Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
Mr. Probz is 29-year-old Dutch singer/songwriter/rapper Dennis Princewell Stehr. Many of his tracks reference the shooting he survived in 2010, and his breakthrough hit is typically sombre. He is currently enjoying success across Europe and starting to create a buzz in the UK with Waves. I first listened to the song when it reached the top five in the Netherlands last year and I found it quite mediocre, so when it went to no.1 in Austria, Germany (where it has gone platinum) and Switzerland a few months later, I was quite confused. It was only when I heard the Robin Schulz remix, which made the song an international hit and is now climbing the UK Shazam chart, that it all made sense. The original depressing ballad becomes summery, still melancholy but catchy. Sad stories always sound better told to a catchy tune!
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MH9qWemtPo]