Dennis Lloyd is an international music sensation, whose hit single ‘Nevermind’ has been streamed on Spotify some 500,000,000 times.
He was also actually Nir Tibor, a 26-year-old who grew up in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gun and was unknown outside his home country until three years ago.
But now he is one of the hottest names in world music, with his lyrics topping charts and performances drawing audiences around the world.
The multi-player told Israeli Channel 12 News on Friday that the success caught him by surprise when he was deep in debt and working in a falafel shop.
After his military service, Dennis Lloyd said, he moved to Bangkok, Thailand for a year to concentrate on his music. He started putting content on YouTube.
He told Forbes earlier this year, “I packed my bag, and I moved to Bangkok, Thailand.” I spent a year there, like a completely different, no Wi-Fi. I wanted to find my voice, and for a year, I just like to make music. This is the matter.
“I want to think about how to get more people to widen my audience. He told Channel 12, every day, I would send some 5-10 emails.
But after returning to Israel and having little success, he started working at a local Falafel site. “I need money; I need to pay my rent.”
One day, “I woke up and saw an email from a record company. I think it was Warner or Sony or something, and I was like ‘What? And suddenly two hours later [I got] another email, And another email in the evening. I got 14 emails that week, and suddenly I am in conversation with Berlin and New York and the whole world.
“And then I had to stop for a moment and ask them: ‘How did you get me?’ And they said ‘Open Spotify. I opened it, and suddenly I saw’ Nevermind ‘was some half a million streams, it was trending, it was on the viral chart, all of that, all over the world. I had no idea! “
Dennis Lloyd is not very well known in Israel when he became a global star and had only recently started gaining popularity in his home country. He enjoyed his relatively anonymous life as Nir Tibor and told Channel 12 that he had no current plans to go abroad.
“I love my family, my friends, the hummus, the sea, everything. He said it’s right here. He’s also taken some of those friends with him as he has toured around the world, the musician. Join her on the road with classmates.
Dennis Lloyd said a lot of Israelis are unaware that he is local and are shocked to find out. But he does not try to hide it.
As for why he has been so successful on the world stage, where other Israeli musicians have failed, Lloyd only said: “I think I’m just leaving me.”
He said that he is committed to breaking the glass ceiling for Israeli artists.
“I signed up at Sony, and suddenly they started to get interested in Israeli musicians to listen more, and I send them stuff. I need to open that window for Israelis.
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