Swedish House Mafia and Lykke Li have released 'Happiness Is So Sad', their first collaboration, pairing melancholic piano and Lykke Li's vocal with the trio's atmospheric production.
The single follows last summer's Wait So Long and reconnects Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso around a slower, more emotionally exposed kind of festival record.
The track had already started moving through the trio's live world before its release, first appearing during their Ushuaïa Ibiza residency in June.
Tested first in Ibiza and Boom
After its first Ushuaïa preview, the collaboration surfaced again during Sebastian Ingrosso's Tomorrowland Mainstage set. Steve Angello joined him on stage as the pair played the track to the festival crowd.
Those early plays framed Happiness Is So Sad as a large-room record, but its center is deliberately intimate. Melancholic piano chords sit beneath restrained electronic textures while Lykke Li carries the song with a close, vulnerable vocal.
A full Swedish creative team
Production credits also include Parisi and Fred again.., alongside songwriters Max Martin and Oscar Holter. Together with Lykke Li and the trio, the credits bring several generations of Swedish pop and electronic music into the same session.
Swedish House Mafia have described that lineup as a Swedish Avengers crew, but the finished track avoids sounding crowded. Its scale comes from space, contrast and the tension between uplift and sadness.
The trio's next phase
Happiness Is So Sad is the group's first single of the year and their clearest new release since Wait So Long. It follows the 2022 album Paradise Again, which featured The Weeknd, Sting and A$AP Rocky.
The trio have remained highly visible on stage, including an Ultra Miami Mainstage takeover earlier this year. This single turns that live momentum back into a focused studio statement.
Fresh New Tunes
We cover new music, live culture and the people shaping electronic music.
