On the finish of 2022, pop singer-songwriter Mark Ambor felt misplaced in his music profession. Regardless of just lately signing a document deal and releasing his debut EP, Hi there World, one thing didn’t really feel proper.
“I fell into this routine of teasing a track, [and] if it did nicely, placing it out, however I used to be feeling like I wasn’t saying something I actually imply,” he remembers. “I wasn’t digging deep or singing about issues vital to me.”
To clear his thoughts, Ambor, 26, launched into a months-long worldwide backpacking journey together with his ex-girlfriend — and returned feeling grounded with a complete new wave of inspiration for songs. He shortly wrote the whimsical, acoustic “Good to Be” and now refers to it as the primary time he was musically “real and totally expressing myself.”
Just some months later, he struck gold: Whereas taking part in guitar in his bed room, he wrote the lyrics, “You and me belong collectively/Like chilly iced tea and hotter climate,” which might develop into the immediately catchy hook to the comfortable, uplifting “Belong Collectively,” his final breakthrough and first Billboard Sizzling 100 hit.
Meredith Jenks
Ambor grew up with a musical background in Pleasantville, N.Y., taking part in the piano from a younger age at his dad and mom’ request. Although the ability took a backseat in highschool, he rekindled his love for the instrument as he approached commencement, buying and selling the classical items he beforehand realized for modern-day pop songs. He proceeded to pen his first track that summer season, as he grappled with the feelings of getting to go away his small hometown to attend Fairfield College in Connecticut. “I didn’t need to depart house,” he says, “and I attempted to write down a track to get these emotions out.”
He then returned to work that evening as a barback and casually despatched the track to his dad and mom in a bunch chat. “My mother was like, ‘Dad and I really like this track. Who’s the artist?’ ” he recollects with amusing. “I used to be like, ‘Mother, what do you imply?’ It’s me!”
Ambor self-released a couple of songs whereas acquiring a advertising and marketing diploma in school, and upon his commencement in 2020, determined to take six months to utterly immerse himself in chasing his goals as a musician earlier than contemplating a unique job. “COVID occurred after I stated that,” he recollects. “I received to spend time engaged on music at house.”
Due to a suggestion from a good friend, he joined TikTok later that yr. He steadily started to develop a following together with his cool man subsequent door vibe: Folks gravitated not solely towards his huge smile and curly brown hair, however to his voice and disarming demeanor as nicely. He quickly started posting covers — together with breathtaking renditions of Coldplay’s “Yellow” and Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever” — in addition to a couple of originals, and in the end caught the eye of then-independent supervisor Kyle Thomson, who admits he’s a “sucker” for an amazing voice over a piano melody and requested Ambor to ship a couple of demos.
“It was so early on in each of our careers,” says Thomson. “I used to be excited to dive into one thing that I felt was going to be a enjoyable challenge to construct.” By the top of 2020, Ambor had signed a administration take care of Thomson.
Like Ambor, Thomson knew that a few of his artist’s early work wasn’t taking part in to the singer-songwriter’s strengths. “Originally, he informed me he needed to make early 2000s competition, opera-rock music, like Ardour Pit or Grouplove,” he says. “I used to be like, ‘That doesn’t make sense for what I believe your qualities are. Why would you are taking your pure, raspy voice and deform it with synths?’ What he meant [initially] was that he needed to make music that made him really feel the identical means that these bands made folks really feel.”
However after listening to “Belong Collectively” for the primary time, Thomson knew that Ambor had succeeded in his mission. On the heels of his launch of “Good to Be” in October 2023 — and its rising recognition on a worldwide scale — Ambor started to tease the forthcoming new observe in late December. And following a couple of months of constructing hype on TikTok, “Belong Collectively” arrived on streaming providers on Feb. 16.
Ambor continued to stoke the hearth nicely after its launch, posting many movies on the platform of him strolling the streets of main European cities whereas on tour and singing its dialed-up closing refrain, a number of of which have compiled greater than 10 million views every. Per Thomson, user-generated content material and influencer advertising and marketing was essential in making “Belong Collectively” “as huge as humanly attainable.”
By Could 11, the only debuted at No. 87 on the Sizzling 100. It later reached a No. 74 excessive — and has spent 21 weeks and relying on the rating. It has additionally reached Nos. 24 and 20 peaks on the Billboard International Excl. U.S. and Pop Airplay charts, respectively. “Belong Collectively” has earned 141.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams and 610.2 million official on-demand international streams by means of Sept. 26, in response to Luminate.
“It has been actually surreal to write down one thing that’s so heartfelt and genuine to myself after which really feel it resonate all over the world the best way it has,” Ambor displays. “The best way a track can imply one thing to a fan that’s completely different than my very own expertise, but it surely’s their very own story that they’ve connected to a track of mine … that half blows my thoughts.”
Meredith Jenks
In August, Ambor’s debut album, Rockwood, arrived by means of Hundred Days/Virgin Music Group, regardless of some hesitation from the remainder of his crew to place out a full challenge too shortly. (Ambor notes the success of “Belong Collectively” helped in convincing them in any other case.) He break up with the label quickly after its launch, and whereas he doesn’t disclose a lot on specifics, he emphasizes trusting his intestine whereas persevering with to develop his profession.
“I believe folks generally get too caught within the trade of all of it,” he says. “Perhaps I’ll signal to a serious; perhaps I’ll keep impartial ceaselessly. What actually issues is placing out good music and assembly and speaking to the followers.”
“He has the very best work ethic of anybody I’ve ever met,” provides Thomson. “Mark thinks that he will be Taylor Swift, and I’m not going to cease him.”
A model of this story seems within the Oct. 5, 2024, problem of Billboard.
