2Cellos (stylized 2CELLOS) is a Croatian and Slovenian cellist duo, consisting of classically trained Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser. Signed to Sony Masterworks since 2011, they have released four albums and play instrumental arrangements of well-known pop and rock songs as well as classical and film music. The duo performs internationally and has been featured on several US TV shows including Glee and The Bachelor.
Hauser, born in Pula, Croatia, and Šulić, born in Maribor, Slovenia, are classically trained musicians. They met at a master class in Pula while still in their teens. Šulić—the younger of the two by a year— attended the Academy of Music in Zagreb, and then studied in Vienna. Šulić later entered London's Royal Academy of Music. Hauser attended the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, after completing his studies at Trinity Laban in London.
The duo rose to fame in 2011 after their cover of "Smooth Criminal" became a hit on YouTube, receiving over three million views in the first two weeks and over twenty-seven million views as of Feb 2018. The creation of the music video was prompted by the cellists' financial difficulties, despite their musical success in the UK. One of Hauser's friends in Pula, a director, proposed that they try the pop music market by creating a video to "Smooth Criminal." The video features Šulić and Hauser facing off alone in a large white room, playing Jackson's tune. Before they became partners, the two cellists were sometimes rivals, competing against each other in music contests.
2Cellos signed to record with Sony Masterworks, and finished recording their first album in May 2010, which carried the Menart Records name in Croatia. Released on 19 July 2011, their debut eponymous album, includes covers of songs by U2, Guns N' Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Sting, Coldplay, Nirvana, Muse, and Kings of Leon. Hauser told la Repubblica that the album would also feature a cello version of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature." The duo said that they chose songs that could be arranged as covers playable on just two cellos. 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. During many of the numbers, they are accompanied by the drummer, Dušan Kranjc, an occasional member of the group.
Elton John asked the duo to appear with him on his 2011 summer tour, which began in Cardiff, Wales on 8 June. John, who personally called Šulić, said that he had watched the "Smooth Criminal" video and wanted 2Cellos to participate in his thirty-city tour. The two had previously performed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show of 25 April 2011. 2Cellos also performed at the 2011 iTunes Festival in London.
The duo performed an arrangement of "Smooth Criminal" in the third season of the television show Glee. 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. 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.
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. 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.
In July 2013, they filmed a commercial for the Japanese mobile phone company, Docomo. Their album In2ition, debuted on the Japanese Albums Chart, in August 2013 at number 1. 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. In March 2014, they had a solo Japanese tour.
In 2015, 2Cellos released their third album, Celloverse, which they also co-produced. 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, Han's Zimmer's Mombasa (from Inception), and an original work titled Celloverse, among numerous other covers.
2Cellos uses YouTube to reach out to its fans. In addition to producing music videos of their work, they also post videos of notable live performances, including in Arena Zagreb (2012), Arena Pula (2013), EXIT Festival (2014), and their fifth anniversary concert at Arena di Verona (2016). In February 2014, the pair 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. As of May 2018, the video has garnered over 116 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."
In 2017, Sulic and Hauser released their album Score, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and including 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 26th May 2018, 2Cellos performed the UEFA Champions League Anthem ahead of the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final between Real Madrid C.F. and Liverpool F.C.
There is no schedule or ticket right now.
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