Imanbek: From being a railroader to winning the Grammy Award
Growing up in a small town of Aksu in northern Kazakhstan, little did Imanbek Zeikenov (aka DJ Imanbek) know that his hit song will get over 1 billion plays on Spotify and bring him the most prestigious music award out there.
Although the 20-year-old DJ and record producer studied railway engineering both at college and then at university, music has always been the biggest passion in his life.
One of the lecturers at the local railway college Bakhytgul Doschanova says Imanbek was a bright and outgoing student. «He made remixes on his notebook all the time during breaks from studies,» she recollects.
After graduating from the college, Imanbek landed a normal 9-to-5 job at a local train station and continued his experiments with music. The summer of 2019 changed his life forever after the self-taught DJ stumbled upon a song ‘Roses’ by American rapper SAINt JHN.
His remix of the song broke the Internet topping the charts across the pond, both in the U.S. and the UK. The young talent from Kazakhstan rose to the stardom overnight and signed with Russia’s Effective Records label leaving his day job at the railway station.
On Sunday night the remix of ‘Roses’ brought Imanbek the coveted Grammy statue. Choking with emotions, Imanbek thanked his parents, his label and the Recording Academy for the accolade.
«The best thing in a musician’s career is to win a Grammy Award. And we just did it!» fresh from his Grammy win he posted on his Instagram account.
For the past few months the Kazakh DJ was working hard to prove he is not a one-hit wonder. He collaborated with big names such as David Guetta and Rita Ora for the release of his latest EP ‘Bang’. We are 100% sure this young man is going places.