producer and director born Oliver Tree Nickell, died on 14 June 2026 at the age of 32. He was one of six people killed when two helicopters collided in mid-air over Recreio dos Bandeirantes, southwest of Rio de Janeiro. Tree was riding in one of the aircraft with four others, including the Argentine YouTuber Gaspar Prim, known as Gaspi; the second helicopter carried only its pilot. He had been traveling through South America on his World's First World Tour. Brazilian authorities have opened an investigation into the cause of the collision.

Who else died in the crash?

For house music, the crash also took one of its own. Among the six killed was Lucas Brito Chaves, the 21-year-old Brazilian DJ and producer known as Lucas Frota. A Rio de Janeiro native, Frota had been a talent on the rise since his first DJ set at the age of 12, building a résumé that ran from remixes for the likes of Armand Van Helden, DJ Sneak, Hot Creations and I'm A House Gangster to sets alongside Josh Wink, Recondite, Roger Sanchez, Âme and Mind Against across the Americas and Europe. His death cuts off one of the brighter young careers in Brazilian house.

Why does Oliver Tree matter to dance music?

Tree was never an underground house artist, and nobody is going to pretend otherwise. But he authored one of the cleanest dance crossovers of the streaming era. In 2022 Robin Schulz rebuilt Tree's 2020 song 'Jerk' into 'Miss You', a piano-driven record released through Atlantic Records that ran straight up the dance charts: number 10 on Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, number one on the UK Dance chart, the top five in Australia. It was one of those tracks you heard in a festival main-room set and a supermarket aisle in the same week. The release also set off a strange chart battle, with an almost identical version by southstar landing at the same time, a story that said a lot about how a piano hook travels in 2022.

Who was Oliver Tree?

Born in Santa Cruz, California in 1993, Tree signed to Atlantic in 2017 and built a career out of refusing to sit in one genre: scooter stunts, oversized aesthetics and deadpan humor wrapped around songs like 'Alien Boy', 'Life Goes On' and 'When I'm Down'. The dance world knew him mostly through one enormous record, but that record was enough to put him on the floor.

What did Oliver Tree want done with his money?

Back in April, Tree sat down with Zach Sang dressed as Shrek — classic Oliver — and spent part of the interview talking about money, death and what he actually believed about wealth. He said he did not feel like any of it was his: not a penny to family, not to a future wife or kids beyond college. All of it would go back to artists through a foundation he had already set up, Dr. Oliver Tree's Art Grants for Baby Geniuses, funded by the interest on his music and whatever his catalog generates after he is gone. He knew artists are worth more dead than alive. He planned for it. He built something around it.

What did Oliver Tree's final video say?

In what became his final video, posted to his X account @obsrvate, Tree turned on his label. He said parting ways with Atlantic Records had been "nothing short of a nightmare" behind the scenes, blaming an alleged lack of any marketing budget for music videos and digital ad spend. He said a Valentine's Day breakup song never came out "because someone forgot to put it in." He said he would keep making music — but warned that "the remainder of the music won't be coming out."

In his own words: "I have made them tens of millions of dollars, but they don't remember that. So, the music is owned by them. The remainder of the music will not be coming out. I will always continue to make music. Thank you to everyone who's supported me. I can't wait to release more music at some point at a later time, but for now, there is nothing on the horizon. I am so sorry. I love you guys. Thank you."