Joel Gustaf Berghult (born 8 April 1988), better known as Roomie, is a Swedish YouTuber, singer-songwriter, and producer based in Los Angeles, California.

Joel Berghult
Born
Joel Gustaf Berghult

(1988-04-08) 8 April 1988 (age 36)
Lerum, Gothenburg, Sweden
Other names
  • Roomie
  • Lil Pitchy
Occupations
Years active2010–present
Musical career
Genres
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • drums
  • bass
  • guitar
  • keyboards
YouTube information
Channels
Genres
Subscribers
  • 7.53 million (RoomieOfficial)
  • 116 thousand (Roomie Talks)
Total views
  • 1.56 billion (RoomieOfficial)
Associated acts
100,000 subscribers2013
1,000,000 subscribers

Last updated: August 25, 2024
Twitch information
Channel
Years active2022–present
Followers30.8 thousand

He is best known for his YouTube channel RoomieOfficial, which consists of music commentary, original songs, covers, comedy, and more music-related content. He has posted several viral videos and collaborations with PewDiePie (Felix Kjellberg), TheOdd1sOut (James Rallison), and Boyinaband (David Brown). His most popular video is "One Guy, 43 Voices (with music)", featuring vocal imitations of popular singers such as Justin Bieber, Charlie Puth, and Brendon Urie. His main YouTube channel has 7.53 million subscribers as of June 2024.[1]

In 2020, while on a hiatus from daily YouTube uploads, he started to release music under the name Lil Pitchy.

Personal life

edit

Joel Gustaf Berghult[2] was born on 8 April 1988[3][4] in Lerum, Gothenburg, Sweden.[5] His father, Bosse Berghult, is also a musician and had encouraged his musical endeavors growing up by providing him with instruments and high-tech music production software, including drums.

He used to play in a small band with his college friends.[6] Berghult graduated in 2014 from Musikmakarna [sv], where he studied songwriting and music production.[7]

Berghult moved to London, England, in 2015.[5] He moved to Los Angeles, California, in 2021.[8]

Career

edit

Berghult started his YouTube channel in 2010.[9][10] In 2014, he rose to prominence by uploading a series of celebrity singer impressions.[11][12][13] The first of which was titled "One Guy, 14 Voices" which became the first of Berghult's many viral videos.[14][15] The next year Berghult released a follow-up "One Guy, 15 Voices" in August 2015.[16][17] He was subsequently invited to perform on Nyhetsmorgon in September 2015,[18] followed by Good Morning America that October.[19] The most recent of the series, released in 2017, is "One Guy, 43 Voices (with music)" which has over 98 million views and is Berghult's most viewed video as of August 2024.[20]

In 2014, Berghult began to release music with fellow Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie (who is also a Gothenburg native). The single "His Name is Pewdiepie" was released in 2014 and was made using samples of PewDiePie's voice;[10] later that year, "Fabulous" was released, followed by "Brofist" in 2016. In 2019, Berghult again teamed up with PewDiePie and longtime collaborator Boyinaband on the song "Congratulations".[21][22] The song peaked at number one on the US Comedy Digital Track Sales published by Billboard[23] and has over 200 million views on YouTube as of 2021.[24]

In December 2019, Berghult uploaded daily videos as part of a series called "Daily December". In response to positive feedback, he continued releasing daily videos. He grew discontent with the daily upload schedule, and announced a hiatus from YouTube on 11 June 2020, which lasted until 22 July.[25] On 20 July 2020, while still on break, Berghult released an album single "Livin' For That" on Spotify under the name "Lil Pitchy". The album consists of the song "Livin' For That", plus its instrumental and a cappella versions.[26] On 31 May 2021, Berghult announced another hiatus from YouTube. He cited fatigue from uploading daily videos, and wanting to shift focus to larger-scale projects.[27] He ended that hiatus on 28 September, with the video "We Bought 100 Microphones To Do This...".[28]

Discography

edit

Solo albums

edit
  • Short and Stupid (2016)

Singles

edit
  • "Bed Intruder Song" (Rock Version) (2011)
  • "Fabulous" (feat. PewDiePie) (2014)
  • "His Name Is Pewdiepie" (feat. PewDiePie) (2014)
  • "Numb" (2014)
  • "Won't Back Down" (2014)
  • "Long Distance Love" (2015)
  • "Brofist" (feat. PewDiePie) (2016)
  • "Zelda" (2017)
  • "Lost It All" (feat. custom phase) (2017)
  • "Own You" (2018)
  • "Roxanne / Roxanne" (2020) – mashup of the Arizona Zervas song and the Police song
  • "Slideshow" (2020)
  • "Livin' for That" (2020, as Lil Pitchy)
  • "Worth It" (2021)
  • "Just For You" (2021, as Lil Pitchy)
  • "It Kills Me" (2021, as Lil Pitchy)
  • "Until I Have You" (2022, as Lil Pitchy)
  • "So Selfish" (2023)

Collaborations

edit

Awards and nominations

edit
Year Ceremony Category Nominee Result Ref.
2015 Guldtuben [sv] Artist of the Year Roomie Nominated [29][30]
2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards Social Star Award RoomieOfficial Nominated

References

edit
  1. ^ "RoomieOfficial - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
  2. ^ Merino, Álex (2 April 2019). "¿Termina la épica guerra entre PewDiePie y T-Series?" [Is the epic war between PewDiePie and T-Series over?]. Diario AS (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  3. ^ Joel Berghult [@roomieofficial] (8 April 2020). "Celebrating my birthday by singing a little bit pitchy" (Tweet). Retrieved 3 July 2020 – via Twitter.
  4. ^ Joel Berghult [@roomieofficial] (8 May 2020). "I am 32" (Tweet). Retrieved 1 May 2023 – via Twitter.
  5. ^ a b "Joel Berghult". Curators of Sweden. Archived from the original on 26 September 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  6. ^ "About Roomie". Tumblr. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  7. ^ "Joel "Roomie" Berghult | Musikmakarna". Musikmakarna. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  8. ^ Joel Berghult [@roomieofficial] (4 March 2021). "Sorry if I miss some daily uploads soon, I got my US visa and am moving to Los Angeles for some exciting opportunities!" (Tweet). Retrieved 26 April 2021 – via Twitter.
  9. ^ "RoomieOfficial". YouTube. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  10. ^ a b Kiley, Rachel (30 October 2014). "Rock Out With Roomie! | New Media Rockstars". NewRockstars. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  11. ^ Bihani, Raksha (2 September 2015). "He Can Sing in 23 Different Voices, From Bruce Springsteen to Sam Smith". NDTV. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  12. ^ "This Guy Can Imitate 15 Famous Singers and You Won't Be Able to Tell the Difference". Inside Edition. 10 August 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  13. ^ Grant, Stacey. "This Guy Can Impersonate So Many Artists, He's Got To Be A Robot". MTV News. Archived from the original on 3 September 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  14. ^ From Bon Jovi to Bruno Mars, This Kid Can Sing Just Like the Stars, 20 March 2014, retrieved 11 May 2020
  15. ^ "Imituje śpiew 14 znanych piosenkarzy FILM". Fakt.pl (in Polish). 19 March 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  16. ^ "Ten chłopak z powodzeniem udaje 15 wokalistów". Interia Muzyka (in Polish). 2 September 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  17. ^ "WATCH: YouTuber's Uncanny Musical Impressions Of Everyone From Sam Smith To Jason Derulo". Capital. 3 September 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  18. ^ ""Roomie" härmar världsstjärnorna – Nyhetsmorgon (TV4)". YouTube. Nyhetsmorgon. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  19. ^ "Viral Sensation Joel Berghult Impersonates Rock Stars Live on 'GMA'". ABC News. 14 October 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  20. ^ "Social Blade – RoomieOfficial's 50 Most viewed Videos". socialblade.com. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  21. ^ "PewDiePie vs T-Series: The battle for the biggest YouTube channel – ABC News". ABC News. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  22. ^ Ramadhan, Rafli (1 April 2019). "Perang Berakhir! PewDiePie Mengakui Kekalahannya Terhadap T-Series". Media Formasi (in Indonesian). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  23. ^ "Comedy Digital Track Sales". Billboard. 27 April 2019. Archived from the original on 13 October 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  24. ^ Congratulations, 31 March 2019, retrieved 29 November 2021
  25. ^ Allen, Siân (15 June 2020). "Roomie Announces Break From Making Videos". TenEighty. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  26. ^ "Livin' for That [Explicit]". amazon.com. 20 July 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  27. ^ "RoomieOfficial reveals reason behind sudden YouTube break". Dexerto. 31 May 2021.
  28. ^ Berghult, Joel (28 September 2021). "We Bought 100 Microphones To Do This..." YouTube.
  29. ^ "William Spetz leder Guldtuben 2015". www.dagensmedia.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  30. ^ "Häng med Expressen på galan Guldtuben | Nöje | Expressen". www.expressen.se (in Swedish). 2 May 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  31. ^ "2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards: See The Full List of Nominees | iHeartRadio Music Awards | iHeartRadio". iHeartRadio Music Awards. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  32. ^ "iHeartRadio Music Award Winners 2018: Complete List". Billboard. Retrieved 13 October 2019.