After my cousin died, I was scheduled to attend the Denniz Pop Awards in Stockholm, an event recognizing new talent and honouring the legendary Denniz Pop, who died of cancer 1998. I didn’t feel like going at all but as always, work must be done. My mom said, “Gezim, just go and connect with the nicest person there. You don’t need to do anything else.”
So I went, and it was a beautiful evening. I met some nice people, but it was the kind of event at which some of the guests wouldn’t talk to some other guests because they weren’t successful enough. It was a great experience, because I told myself that I would never make anyone feel like that. When I went through the crowd at the after-party, I saw Rami Yacoub, who I’d never met in person. I waved, and although he couldn’t have known who I was, he made his way over and introduced himself. When I told him that I had reached out to him through MySpace, we had a great conversation that ranged from living in Sweden as non-native Swedes to the music industry at the time.
As we talked, I realised that I’d found the…
Read more