A former railroad worker from a small town in Kazakhstan won a Grammy Award

Father says: Find yourself a job – said Imanbek Zeginov, DJ Imanbek, who won this year’s Grammy Award for Best Remix. Before that happened, he worked at a railway station in the town of Aksu, which has a population of 70,000, in Kazakhstan.

– What was I doing exactly? She put special blocks under the wheels of the train so that it wouldn’t disappear – Dodo told TV.

Zhigenov studied at a railway school and worked at the station. In his spare time, he made remixes and uploaded them to social networks, where he had several hundred friends.

– This is the first Kazakh of Grammy in Grammy history and in the history of Kazakhstan – Russian TV show host Ivan Urgant joked, welcoming Zhezhinov to the studio.

– I woke up in the morning, and there were probably 90 missed calls. DJ Imanbek said the president of Kazakhstan might have been among them. He later read in the media that the president had congratulated him publicly.

In 2019, Imanbeek spent two and a half hours remixing the American rapper’s song “Roses”. Saint Jana. What happened next was unexpected – the song went viral online, hit TikTok, and hit the top of the US Hot100 Billboard charts and other charts with the club’s music. He was at the summit in Canada, Australia, Ireland and Great Britain.

Today on YouTube, the remix of “Roses” has garnered nearly 148 million views, and judging by the comments, not many fans of this song were even aware that the original sounded completely different.

His success caused euphoria throughout the former Soviet Union, but Zejkenow himself – at least for now – is still a normal boy from Aksu. He did not sign the first contract with the Lithuanian Music Company because, as he explained, he did not know the English language and “did not want to explain it.” Finally, he signs a contract with the Russian company Effective Records.

After he was nominated for a Grammy Award, which he learned about while driving Aksu with his Lada Priora (which he bought after his first musical successes), he appeared on Russian state television via a video link against a green background. As in typical apartments in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

– My father always asked me to find a job. I don’t tell him exactly how much I earn – he told the portal Liter.

For railroads, he gave up the music, “Never miss it.” He lives with his parents and, as he confesses, “only recently discovered what the difference was between cooking and frying.”

– I can’t cook, just Chinese soup – laugh.

In his hometown of Aksu, as Dodi said on air, nobody particularly reacts when he walks down the street.

Everyone knows each other out there and they know they can always call or write. He said it is different when I go, for example, to Almaty or Astana – then more people ask for a picture.

During an interview with Radio Energy, he said I get a lot of phone calls and shows. Even before the Grammy, he began performing projects with world-famous musicians. At the moment, due to the epidemic – only online. Imanbeek recorded, among other things, a mini album with it David Guetta I am Weather in rita |.

– Some believe that Rita Ora came to Aksu, because in the recording there is a place very similar to what surrounds us – the artist said.

The Internet jokes that Imanbek is the second, along with the cynical (and according to the Kazakh authorities – offensive) hero of the movie – Porat, Sachi Baruna KohinaIt is a number that made Kazakhstan famous.

– Americans no longer ask if it is “Pakistan” when I tell them I am from Kazakhstan – a fan wrote. – If the Kazakhs open a gateway to time in a few years, it will not surprise anyone at all – a netizen joked under the Imanbek video on YouTube.

jb / belsat.eu wg PAP