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 ; 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 drives in real life). Kavinsky went on to release three
EPs on the Record Makers label:
Teddy Boy in 2006,
1986 a year later, and
Nightcall with
Lovefoxxx of
CSS in 2010. The SebastiAn remix of "Testarossa Autodrive" off the
1986 EP is 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. On 25 February 2013, he released his debut studio album,
OutRun. Prior to this release, some gaming news sites reported that Kavinsky's song "Nightride" would be featured along with his other music in a dedicated music channel within the
Grand Theft Auto V video game, on an in-game synthwave radio channel called "Nightride FM". However, once the game was released, players discovered that the channel did not exist, and the game files did not contain any references to Kavinsky's music. In November 2021, he returned from his seven year hiatus with the lead single "Renegade" from his second studio album
Reborn. The song is produced by
Gaspard Augé and
Victor Le Masne. In March 2022, he released "Zenith", another single from
Reborn which features vocals from
Prudence and Morgan Phalen. In 2024, Kavinsky performed Nightcall alongside
Phoenix and
Angèle at the
2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony 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 a
diamond certification from SNEP and reached number 3 on the French singles chart. The track's enduring status in popular culture was further solidified in 2025 when the Irish rock band
Inhaler released a guitar-driven cover of the song for Triple J’s Like A Version, which was subsequently released as a physical seven-inch single. ==Character history==