Oliver Tree death was confirmed on June 14, 2026 by the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, who identified the Santa Cruz, California-born artist as one of six people killed when two helicopters collided over the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood in the southwest zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Oliver Tree Nickell was 32 years old. He had performed in São Paulo just over a week earlier as part of his Love You Madly Hate You Badly World’s First World Tour, and the European leg of that same tour was due to begin in Lisbon, Portugal, in July. He never made it there.
Oliver Tree Death: What We Know About the Rio Crash
The crash took place on Sunday morning, June 14, 2026, in Recreio dos Bandeirantes, in the southwest zone of Rio de Janeiro. Two helicopters collided in mid-air and went down. One aircraft crashed into an electric vehicle dealership in the area, sparking a fire that engulfed at least 20 cars at the crash site.
Six people died in the collision. According to CNN Brasil, five casualties were on one helicopter and only the pilot was in the other aircraft when they collided. Oliver Tree was among four passengers on the larger aircraft. The cause of the collision remains under investigation. A forensic examination of the scene has been requested, and authorities are investigating what caused the mid-air collision.
The National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil, known as ANAC, issued a statement: “The National Civil Aviation Agency reports that it has become aware of the air accident involving two helicopters, today, June 14th, in Rio de Janeiro, and is investigating the situation of the aircraft and pilots involved in the case. The investigations into the causes will be conducted by the Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents. ANAC regrets the incident, expresses its solidarity with the families and friends of the victims, and reiterates to all passengers on general aviation flights that they should verify the status of companies and aircraft before boarding.”
Who Were the Six Victims in the Rio Helicopter Collision?
Oliver Tree was one of four passengers aboard the larger of the two helicopters. The other passengers who died with him were named as Lucas Vignale, Gaspar Prim, and Lucas Brito Chaves.
Gaspar Prim, known online as Gaspi, was an Argentinian content creator with more than 2.8 million subscribers to his YouTube channel. He had been traveling with Oliver Tree’s group as part of the Brazil leg of the tour.
The pilots of each helicopter, Alexandre Souza and Charles Marsillac, also lost their lives. Marsillac was flying solo in the second aircraft when the collision occurred. The loss of all six individuals, including two professional pilots, two creative figures with significant public followings, and two others traveling with the tour group, made the crash one of the most catastrophic single incidents to strike the global creative community in recent years.
Who Was Oliver Tree? A Life and Career in Music
Oliver Tree Nickell was born on June 29, 1993, in Santa Cruz, California. He spent his early career producing dubstep and performing in the San Francisco Bay Area under the artist name “Tree,” debuting his first EP, “Demons,” in 2013 under R&S Records.
His public breakthrough came in 2016 on Vine, where he developed his alter ego “Turbo,” characterized by a signature bowl cut, oversized 1980s clothing, and an eccentric, deliberately absurdist persona that set him apart from every other artist in his generation. That same year, Whethan released “When I’m Down” featuring Tree, a song that put him on the map and led directly to his signing with Atlantic Records in 2017.
The persona was never simply a gimmick. What looked like a comedic character in 2016 became a vehicle for genuinely raw, emotionally precise music, particularly on “Life Goes On” and “Miss You,” songs that connected with a generation of listeners who recognized something authentic beneath the deliberately ridiculous exterior. By the end of his career, he had amassed billions of streams across platforms and built a global audience through music, videos, and live performances.
From Vine to Atlantic Records: Oliver Tree’s Rise to Fame
After signing with Atlantic Records in 2017, Tree spent three years developing his debut album, releasing “Ugly Is Beautiful” on July 17, 2020. The record charted at number 14 on the Billboard chart and spawned his biggest commercial hit, “Life Goes On,” which has been streamed more than 700 million times on Spotify alone.
He followed “Ugly Is Beautiful” with “Cowboy Tears” in 2022, his second major-label studio album, and “Alone in a Crowd” in September 2023. Each album extended his reach while maintaining the genre-bending identity that defined him: the sound moved between alternative rock, electronic music, hip-hop, and pop, resisting categorization in a way that frustrated algorithmic systems but sustained a deeply loyal fan base.
His most recent album, “Love You Madly Hate You Badly,” arrived in April 2026. The record was shaped by his experience of traveling and recording across seven continents and 82 countries. “I was the only person who wrote and produced this album, I just did it across 80 different countries, seven different continents. I went to Antarctica twice to record this,” he explained in an interview earlier in 2026. The album was the creative culmination of a process that was genuinely unlike anything another artist in his generation was attempting.
His Final Album: Love You Madly Hate You Badly
“Love You Madly Hate You Badly” was released in April 2026 and represented the most ambitious project of Oliver Tree’s career. Written, produced, and recorded entirely by Tree himself across 82 countries and seven continents, the album documented a creative process that stretched across several years of continuous travel.
The album’s title reflected the emotional register that characterized Oliver Tree’s music at its most direct: the willingness to hold contradictory feelings simultaneously, to love and hate with equal intensity, and to make that unresolvable tension into something listenable and cathartic. It was received as a significant artistic statement.
He performed material from the album at Coachella 2026 in April, appearing at the Sahara Tent alongside Subtronics. He had then taken the album on tour to South America, most recently performing the São Paulo stop on June 6, just eight days before the crash.
The World Tour He Would Never Complete
Oliver Tree had been in the midst of his Love You Madly Hate You Badly World’s First World Tour when he died. The tour had taken him through Argentina, Chile, and Brazil in its South American leg.
He had performed in São Paulo on June 6 as part of his tour, following dates in Argentina and Chile. The European leg of his world tour was due to begin in Lisbon, Portugal, next month, with additional dates scheduled across the continent.
As recently as June 13, the day before the crash, Oliver Tree was posting content to social media from his time in Brazil. The posts showed an artist at work, enjoying the country, living the itinerant life his creative process had demanded for years. There was no indication of what was about to happen.
Music World Reacts: Melanie Martinez, Kid Cudi, Bebe Rexha Pay Tribute
The tributes that followed Oliver Tree’s death were remarkable for their consistency. Across artists who worked with him and those who only admired him from a distance, the same qualities were named again and again: his dedication, his warmth, his creative commitment, his laugh.
Melanie Martinez, who previously dated Tree, wrote on her Instagram Story: “Been an absolute wreck today. It’s really hard to understand how someone who you once shared such a specific and formative time of your life with can all of a sudden be gone. He was so dedicated to his art which I admired and respected so deeply. He had such a soft heart and was a true artist in every way. Rest in peace Oliver. I know you’re making the angels giggle.”
Kid Cudi wrote: “Fuck man. Spoke to Oliver a few weeks ago. This is heartbreaking. A really amazing and beautiful human. This shit sucks bad. Sending all my prayers and love to the families dealing with losses. Oliver we love you, forever.”
Bebe Rexha shared that she and Tree had recorded a song together that was intended for “Dirty Blonde,” writing: “I’m in shock. I was in the middle of my CD signing in NYC when I found the news of Oliver Tree. I can’t believe it. We recorded a record together to be on Dirty Blonde. He was so smart. Passionate. Talented. Kind. I’m so sad. May he rest in peace.”
Whitney Cummings offered perhaps the sharpest tribute: “Oliver Tree is one of the most talented people on earth and usually that comes with an ego and all kinds of dickhead nonsense, but Oliver is pure love and the best version of what an artist and person can and should be. There’s no silver lining. We lost a giant.”
Oliver Tree’s Musical Legacy: Billions of Streams and an Enduring Influence
Though still in his early 30s, Oliver Tree had already amassed billions of streams across platforms and built a global audience through music, videos, and live performances. His death marks the loss of one of the most unconventional artists to emerge over the past decade.
His influence on a generation of artists who came of age during the Vine-to-streaming transition is difficult to quantify but easy to recognize: the willingness to build a complete artistic persona rather than simply a sound, the integration of visual comedy and emotional directness, the refusal to be boxed into a single genre or demographic.
T-Pain, who appeared with Tree on the NBRadio Podcast, posted a video of Tree sharing his philosophy about making music for himself rather than outside pressure. “Never will forget this lesson from Oliver or the time we had on NBRadio Podcast. Thanks for sharing your art and for always being different in the best way possible. See you on the brighter side,” he wrote.
Oliver Tree was 32 years old. He had a new album out. He had a world tour underway. He had music recorded with Bebe Rexha that has not yet been released. By every measure available, he was in the middle of things, not at the end. That is what makes the loss so hard to process.
Latest Updates
Oliver Tree’s death was confirmed on June 14, 2026 by the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro. CNN confirmed he was among six people killed when two helicopters collided over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood, with one aircraft crashing into an electric vehicle dealership and setting at least 20 cars ablaze. The New York Times confirmed his death at age 32 and that he had recently played the São Paulo stop of his world tour. Deadline confirmed the tributes from Melanie Martinez, Kid Cudi, Bebe Rexha, T-Pain, Whitney Cummings, and Andy Milonakis, and confirmed the names of the other five victims including Gaspar Prim, known online as Gaspi, an Argentinian YouTuber with 2.8 million subscribers.
Full sources: CNN | The New York Times | Deadline
Broader Implications
Oliver Tree’s death at 32 is the kind of loss that leaves a catalog with a different kind of weight. “Love You Madly Hate You Badly,” his final album, was recorded across 82 countries and seven continents, a document of an artist who had decided to push the creative process to its physical limits. The fact that it was released just two months before his death gives it a retrospective significance it was never meant to carry.
The helicopter collision that took his life, and the lives of five others including Gaspar Prim of Argentina, happened in a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro on a Sunday morning, the kind of ordinary, unglamorous context that tragedy almost always arrives in. There was nothing about the circumstances that was dramatic or metaphorical. It was simply terrible and random and final.
For the music industry, the loss of an artist at 32 with his creative trajectory is one that echoes forward into the music he will not make. The collaboration with Bebe Rexha that was set for “Dirty Blonde” will now need a different context if it is ever released. The European leg of his world tour will become a canceled itinerary. The next album, which given his pace of recording was almost certainly already partly written, will remain wherever it existed on the day he left for that flight in Rio.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. How did Oliver Tree die?
Oliver Tree died on June 14, 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when two helicopters collided mid-air over the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood in the southwest zone of the city. He was one of six people killed in the crash. One helicopter went down into an electric vehicle dealership, sparking a fire. The cause of the collision remains under investigation by Brazilian authorities.
2. How old was Oliver Tree when he died?
Oliver Tree was 32 years old at the time of his death. He was born Oliver Tree Nickell on June 29, 1993 in Santa Cruz, California, and would have turned 33 on June 29, 2026.
3. Who else died in the Rio helicopter crash with Oliver Tree?
Five others died in the crash alongside Oliver Tree: passengers Lucas Vignale, Gaspar Prim (the Argentinian content creator known as Gaspi, with 2.8 million YouTube subscribers), and Lucas Brito Chaves, as well as the pilots of each helicopter, Alexandre Souza and Charles Marsillac.
4. What was Oliver Tree’s last album?
Oliver Tree’s final album was “Love You Madly Hate You Badly,” released in April 2026. He wrote and produced the entire album himself while traveling across 82 countries and seven continents over several years. He was performing songs from the album on his South American tour when he died.
5. Who paid tribute to Oliver Tree after his death?
Tributes came from across the music industry, including his former girlfriend Melanie Martinez, who called him “a true artist” with “a soft heart”; Kid Cudi, who described him as “a really amazing and beautiful human”; Bebe Rexha, who revealed they had recorded an unreleased song together; T-Pain, who shared a video of Oliver Tree discussing his creative philosophy; Whitney Cummings, who called him “pure love and the best version of what an artist and person can and should be”; and Andy Milonakis, who said he was glad to have spent time with him the previous month.
Sources and References
- CNN: American Singer Oliver Tree Listed Aboard Helicopter Involved in Fatal Crash in Brazil
- The New York Times: Singer Oliver Tree Is Said to Have Died in Collision of Helicopters in Brazil
- Deadline: Oliver Tree’s Ex Melanie Martinez Remembers the “True Artist” — Kid Cudi, Bebe Rexha and More Pay Tribute
