He broke through on TikTok, and then also in the ‘regular’ music world. Mark Ambor, also known as: that cheerful curly head with the ukulele. His hits Good To Be and Belong Together are played and shared in the Netherlands. It also seems as if the ukulele has started a revival thanks to Ambor. He bought the instrument out of necessity, in Marseille.
“It’s a funny story,” he says cheerfully. “I went backpacking through Europe last summer with my ex-girlfriend.” Wait. His ex-girlfriend? “Yeah. We were already broken up by then, but we went anyway. France, Spain, and Italy, staying in hostels. We spent our days apart, so it was more of a solo trip. I didn’t have a guitar, I didn’t even have a laptop. I was completely into music for a while. But after a few weeks, I missed it. In Marseille, I found a music store and asked, ‘What do you have that’s small and easy to carry?’ And they had ukuleles. I bought one. And I played it. I didn’t write anything, but when I got home, I wrote Good To Be on that ukulele. And that’s where this whole story started. So it feels healing and meant to be.’
I told my parents I was taking half a year to focus on music. I can imagine they were shocked. But otherwise I would regret it my whole life.
Ambor’s popularity grew rapidly. ‘My whole life I’ve tried to make music that people want to listen to. To get attention for my songs. To get people to give their time to listen to my music. So now it’s all new. People are listening, paying attention to me. It feels good. I’m just really happy about it. It’s fun. It’s cool that people come up to me on the street and say, ‘I love your music.’ It makes me feel good. So for me, everything is good stuff for me right now.’
Wave of love
Last year he was warmly welcomed in the Netherlands. With a singing crowd during King’s Day, and a sold-out Melkweg. ‘The Netherlands feels like a second home,’ says Ambor, still cheerful and positive as ever. ‘King’s Day was the biggest show I had ever done. It was a madhouse, bizarre!’ Ambor says he felt understood more in the Netherlands than in America: ‘For whatever reason my music started to catch on here. And since then it feels like a wave of love from the Netherlands. It’s hard to explain. It’s unique. I feel very comfortable there, and the fans are great. I had never been to the Netherlands before my music was picked up there. Isn’t that a really cool way to get to know a place?’
Ambor studied Marketing and Business Analytics. And he took it seriously: ‘School always came first, music came second. But when I graduated in 2020, there was COVID. I told my parents that I was taking half a year to focus entirely on music. I can imagine they were a bit shocked. But otherwise I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. That was exactly when TikTok started doing its thing. It went very slowly, but I did see that my efforts paid off. I sometimes thought: maybe it’s wrong, too difficult. But then I realized that I would be less happy if I didn’t try. And now it works!’ His parents are super proud of him. ‘They were at the front of the concert in the Melkweg last year. They were freaking out!’
Many radio stations have a cardboard version of Mark Ambor in their offices. It was delivered, with cake, to promote his new album. Was that the clever marketing student’s own idea? ‘Haha, honestly? That wasn’t me, that was the record company. But I thought it was one of the funniest things ever. I actually want one myself. To put in my friends’ rooms so they’ll be scared to death!’
Frise wind
Ambor’s always cheerful, upbeat, happy songs sometimes feel like a breath of fresh air in times when many people grumble and complain. Is there a marketing idea behind that? ‘Interesting question. But my songs are not always about love relationships. Some songs are about my family and my friends, about home. My Love is about home, not about a person. I am very close to my parents.’ His parents taught him to always see the positive side of life: ‘My mother always said: even in the things you hate with all your heart, there is something you like. If you focus on that, you will get through it. Whether it is a subject at school, or a person. And that is how I look at things.’ That results in cheerful tunes, and an image of a positive, happy curly-head. ‘It is not ‘fake’, you know. I am human. I also get sad sometimes, sometimes I am anxious or frustrated.’ Songs on the new album are also about that. ‘Bruises and Stains is about who I am versus who I want to be. Second Best is about insecurity. I am real.’
For whatever reason my music started to catch on here. And ever since then it feels like a wave of love from the Netherlands.
The opening track of Rockwood is fun to listen to. It is instrumental, on piano. And you hear voices. ‘Those are my parents’, says Ambor. ‘I wanted to set the tone of the album at the beginning. To sketch a backdrop of the feelings at Rockwood. I am very nostalgic and I started looking in my old videos. On the track Rockwood you hear my father and mother talking, and so you gently roll into a beautiful environment, where it feels warm, where you are welcome. And I play the piano version of Good To Be. On the old, slightly out of tune piano that I once learned to play the piano on at home. Good To Be was the first song I wrote for Rockwood. Then I thought: there is a story in it. There is more that I want to write about in this world.’ In the meantime, Ambor has started writing again. ‘I toured Europe, then Australia, and then America. Now I finally have some time to breathe. I have already written a whole pile of songs.’ His songs remain happy, he says, but he continues to evolve: ‘I love the feeling of togetherness, of community, of making memories. So I will always keep making happy songs, but also sad ones. It depends on where I am in my life.’
For all the girls standing front row at his concerts, or endlessly scrolling through his TikToks looking for the love of their lives, one last question: Mark Ambor, are you dating?
‘No. I have not.’ But why does he have such a good eye for what young girls are going through? ‘I have a sister, but I am the ‘baby’, we are very different. My brother and sister are 12 and 13 years older than me. We do have the same parents. Sometimes it feels like I am an only child, with two sets of parents. Young, cool, hip parents and a couple of older, wiser parents. But we are all very close.’
The new album Rockwood by Mark Ambor was released on August 16.
