Singer Oliver Tree Killed in Helicopter Collision Over Rio de Janeiro

Oliver Tree is dead. The 32-year-old American singer was among six people killed Sunday morning when two helicopters collided midair over a neighborhood in southwest Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Tree was on a world tour. The day before the crash, he posted a video on Instagram showing him playing soccer in a Brazilian neighborhood. He never made it out of the city.

What Happened

The two helicopters collided over Recreio dos Bandeirantes, a beach community in the western part of Rio de Janeiro. One helicopter was carrying Tree and four other passengers. The other had only a pilot on board. Nobody survived.
The crash brought one of the helicopters down onto the parking lot of a car dealership. Around 20 electric vehicles caught fire. Firefighters arrived and put out the blaze. A witness at the scene told reporters he saw one of the helicopters in flames after the collision — and watched a passenger fall from the aircraft before it hit the ground.
Police confirmed Tree was listed on the passenger manifest given to aviation authorities. The bodies were too badly burned for immediate identification. An investigation is underway into what caused the two aircraft to collide.
The others in Tree’s helicopter were identified as Lucas Vignale, content creator Gaspar Prim — known online as Gaspi, who had 2.8 million YouTube subscribers Lucas Brito Chaves, and pilot Alexandre Souza. The solo pilot in the second helicopter was Charles Marsillac.

Who Was Oliver Tree

Tree was a California-born singer, comedian, and internet personality. He was impossible to miss — the bowl haircut, the oversized clothes, the scooter. His music mixed pop, rock and electronic sounds in a way that worked surprisingly well on social media.
His songs “Life Goes On,” “Miss You,” and “Alien Boy” racked up hundreds of millions of streams. He had over 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify. He performed in Buenos Aires on June 4th and was wrapping up the South American leg of his tour.
Actor and comedian Whitney Cummings wrote online that Tree was “one of the most talented people on earth.”

Tributes Pour In

Word of Tree’s death spread quickly across social media. Fans and fellow artists started posting within hours.
Actor and comedian Whitney Cummings was among the first to speak publicly. She wrote that Tree was “one of the most talented people on earth.” She added that real talent usually comes with ego and difficult behavior — but Tree was different. “Pure love and the best version of what an artist and a person can and should be,” she wrote.
Fans flooded the comments on his social media pages. Many pointed to the soccer video he posted just the day before — playing in a Rio neighborhood, laughing. Many fans said watching that video, knowing what happened hours later, made the news even harder to take.

What Comes Next

Authorities are investigating the cause of the collision. No official explanation has been given yet.
Tree was 32 years old.
Source: Washington Post, NBC News, ABC7, PBS NewsHour, TMZ