Started From The Bottom: Top-5 Buskers Who Made It to the Big Time
What first comes to your mind when you see a street musician? Can you sense that this artist could become famous? A musician’s path musician is almost always hard — from writing a catchy song to holding the attention of fans with his or her charisma. Here, we have collected 5 stories from big time musicians who started out busking (putting on independent street performances) and became successful!
Ed Sheeran
Ed spent around 3 years hustling as a street musician. The two-time Brit Awards Winner for Outstanding Contribution is known for his scruffy appearance, but his days sleeping rough on the London Underground and kipping on his mates sofas are completely behind him now.
“I’d sleep on the circle line and gig in the evenings” he told The Mail Online.
Eventually Jamie Foxx would come across him and invite him to play at one of his house parties. Jamie even let the young artist use his own recording studio and crash on his couch for 6 weeks. Ed is now known for having the most streamed song of all-time on Spotify with “Shape of You”. If you want to find more inspiration from Ed Sheeran, check out this previous article.
Mike Yung
Mike Yung, 59, from Brooklyn, NY, was busking in the subways for 35+ years. His way to fame started in 2016, when the video of him performing “Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers went viral.
In 2017, he took part in America’s Got Talent and received more public exposure and support. Encouraged by this increased fan awareness, he started a Kickstarter campaign to fund his first album, “I Will Never Give Up”. With community support, Mike raised almost $90,000. In 2018, Martin Garrix, the World’s #1 DJ according to DJMAG, did a feature with Yung on his song “Dreamer”. It’s an uplifting ballad about never giving up, and believing in yourself and your hopes until there’s nothing left and then some — a message Yung lives to the fullest. After 21M views in 3 months and worldwide concert tours, the true inspiration is revealed: to never give up. Read more about Mike Yung.
Passenger
Proving that it is possible to go from street busker to Brit Award Nominee, another English folk-singer, Passenger, definitely hasn’t followed a traditional path to musical success. His single “Let Her Go” has topped Billboard charts across the world, but Michael David Rosenberg, as he’s more formally known, peddled his tunes on the street corners of England and Australia in an attempt to break into the music industry (after leaving school at the tender age of 16). In 2018 he started his international Runaway tour, in support of his studio album that will drop in April 2019.
B.B. King
Sometimes the most legendary musicians have the most humble beginnings. Riley B. King was one such musician, who’s musical success story began on the streets of Mississippi.
“I would sit on the street corners in my hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, and I would play. And, generally, I would start playing gospel songs. People would come by on the street — you live in Time Square, you know how they do it — they would bunch up. And they would always compliment me on gospel tunes, but they would tip me when I played blues.” — B. B. King
The guitar and blues player would perform at jazz nights across America, gaining fans wherever he played, appearing on average at more than 200 concerts per year into his 70s. Eventually the soulful King became a radio DJ and renamed himself B.B. King, short for “Beale Street Blues Boy”, named after a road where he used to play. In honor of his talent, each year during the first week in June, a King Homecoming Festival is held in Indianola, Mississippi.
Beck
Beck Hansen deserves an award for the most varied music one artist has brought into the world. Everything from weird hip hop to experimental rock, his humble beginnings are in roots and folk music that he would play as a busker on street corners in L.A. Recently, for Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning film “Roma”, Beck contributed the original motion soundtrack with“Tarantula,” his “radical reimagining” of an obscure 1982 track by the group Colourbox.
If you’re looking for an opportunity to reach an audience and for your music to be supported — there’s no need to be a busker anymore. Younk allows young, talented musicians to have direct access to the community and gain their support from a finger tap. Upload your track easily and for FREE, and let Younk help you to rise and shine!
