Meet the 19-Year-Old From Kazakhstan Who Remixed ‘Roses’ Into a Hit

Imanbek was working at his local train station when he stumbled onto a Saint Jhn song ripe for a dancey redo. The result boosted both artists to a new level.

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The producer Imanbek near the train station where he used to work in Aksu, Kazakhstan. Credit. Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times

Imanbek Zeikenov is 19 years old and lives with his parents in the small village of Aksu in Kazakhstan. He studied railway engineering at school, and until last December, held a day job at his local train station. But everything changed in the summer of 2019, when he discovered a song called “Roses” by the Guyanese-American rapper and singer Saint Jhn.

On the raw, sinewy “Roses,” which had already been commercially available for three years, Saint Jhn sings (explicitly) about a night on the prowl. Imanbek, who records under his first name and had a number of amateur remixes under his belt, resolved to iron out some of the track’s inefficiencies. His take pitches up Jhn’s voice into a manic squeal; he added a thick, rubbery bass line and a snare drum rattling in the distance.

Imanbek posted his remix to Russian social media without giving it a second thought. He returned a few months later, surprised to learn he was a pop star.

“I made an illegal remix,” Imanbek said through a translator over a Zoom call. He was sitting in his newly purchased car and wearing a red-and-white Kappa top. “I didn’t know how to promote it, because I didn’t know how to clear it. So I just put it online, and let it go. A few months later, it blew up the whole world.”

Four years after the initial release of “Roses,” Imanbek’s remix is an international smash. The song is No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and reached No. 1 on the United Kingdom’s chart. (Saint Jhn’s only other charting single was the 2019 Beyoncé collaboration “Brown Skin Girl.”) More important, Imanbek is no longer an unsanctioned artist. At the end of last August, he signed with the Russian label Effective Records. The following month, he reached a deal with Saint Jhn to officially release the accidental collaboration as a single.

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Imanbek: Kazakhstan’s first Grammy winner’s new tracks do not disappoint

In March of this year, Kazakhstan’s most popular DJ and sound engineer, Imanbek, made history by becoming the first person from Central Asia to receive a Grammy. How has the young musician’s career progressed since?

Imanbek Zeikenov, known in the recording industry simply as Imanbek, is a former rail station worker from the small town of Aksu in northern Kazakhstan, who in March of this year became the first person from his home-country to win a Grammy award.

The 20-year-old’s home-made remix of Saint Jhn’s song Roses won him a Grammy for Best Remixed Recording, making him not only the first person from Kazakhstan to receive the prestigious award, but also the first from a post-Soviet country to be awarded a Grammy for one of the ‘non-traditional’ musical categories.

Imanbek says that he made the Grammy-winning remix in just over two hours on his home computer back in 2019. The track now has over 273 million views just on YouTube, and over billion streams across different platforms, significantly surpassing the popularity of Saint Jhn’s original song.

Soon after posting his work on social media, the track went viral across Central Asia, Russia and elsewhere in the post-Soviet space. From there, the high-pitched and sped-up version of the song found its way to TikTok, where it spread globally.

In the summer of 2019, Imanbek was signed to the Russian Effective Records label which sorted out the rights for him to use the already popular song.

Although Imanbek had attempted to contact Saint Jhn via Instagram to ask if he could make his own interpretation of the song, perhaps not surprisingly, the American artist ignored the message from a random Kazakh teenager.

Imanbek’s remix soon became one of the most listened to electronic track of the year, ranking first for 23 weeks in Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Songs category. In May, the remix won Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Song award, which is determined on sales, online streams, radio airplay and social media engagement.

As a result, the Kazakh today has far less trouble getting in contact with mainstream celebrities.

In February, he worked on the sound arrangement for the song Big by British-Kosovar singer Rita Ora and American rapper Gunna, alongside the well-known French DJ David Guetta.

While Imanbek has certainly been able to catch the attention of several western celebrities, the sound engineer is still based in Kazakhstan and working with local musicians, video producers and actors to produce a regular stream of content that gets from hundreds of thousands to millions of views and streams across various platforms.

One such project is Feel Good, which was recorded and produced in the musician’s home country, as was the video for it, in which Imanbek can be seen driving a red car and blasting his electronic beats through the streets of a Kazakh city.

Although Imanbek’s career took off after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, most of his tracks are fast paced and perfect for the club.

Despite this, the sound engineer, who according to Kazakh bloggers still for the most part lives in Aksu, a town of less than 70,000 people, says that “there isn’t so much of a clubbing culture in this area”, while also suggesting that he does not personally enjoy clubbing either.

“My knowledge has mainly come from YouTube tutorials. I grew up listening to Martin Garrix, David Guetta, Marshmello, Dillon Francis, all of whom I learned about on the internet,” says Imanbek.

At the end of August he got some live DJing experience as well when he performed live at Noa Beach Club on Pag island in Croatia.

Imanbek, who Kazakh fans have described as humble and uninterested in the trappings of fame, thus far seems to be satisfied with moving his career forward from the comfort of his home town in Kazakhstan.

The rising star does, however, also come across as very social media and marketing savvy, and seems to be working tirelessly to make sure that the success the Roses remix brought him continues.

Just over a week ago, the Kazakh released yet another production – Fighter, alongside popular American singer LP, which has also received praise from fans of electronic music.

While some have labelled the surprising popularity of Imanbek’s career-making remix of Roses as pure luck, since winning multiple high-profile awards for the track, the musician has shown nothing but hard work and dedication to his craft.

It would definitely not be luck if Imanbek’s name soon becomes one of the most recognisable within the sound production industry.

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