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2Cellos

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2Cellos
2Cellos in 2017
Background information
OriginZagreb, Croatia
GenresCello rock, classical, chamber music, instrumental rock
LabelsSony Masterworks
MembersLuka Šulić
Stjepan Hauser
Dušan Kranjc
Websitehttps://2cellos.com/
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2011–2022
Subscribers6.2+ million[1]
Total views1.6+ billion[1]
Associated acts
100,000 subscribers2013
1,000,000 subscribers2015
Last updated: 18 September 2022

2Cellos (stylized 2CΞLLOS) were a Croatian cellist duo,[2][3][4] consisting of classically trained cellists Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser. Signed to Sony Masterworks in 2011, they released six albums. The duo played instrumental arrangements for cellos of well-known pop and rock songs, as well as classical and film music.[5] The duo performed internationally and were featured on several American television series including Glee and The Bachelor (Sean and Catherine's Wedding).[6] They continue to be active as solo performers.

Background

Hauser is from Pula, Croatia, and Šulić is from Maribor, Slovenia (to a Croatian father and Slovenian mother[7]). They met at a master class in Pula while still in their teens. They were both educated at the Academy of Music in Zagreb.[8] Later on, Šulić studied in Vienna and they both studied in the UK (Šulić at London's Royal Academy of Music and Hauser at Trinity College of Music, now Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music in London and then at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester).[9]

The duo rose to fame in 2011 after their cover of "Smooth Criminal" became a hit on YouTube,[10] receiving over three million views in the first two weeks[9] and almost 43 million views as of April 2021.[11] One of Hauser's acquaintances in Croatia, a director, assisted in the creation of a video to "Smooth Criminal." The video[12] features Šulić and Hauser facing off alone in a large ballroom littered with chairs, playing Jackson's tune.[9] Before they became partners, the two cellists were sometimes considered rivals, competing against each other in music competitions.[12]

Career

2Cellos signed to record with Sony Masterworks,[13] and finished recording their first album in May 2011,[14] which carried the Menart Records label in Croatia.[15] Released on 19 July 2011,[16] their eponymous debut album includes covers of songs by U2, Guns N' Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Sting, Coldplay, Nirvana, Muse, and Kings of Leon. The album also features a cello version of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature."[9] The duo said that they chose songs that could be arranged as covers playable on just two cellos.[17] In anticipation of the release, 2Cellos released their second single, "Welcome to the Jungle," a cover of the Guns N' Roses song of the same name.[12][18]

Luka Šulić

Elton John asked the duo to appear with him on his 2011 summer tour,[10] which began in Cardiff, Wales on 8 June.[9] John personally called Šulić and said that he had watched the "Smooth Criminal" video and wanted 2Cellos to participate in his thirty-city tour.[19] The two had previously performed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show of 25 April 2011.[13][20] 2Cellos also performed at the 2011 iTunes Festival in London.[19] They went on to perform internationally with Elton John and his band for five years, including hundreds of performances at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. They appear in The Million Dollar Piano movie filmed at the Colosseum in 2012 and on the 2013 album, The Diving Board.

Stjepan Hauser

The duo performed an arrangement of "Smooth Criminal" in the third season of the television show Glee.[21] The episode in which they appeared, titled "Michael", aired on 31 January 2012, and was the first time that the series highlighted instrumental musicians. The scene featuring "Smooth Criminal" was set up similarly to 2Cellos' original music video for the song.[22] On 4 June 2012 2Cellos performed with Elton John at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace. On 12 June 2012, 2Cellos performed in front of a full Arena Zagreb audience. The concert was filmed for DVD: Live at Arena Zagreb.

Although the two usually record covers of rock songs, Šulić and Hauser said they still play with orchestras and will not abandon playing classical music. The cellists said they would someday like to go on tour with both a classical and a contemporary orchestra,[12] a hope that was fulfilled in part during their tour for the album Score. Their second studio album, entitled In2ition, came out early in 2013, and featured new twists on a diverse range of classic tracks with a few surprise vocal and instrumental duet partners including Elton John, Lang Lang, Naya Rivera, Steve Vai, Sky Ferreira and Zucchero. The album was produced by Bob Ezrin.

Other tracks include covers of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" featuring Vai, Coldplay's "Clocks" featuring Lang Lang, Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole" featuring Rivera, an Italian version of "The Book of Love" by The Magnetic Fields entitled "Il Libro Dell'Amore" featuring Zucchero, Karl Jenkins' "Benedictus", and "Oh Well" featuring Sir Elton.[23]

In July 2013, they filmed a commercial for the Japanese mobile phone company Docomo.[24] Their album In2ition debuted on the Japanese Albums Chart, in August 2013 at number 1.[25] Since then, they have done commercials for the US National Football League Thursday Night Football [1], for 1906 Reerva Especial [2] and they have done several print campaigns for the Italian designer, s.Oliver.

As a part of their world tour with Elton John, including concerts in North America, Europe and Asia, 2Cellos performed at Madison Square Garden two days in a row, in December 2013.[26] In March 2014, they had a solo Japanese tour.[27]

In 2015, 2Cellos released their third album, Celloverse, which they also co-produced.[28] The album contains a diverse array of renditions including AC/DC's "Thunderstruck", Avicii's "Wake Me Up", Michael Jackson's "They Don't Care About Us", Hans Zimmerʼs "Mombasa" (from Inception), and an original work titled Celloverse, among numerous other covers.

Drummer Dušan Kranjc (born in Pula, Croatia) joined the group in 2011

2Cellos has used YouTube to reach out to their audience, posting videos of notable live performances, including Arena Zagreb (2012), Arena Pula (2013), EXIT Festival (2014), and their fifth anniversary concert at Arena di Verona (2016) in Italy. In February 2014, the duo published their rendition of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" to YouTube. The video depicts the duo playing before a Baroque audience, which soon finds out that the song is anything but classical. The video went viral at the beginning of March, gathering 10 million views in the first two weeks.[29] As of March 2021, the video has garnered over 200 million views.

As Šulić told The Sydney Morning Herald, "we love AC/DC as much as Bach." Hauser added, "both (AC/DC and Bach) are simple and convincing in what they do."[29][30]

In 2017, Šulić and Hauser released their fourth album, Score, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, which included a wide array of television and film music. To mark the album's release, 2Cellos released their official YouTube video for Game of Thrones Medley, which garnered over 1 million views in two days.

On 26 May 2018, 2Cellos performed the UEFA Champions League Anthem ahead of the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Liverpool.[31] That same year, they released their fifth album, Let There be Cello. In November 2022, they performed at the Cairo International Film Festival.[32]

Discography

Main article: 2Cellos discography
  • 2Cellos (2011, Sony Masterworks)
  • In2ition (2013, Sony Masterworks)
  • Celloverse (2015, Sony Masterworks)
  • Score (2017, Sony Masterworks)
  • Let There Be Cello (2018, Sony Masterworks)
  • Dedicated (2021, Sony Masterworks)

Tours

  • International Tours in Europe and the US and Canada 2013
  • International Tours in Japan, Australia, Europe and Russia 2014
  • International Tours in Australia, the US and Canada, Europe, Japan and other Asian countries, Latin America and Russia 2015
  • CELLOVERSE tour: US and Canada, Europe, Latin America and Australia 2016
  • The Score World Tour (2017) with orchestral accompaniment
  • Let There Be Cello (tour) (2019) (their first Arena tour)
  • Dedicated World Tour (2022)

Awards

Porin

Main article: Porin (music award)
Year Recipient Award Result Ref.
2012 2Cellos Best International Album Won [33]
"Smooth Criminal" Best International Song Won
2013 In2ition Best International Album Nominated [34]
2014 Live at Arena Zagreb Best International Video Album Won [35]

Japan Gold Disc Award

Main article: Japan Gold Disc Award
Year Recipient Award Result Ref.
2014 In2ition Instrumental Album of the Year Won [36]
"Kagemusha" Song of the Year by Download Won [37]

MTV Europe Music Awards

Main article: MTV Europe Music Awards
Year Recipient Award Result Ref.
2015 2Cellos Best Adria Act Nominated [38]

Večernjak's Rose

Main article: Večernji list
Year Recipient Award Result Ref.
2014 2Cellos Musicians of the Year Won [39]

Orders

Main article: Orders, decorations, and medals of Croatia
Year Recipient Order
2014 Luka Šulić, Stjepan Hauser Ribbon of an Order of Danica Hrvatska with the face of Marko Marulić

References

  1. ^ a b "About 2Celloslive". YouTube.
  2. ^ 2Cellos biography Archived 22 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine "Young Croatian and Slovenian cellists Stjepan Hauser, together known as 2Cellos..."
  3. ^ "2Cellos | Yamaha Artists".
  4. ^ "CAA Signs 2Cellos". 10 May 2019.
  5. ^ Koruga, Igor (14 April 2011). "Hrvatski violončelisti potpisali ugovor sa Sony Music Entertainmentom" [Croatian cellists sign contract with Sony Music Entertainment]. Nacional (in Croatian). Archived from the original on 9 June 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  6. ^ "Glee Season 18: Sean and Catherine's Wedding". 28 January 2014. Archived from the original on 15 January 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  7. ^ "Luka Šulić Otkriva Kako Mu Je Bez Hausera I Progovara O Svojim Manama: 'Znam Jako Burno I Divlje Reagrati'". Gloria. February 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  8. ^ "Luka Sulic - Official Website". Luka Šulić. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  9. ^ a b c d e Videtti, Giuseppe (6 June 2011). "Il violoncello da favola di Luka e Stjepan da YouTube ai concerti di Elton John". la Repubblica (in Italian). Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso. Archived from the original on 9 June 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  10. ^ a b "Slovenian, Croatian Cellists Make Breakthrough on YouTube". STA. Slovenian Press Agency. 19 May 2011. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  11. ^ "2Cellos - YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved 19 April 2021. All views of all videos posted of solely "Smooth Criminal" (i.e. excluding album videos that include Smooth Criminal as a song) - the number quoted by this source "Video: Hrvaška violončelista videlo na milijone Američanov". Radiotelevizija Slovenija (in Slovenian). MMC RTV Slovenija. 26 April 2011. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2011. is unknown and overstates the currently published numbers by Youtube, it may include views of albums including Smooth Criminal.
  12. ^ a b c d Cervera, Marty (7 June 2011). "Los chelos del pop". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). Grupo Zeta. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  13. ^ a b "Sony Masterworks Signs Viral Internet Sensation 2Cellos". TalkTunesworld.com. Wisdom Digital Media. 19 April 2011. Archived from the original on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  14. ^ "Mariborski čelist bo z Eltonom Johnom nastopil tudi v Izoli". Radiotelevizija Slovenija (in Slovenian). MMC RTV Slovenija. 9 May 2011. Archived from the original on 13 May 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  15. ^ "2Cellos Luka Šulic & Stjepan Hausar izdaju album". MTV Croatia (in Croatian). MTV. 16 April 2011. Archived from the original on 20 June 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  16. ^ D'Andrea, Niki (6 June 2011). ""Welcome to the Jungle," As Performed by 2Cellos". Phoenix New Times. Phoenix New Times, LLC. Archived from the original on 12 June 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  17. ^ Došen, Vanja (12 April 2011). "Telefonski poziv koji im je promijenio život". Jutarnji list (in Croatian). Europapress Holding. Archived from the original on 4 May 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  18. ^ Hartsell, Carol (8 June 2011). "2Cellos Covers 'Welcome to the Jungle'". The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. Archived from the original on 11 June 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  19. ^ a b "2Cellos snimaju za Sony i sviraju s Eltonom Johnom". tportal.hr (in Croatian). Hrvatski Telekom. 13 April 2011. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  20. ^ Vugrinec, Goran (25 April 2011). "Vatreni duet nastupio u showu Ellen DeGeneres: Stjepan od žestine slomio gudalo!". Dubrovački Vjesnik (in Croatian). Europapress Holding. Archived from the original on 15 August 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  21. ^ Keck, William (6 January 2012). "Keck's Exclusives: More Details on Glee's Salute to Michael Jackson". TV Guide. TV Guide Online Holdings, LLC. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  22. ^ Jurgensen, John (13 January 2012). "The Cello Shredders". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Archived from the original on 3 January 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  23. ^ "The making of the new album IN2ITION". 2Cellos Official Web Site. 5 October 2012. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  24. ^ "Pogledajte 2Cellos u reklami japanskog mobilnog operatera". Gloria (in Croatian). 18 July 2013. Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  25. ^ "洋楽アルバム 週間ランキング-ORICON STYLE ランキング" 2013年08月19日～2013年08月25日の洋楽アルバム週間ランキング (in Japanese). Oricon. 19–25 August 2013. Archived from the original on 29 September 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  26. ^ "2Cellos su osvojili Madison Square Garden u New Yorku" (in Croatian). 24sata. 4 December 2013. Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  27. ^ "2Cellos u Madison Square Gardenu" (in Croatian). Radio Pula. 3 December 2013. Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  28. ^ "2Cellos Create A New Dimension With Celloverse Album Available January 27, 2015". prnewswire.com (Press release). Archived from the original on 23 September 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  29. ^ a b "Naši dečki ruše rekorde – na Youtubeu imaju više 10 mil. pogleda!" (in Croatian). Dnevnik.hr. 25 March 2014. Archived from the original on 26 March 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  30. ^ "2Cellos offer fresh takes on old favorites". Archived from the original on 23 October 2014. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
  31. ^ "2Cellos to perform UEFA Champions League anthem in Kyiv". UEFA Champions League. 18 May 2018. Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  32. ^ "Trendy Artist of the Week: Maroon 5, Max Pezzali, The Vamps, Elton John, 2Cellos". Concerty.com News. November 2022.
  33. ^ "2Cellos primili osvojene Porine" (in Croatian). dulist.hr. 30 May 2013. Archived from the original on 13 July 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  34. ^ "Foto: 2Cellos snimili novi spot za pjesmu Technical Difficulties" (in Croatian). Net.hr. 13 July 2013. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  35. ^ "Objavljene nominacije za 21. Porin" (in Croatian). Porin. Archived from the original on 30 January 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  36. ^ "The Japan Gold Disc Award 2014/Instrumental Album of the Year". RIAJ (in Japanese). 28 February 2014. Archived from the original on 28 February 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  37. ^ "The Japan Gold Disc Award 2014/Song of the Year by Download". RIAJ (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  38. ^ "2Cellos i Hladno pivo među nominiranima za MTV Best Adria Act!". Glas Slavonije (in Croatian). 18 September 2015. Archived from the original on 28 November 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  39. ^ "Dodijeljene Večernjakove ruže, pogledajte tko su dobitnici". Večernji list (in Croatian). 21 March 2014. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
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