Sofi Tukker

Biography

Sofi Tukker (stylized "SOFI TUKKER") is an American musical DJ duo based in New York City, consisting of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern. They are known for their songs "Drinkee×Drinkee21 April 2016 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Drinkee4:59", "Best Friend×Best Friend12 September 2017 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Best Friend3:05", and "Purple Hat×Purple Hat6 September 2019 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Purple Hat2:58".
"Best Friend" was featured in a commercial during Apple's unveiling of the iPhone X, while "Drinkee" was nominated for a Grammy at the 2017 Grammy Awards. In December 2018, their album Treehouse×Treehouse13 April 2018 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Fuck They3:042Energia3:083Benadryl3:164Batshit3:235Good Time Girl3:056Johny3:057My Body Hurts3:048The Dare3:129Baby I’m a Queen3:2910Best Friend3:05 was nominated for a Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album.

History

Sofi Tukker is the duo of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern.
Sophie Hawley-Weld was born in Frankfurt, Germany, but grew up in rural Canada (Port Perry Ontario) and Atlanta. She then attended United World College of the Adriatic, a UWC in Duino, Italy. While in college Hawley-Weld studied Portuguese; her love for Brazilian culture and the Portuguese language inspired a move to Brazil afterwards, to further learn the language and collaborate with local poets and artists.
Tucker Halpern was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. Growing up, he was a basketball player who was recruited by Noble and Greenough School, ending up at Brown University where he played three years and was the captain for a year. Due to an illness, he changed his career, started DJing, occasionally with musician Nicolas Jaar, and concentrated on making music.
Halpern and Hawley-Weld first met at Brown University in 2014 at an art gallery where Hawley-Weld was performing. Halpern approached her and they began writing and performing songs together. They then moved to New York City to focus on their artist projects and performing. After an accident that left Hawley-Weld in a wheelchair for four months, the two had to maintain their relationship over Skype calls. This gave Hawley-Weld an opportunity to learn how to use Ableton Live.
Sofi Tukker released an EP, Soft Animals×Soft Animals8 July 2016 · EPSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 6 tracks1Drinkee4:592Awoo3:163Matadora4:014Hey Lion3:295Moon Tattoo5:476Déjà Vu Affair4:59 on July 8, 2016. The EP includes "Drinkee×Drinkee21 April 2016 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Drinkee4:59", "Matadora×Matadora21 April 2016 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Matadora4:02", "Awoo", "Déjà Vu Affair×Déjà Vu Affair3 June 2016 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Déjà Vu Affair5:00", "Moon Tattoo", and "Hey Lion×Hey Lion21 April 2016 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Hey Lion3:29". The title comes from the 1986 Mary Oliver poem “Wild Geese” ("You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves").
Their song "Drinkee" from the Soft Animals EP was nominated for a 2017 Grammy for Best Dance Recording. "Drinkee" is adapted from a poem written by the Brazilian poet Chacal, sung sensually amidst cowbells, bongos, electric guitars and deep driving bass. The song is featured in The Incredible Jessica James.
In June 2019, "Feeling Good" played in the trailer for the television series Dead to Me. This track was also featured in the soundtrack of the 2020 feature film Birds of Prey.
On April 24, 2020, Australian radio station Triple J premiered a new song created by the duo titled "When the Rona's Over", as part of a COVID-19 self-isolation musical challenge nicknamed Quarantune.
Sofi Tukker began DJing while sheltering at home due to the COVID-19 outbreak, reaching 400 performances on April 19, 2021. Along the way, the show was expanded to Twitch, Facebook, Discord, Instagram Live. A social media-connected community of fans, known as the "Freak Fam", have even formed their own channels and held Zoom dance parties during the livestream.
In February 2022, Sofi Tukker debuted "Original Sin×Original Sin4 February 2022 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Original Sin2:52", the first single from their upcoming second album Wet Tennis×WET TENNIS29 April 2022 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Kakee1:452Original Sin2:523Summer in New York2:394Forgive Me3:455Wet Tennis2:356Interlude0:527Sun Came Up3:248Larry Bird3:039Hold4:2910Mon Cheri4:0811Freak2:0212What a Wonderful World2:55. Sofi Tukker's second studio album Wet Tennis was released on April 29, 2022.
Sofi Tukker performed at the 22nd Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2023.
In May 2025 they released their new album, butter×butter16 May 2025 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Hey Homie (butter version)3:222Bread (butter version)2:383Jacaré (butter version)3:324Veneno (butter version)2:265Intensity3:156Cafuné (butter version)3:057Spiral (butter version)3:148Perfect Someone (butter version)3:109Throw Some Ass (butter version)2:5510Woof (butter version)3:0111Goddess In Disguise (butter version)3:1712Guardian Angel (Stand By You) (butter version)3:0613Brazilian Soul (Acoustic Bossa Version)4:11, exploring diverse brazilian genres such as samba, MPB, bossa nova, brazilian funk and carimbó and featuring brazilian artists such as Seu Jorge and Liniker.

Features and appearances

Their song "Johny×Johny20 January 2017 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Johny3:05" is featured in EA Sports' FIFA 17, and was adapted from a poem by Brazilian poet Paulo Leminski.
Their 2017 song "Best Friend×Best Friend12 September 2017 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Best Friend3:05" was played during the iPhone X full commercial reveal at the Apple Event on September 12, 2017. It is also included in the football game FIFA 18, the second straight year that a song of theirs has been included on the soundtrack of FIFA. It is also playing in the club scene in the 2018 movie Ocean's 8, as well as during The Block Season 17 Episode 32 'Living & Dinings Continue'.
The clean version of their song "Batshit", titled "That's It (I'm Crazy)×That's It (I'm Crazy)3 April 2018 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1That's It (I'm Crazy)3:25", was featured in a TV commercial for Apple promoting their special edition iPhone 8 RED smartphone in 2018.
Both "Best Friend" and "Batshit" were featured in the episode "Robert Diaz (No. 15)" (season 6, episode 22) of the TV series The Blacklist.
On June 28, 2018, they collaborated with Italian DJ Benny Benassi for the single "Everybody Needs a Kiss", and on September 14, 2018, they released a remix of "Energia×Energia17 November 2017 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Energia3:07" with Brazilian singer Pabllo Vittar.
"Baby I'm a Queen" is featured in Xbox Game Studios' Forza Horizon 4.
"Purple Hat×Purple Hat6 September 2019 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Purple Hat2:58" is featured in Netflix's To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You.
"Swing×Swing12 July 2019 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Swing3:00" is featured in EA Sports' FIFA 20 and Need for Speed Heat. which also features "Playa Grande" and "Mi Rumba×Mi rumba18 January 2019 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Mi rumba3:20".
"Good Time Girl" is featured during the opening credits of HBO's series The New Pope.
"Fuck They×Fuck They14 July 2017 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Fuck They3:04" is featured in Season 4 of the Spanish television series Elite.
"Wet Tennis×WET TENNIS29 April 2022 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Kakee1:452Original Sin2:523Summer in New York2:394Forgive Me3:455Wet Tennis2:356Interlude0:527Sun Came Up3:248Larry Bird3:039Hold4:2910Mon Cheri4:0811Freak2:0212What a Wonderful World2:55" is featured in Season 1 of Ubisoft's Just Dance 2023 Edition.
"Cafuné" is featured in EA Sports' FC25.

Reception

Paste magazine described the band's release Soft Animals as "an insatiable dance collection of jungle-pop songs with many well-executed nods towards Brazilian instruments, poets and to the national language, Portuguese". The magazine's review referred to the "carefully conceptualized 'Matadora×Matadora21 April 2016 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Matadora4:02'" as "the album's show-stopper".
Slant Magazine said of their album Treehouse×Treehouse13 April 2018 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Fuck They3:042Energia3:083Benadryl3:164Batshit3:235Good Time Girl3:056Johny3:057My Body Hurts3:048The Dare3:129Baby I’m a Queen3:2910Best Friend3:05, "the songs on Sofi Tukker's Treehouse are alternately playful and sincere, intimate and global." "Though Sofi Tukker's mélange of disparate sounds and influences—bossa-nova rhythms, cowbells, castanets, and spaghetti-western guitars—lends Treehouse an air of worldly sophistication, Hawley-Weld and Halpern never take themselves or their music too seriously. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't."

As featured artist

"Brazilian Soul×Brazilian Soul16 November 2018 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1Brazilian Soul (acoustic bossa version)4:102Brazilian Soul3:17" (2018) (The Knocks featuring Sofi Tukker)
"Everybody Needs a Kiss" (2018) (Benny Benassi and Sofi Tukker)
"Fashion Model Art×Fashion Model Art30 July 2020 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Fashion Model Art2:55" (2020) (Haiku Hands featuring Sofi Tukker)

Remixes

2019: Laurent Wolf featuring Eric Carter – "No Stress" (Sofi Tukker Remix)
2019: Muna – "Number One Fan" (Sofi Tukker Remix)
2020: Vintage Culture and Adam K featuring Mkla – "Deep Inside Of Me" (Sofi Tukker Remix)
2020: Lady Gaga – "911" (Sofi Tukker Remix)
2021: Rodrigo y Gabriela and Pelé – "Acredita No Véio (Listen To The Old Man)" (Sofi Tukker Remix)
2021: Rema – "Woman" (Sofi Tukker Remix)
2021: Jan Blomqvist and Bloom Twins – "High On Beat" (Sofi Tukker Remix)