User talk:Adnanbelushi

I was born in an Iranian family in the United Arab Emirates in mid 1980's and I have 11 siblings from the same parents. My father retired when I was 16 and he decided to leave the country and live in Iran for rest of his life. I was the 7th kid so at that point we were 6 sibling still in school and a father who just got retired. Emirates laws and regulations around citizenship are not the similar like many western countries. You do not become a citizen even if you were born there or have lived for even 50 years. This made it hard for my father to stay in the Emirates anymore and live on pension, we got no support from the government and my mum was just a house wife. I come from a very poor family, uneducated parents and 9 siblings shared one room every night of all my teenage life.

When my dad decided to leave, it was a new chapter in our life. We didn't have the financial support, my mother was not educated and never worked all her life but for her it was very important to keep the kids in the Emirates so they get education and at least learn a bit of English and make their way up. For the last 4 years of my schooling, I lived in the Emirates illegally because my father couldn't sponsor the family anymore, my mother worked hard as a labour and did textile work and fed us all the way through until I got a job and started supporting her. We never had internet or any access to the real world so we didn't know what was going on except watching MTV all the time and waiting for that Michael Jackson video to show up.

When I finished school, my mum found a way around sorting out our illegal visa issue and I soon had my 1st job 130Ks away from home. I hated it. It was hard work, I slept in a room with 3 other guys on bunk beds, I had to support my mother and little siblings and myself. I never went to University but that was life to me. In 2007 I got hooked up with an online DJ software and started playing music and 1 year later I decided that I want to be a DJ.

But there was a problem, I couldn't be a full time DJ because in the Emirates you can't live their without a job unless you are a citizen so I can't quit my job. I started learning how to DJ part time after work hours and in the weekends ignoring my friends and girl friend at that time. One year later, I got hired by a Kiwi and I changed job. We soon became very close, he understood my problems and my challenges and my dream of becoming an Artist, music producer. By end of 2008, I wanted to live Emirates and migrate to a new country so I can work towards getting a new passport which will help me travel and tour plus find a new home and focus on music production full time. That was my long term plan and I knew exactly what I wanted in life.

6 months later, I heard of a DJ competition that brought all the Middle East DJs to battle it out in 3 days. I have never played in a club, I sent my demo tape, they accepted me and I went to perform. I was amazed I made it to the semi-finals and every thought I was a professional DJ but it was my natural skills to perform on a stage and feel confident, I felt like it was my thing to control a crowd and take them to a journey. Nobody believed that it was my 1st performance. Soon I had my 1st residency and not long til I landed my residency with F1 Grand Prix. Yup I just made it sound so easy but it's not. It was all that hard-work I have putting since 2007, remember the late night after work sessions, the sacrificed weekends and ignoring my girlfriend?

The crazy thing about the whole experience was the Kiwi guy, he was my no. 1 fan, he loved my music, my personality behind the DJ booth, he came to my first gig and we started building a great relationship because he respected me for my hard-work, passion and commitment in chasing my dream.

Another chapter started in my life, the Kiwi guy inspired me to go to University and study management course so I develop my knowledge and become professional from a business sense. I love studying, I came 3rd in my final high school exams in the region with 20,000 students. So I enrolled and finished a Post Graduate diploma in Management. I was like FML now I have to spare my music production time with studies that demanded 20 hrs a week but you know what, I did it. I worked hard for it.

Things start to take a serious turn. The Kiwi guy is leaving Emirates to go back to New Zealand for good and offers me to come along. I am blown away, it was my dream to migrate, find a new home, a new family and move a step closer in achieving my gaols. My mum is not happy me to leaving, brothers thing I am doing something stupid leaving my friends and girl friend behind but there I was sitting in this park and telling to myself - mate this is your chance, take it and I did. I left everything, moved to New Zealand on Christmas Eve 2009.

New Zealand was hard to start with but very quite which means I had a lot of time to make music, I have been here for 2 years working with a day job because it takes 2 years to get residency. Guess what..I got my residency 2 weeks ago, now I am planning not to work anymore and do music full time, release good tracks and tour. A dream I had in 2007 is finally taking shape. Finally I have a track that impressed Laidback Luke and he mentioned me in his Q&A session at ADE 2012.

Now you must be thinking why did I write all this? My point is, there are a lot of people who are born with a great passport and just have all the time to focus on music and get ahead but some like me work hard to get a passport and find a new home and still focus on Music with a day job. Because it doesn't matter what obstacles you face in life, if you have the inner desire and passion for it and you work hardm, you will crush them all and win.

www.adnanbelushi.co.nz