KAVINSKY - ZENITH

Kavinsky (Vincent Belorgey; 31 July 1975 – 28 July 2026) was a French musician, producer, DJ, and actor. His production style is reminiscent of the electropop film soundtracks of the 1980s. Kavinsky said that his music was inspired by thousands of movies he watched as a young boy and that he had cherry-picked the best parts from them, consolidating them into one concept. Kavinsky has been compared to many similar French house artists, including Danger and French duo Daft Punk. He achieved greater mainstream recognition after his song "Nightcall" was featured in the 2011 film Drive. His debut studio album, OutRun, was released in 2013. After years as an actor, Kavinsky's musical career started in 2005 after he was inspired by his close friends Jackson Fourgeaud and Quentin Dupieux. He acted in Dupieux's 2007 film Steak; the film also included Kavinsky's music. During this period, Kavinsky produced his first single, "Testarossa Autodrive", which was inspired by the Ferrari Testarossa (one of which Belorgey drove in real life). Kavinsky presented the single to Dupieux, who in turn presented it to a record label he had access to because of his filmmaking career, and Kavinsky signed with Record Makers. Kavinsky went on to release three EPs on the Record Makers label: Teddy Boy in 2006, 1986 a year later, and Nightcall, featuring Lovefoxxx of CSS, in 2010. Kavinsky toured alongside Daft Punk, The Rapture, Justice, and SebastiAn in 2007. The SebastiAn remix of "Testarossa Autodrive" from the 1986 EP was featured in the video games Grand Theft Auto IV and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Kavinsky's single "Nightcall" was featured in the opening credits of the film Drive and became a major hit soon after. In December 2012, he released "ProtoVision". On 25 February 2013, he released his debut studio album, OutRun. On this album he has worked with several prominent electro artists including Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and SebastiAn. OutRun. Prior to the release of Grand Theft Auto V, some gaming news sites reported that Kavinsky's song "Nightride" would be featured alongside his other music on a dedicated synthwave radio station called "Nightride FM". However, when the game was released, players discovered that the station did not exist, and the game files contained no references to Kavinsky's music. In November 2021, he returned from a seven-year hiatus with the lead single "Renegade" from his second studio album, Reborn. The song was produced by Gaspard Augé and Victor Le Masne. In March 2022, he released "Zenith", another single from Reborn, featuring vocals by Prudence and Morgan Phalen. In 2024, Kavinsky performed "Nightcall" alongside Phoenix and Angèle at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The performance triggered a significant global resurgence for "Nightcall", leading to a new official studio version featuring Angèle and Phoenix, released in September 2024. This version achieved diamond certification from SNEP and reached number three on the French singles chart. The song's enduring status in popular culture was further solidified in 2025 when the Irish rock band Inhaler released a guitar-driven cover of "Nightcall" for Triple J's Like a Version, which was subsequently issued as a physical seven-inch single. Character history Kavinsky was a fictional character created by Belorgey that physically resembled him, but had red eyes and blue skin. According to the character's story, after crashing his Testarossa in 1986, he reappeared as a zombie in 2006 to create electronic music. Kavinsky's songs helped tell this story. Belorgey once explained that "Nightcall" was about the zombie returning to his girlfriend and telling her he was no longer the same person, only to discover she had already moved on with her life. The character's backstory did not reflect Belorgey's real life. In an interview, he explained: "Kavinsky is a character I created because just putting my face on a record sleeve isn't something that suits me. [...] Showing my own face holds absolutely no interest for me. I'd much rather make music and tell a story, because for me music is linked to images. When I'm making music, I have images in my head of films and television shows I liked when I was little. So I created this story that mixes all those memories together." Equipment In an interview, Kavinsky stated that the entirety of Teddy Boy was written and recorded on a Yamaha DX7, an instrument closely associated with the synth-pop sound of the 1980s. He originally began making music on an old Apple computer given to him by his friend and fellow musician Quentin Dupieux. Death He was found dead at his home in Paris on 28 July 2026. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.