When Post Malone stopped by Toronto’s Rogers Stadium on Tuesday night, June 16, he didn’t just give a shout out to his buddy Oliver Tree. He dedicated the full show to the late artist, and poured one out on the runway.
“I feel like tonight will be, for me, a celebration of the life of an absolutely beautiful, beautiful man,” Posty says in a video shot at the show (see below).
Holding back tears, Malone continued: “A gentlemen I knew and was so beautiful, and inspired the world with his art, and just his heart and his soul. Ladies and gentlemen, we lost a beautiful soul named Oliver Tree.”
Earlier, Tree reportedly died following a helicopter crash in Brazil. He was 32. The genre-blending singer, songwriter and producer was among six people killed when two helicopters collided over Rio de Janeiro on Sunday (June 14).
Tree, whose full name was Oliver Tree Nickell, was traveling through South America as part of his World’s First World Tour.
Malone made his Toronto show a celebration of Tree, who released his fourth studio album, Love You Madly Hate You Badly, in April of this year.
“I just want you to know dude that we love you so very much, we love you brother,” Malone remarked. “We’re just gonna have a great night and celebrate this gentleman.” After a pause, he let the beer flow by pouring his drink onto the stage.
Born on June 29, 1993, in Santa Cruz, California, Tree launched his music career with the EP, Demons, in 2013. He gained wider attention with the 2016 single “When I’m Down,” which helped lead to a deal with Atlantic Records the following year.
His full-length albums included 2020’s Ugly Is Beautiful, 2022’s Cowboy Tears, and 2023’s Alone in a Crowd.
Known for his signature bowl haircut, heavy dark glasses and eccentric persona, Tree landed hits with “Life Goes On,” which peaked at No. 7 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in 2022, and “Miss You,” his collaboration with Robin Schulz, which reached No. 4 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in 2022.
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Melanie Martinez shared her own statement on Tree, whom the alt-pop singer-songwriter dated a few years ago. Martinez began a Sunday (June 14) Instagram Stories post by writing that she’d “been an absolute wreck” since the news of the fatal helicopter crash had reached her. “It’s really hard to understand how someone who you once shared such a specific and formative time of your life with can all of a sudden be gone,” she shared. “He was so dedicated to his art which I admired and respected so deeply.”
The North American leg of Posty’s Big Ass Stadium Tour ends on Tuesday, July 28 at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, before he travels to Asia and Australia for dates during the rest of 2026.
