Monday Morning Motivation: Tones & I Grinding It Out In Strip Malls 2 Years Ago, Now 30x Platinum

I'm a sucker for stories like this. 

Just two years ago, Toni Watson, AKA "Tones and I" was still setting up her keyboard and speaker in strip malls and in front of department stores in Byron Bay, Australia playing for handouts and tips. (In Australia they call this "busking"). People just passing by paying no mind. 

Then in February 2019, after ten years of "busking" and uploading songs on her Youtube page and upload went viral in Australia, "Johnny Run Away".

Then a few months later in May, Tones and I released her second single, "Dance Monkey" and things blasted off.

She recalled the track was "Written alone in a dark closet in not much more than 30 minutes." Craig Mathieson of The Age felt, "It's pop writ large – catchy yet familiar, slightly ludicrous yet genuinely affecting." It reached number one on the official music charts of over 30 countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The second part of that video where you get the chills is from the Splendour in the Grass festival 2019 where she broke the record for the biggest crowd of an opening set. Just 3 months after her first song "broke" after ten plus years of struggling.

I understand Australian-Pop/dance isn't everybody's favorite sound in the world but this girl's story is incredible and real motivation to keep on keeping on.

Let's have a week.