Young Dadi

David Daniloski, better known as Young Dadi, is a singer-songwriter from Skopje, Macedonia. Starting his career at the beginning of Covid-19, he’s seen many ups and downs in the industry, and developed his sound over the past 4 years, hoping to bring his creative vision to audiences locally, and now internationally.

via IG @youngdadii © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Before Young Dadi, a 16-year-old David began playing around with GarageBand on his iPad, taking inspiration from SoundCloud rap. Around this time was when he recorded his first song on his iPad and released it anonymously on SoundCloud under an alias. Slowly he started receiving more and more advice from people in Macedonia to begin making songs in his native language. Which is when he decided to make his first song in Macedonian, called Psihodelii, which never got released.

He filmed his first music Osamen, which was filmed on an iPhone. After this, he began receiving more exposure, both good and bad. During this time, David reflects on how intoxicating the feeling of being recognized became for him. In 2019, he released the song Pina Colada, which introduced a fresh and new sound for the Macedonian rap market. Following this release, David realized he had something else in him and so he created the Young Dadi persona.

Young Dadi pictured mid-performance. Press © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

 Subsequently to the creation of the Young Dadi persona, he filmed his first produced music video. Before the video was released, he showed it to his parents, which immediately became very emotional. He reflects on his relationship with his parents as one of the main driving forces for his success, as they’ve been nothing but supportive and encouraging when it came to him exploring his potential.

 Pina Colada went viral locally, which pushed David to form his own rap group and start performing with high school bands on a stage – an unusual format for the Macedonian music scene. After splitting from the group, he fell into a stagnant period, while still releasing songs but with the continuous feeling of standing still. After that Covid-19 hit.

 During Covid-19 he started his first project – Boenka. Which was more than just a musical project. He conceptualized 6 or 7 covers for every song, and hand drew them, which started attracting older audiences. David began receiving more support from people in the music industry back home, which started his big introduction into the music space. Post Covid-19, he started going out more and more and he made his song Molly, which was the first big release for him. David positions Molly as one of his big releases, because its the song for which he received wider recognition in Macedonia, which ultimately gave him more confidence for better projects.

Following Molly, another big release for him was Safari, which unexpectedly took social media by storm. He recorded himself and his friends dancing along to the song and posted it on TikTok, which started a TikTok trend among teenagers in Macedonia, with everyone posting their dances to his song.

At this time, David was pursuing his bachelor’s degree in marketing and decided to go on an exchange semester in Madrid. He reflects on this time as the first time in his life to make such a brave move and go to a country where he virtually knew no one and wanted to experience a new city with a new culture. The move to Madrid was eye opening for him in more than just the multi-cultural context. The exchange semester in Spain was an introspective experience for David, providing him with a rather harsh reality check. He believes that he left Skopje at just the right time, as moving to Madrid brought him back down to earth when realizing that the Young Dadi persona held less presence in Spain. While in Madrid, he wrote the song Bestie and got invited to perform at his first ever festival.

Young Dadi pictured with the protagonist of the music video Bestie. Press © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

David opened up about his marketing strategies around Bestie, explaining that he wanted to bring his creative process to the surface for his audience to see while bringing his creative vision for Bestie to life. The song was not intentionally written, when he sat down to write it the song kind of wrote itself, as he was recollecting his memories on his female friendships. During his creative process, David spoke about how each song he’s written, he tends to assign a color to, for Bestie he assigned the color pink. From this point on, he decided to take a fun spin on the song, music video, and any promotional material surrounding its release. After creating the narrative of the music video (add hyperlink), he decided to dye his hair pink and cast a girl with pink hair in the music video, where he mirrors the world of Barbie. David reflects on this project as one in which he has been the most involved in creatively – which brought amazing results.

This is around the time that David started working with a new producer, which increased the quality of his songs. However, at this time it was still a zero-budget production, but thanks to his close circle of professionals in the field it enabled him to create a good product. They decided to release the song on Valentine’s Day, which turned out more stressful than it should have for him. The hour he released the song, the electricity in the city went out, while he was busy panicking he didn’t realize that because of the blackout more and more people were on their phones, which contributed to an even bigger success of the music video. He also released merch, limited edition t-shirts which sold out immediately and he still sees people wearing them around Skopje.

After the release of Bestie, came a period where all he did was perform, which ultimately led to a very fast paced lifestyle after a period of rest, which was almost unbearable for him. During this time, he also started collaborating with different companies, and his relationship with the producer of Bestie strengthened. This is when David, alongside his producer, wrote the song 5 do 2. After 5 do 12 he released a few songs, but he was focused on a new project. He wanted to use his talent for business to start a company for creating parties. In between 5 do 2 and the start of his new business, he released an album a bit more experimental, straying away from his usual style, Scorpius 1.

Almost a year and half ago, he started Why2k, with the intention of enriching the nightlife of Skopje. Why2k slowly grew into a collective of DJs and business minds which all wanted to work towards one shared goal – being able to provide younger generations with a valuable party experience. David noticed that the music and nightlife scene had been lacking fun and lightheartedness back home and he wanted to do something to bring it back to life. Why2k quickly expanded and grew into one of the most visited hotspots on a Thursday night in Skopje. One of the aims of Why2k was to also revive the love for Macedonian pop music hits of the 2000s, providing new generations with a well-rounded outlook on the music industry in Macedonia. David believes that the introduction of Why2k has created a sense of healthy competition in the industry, pushing each collective to be their best, as well as provide their best to the wide range of tastes.

Soon after the start of Why2k, he came out with the song Sara – which quickly gained popularity on social media. After the release of Sara, more and more brands started reaching out to him and he gained a bigger social media presence on Instagram.  This enabled him to expand the direction of his career into the sphere of lifestyle influencers, which ultimately resulted in him growing a bigger audience, but also to explore his place in fashion and interest in the industry.  

“With constant drive and motivation for my career and success, I feel like I have so much more to express which hasn’t even come to me yet.” – David on his creativity.

After over 5 years in the music industry, he’s focusing his attention on quality, rather than quantity. Currently, he’s looking to shift his musical style in a more serious direction, as his approach to life has also taken a more serious turn. Recently moving to Milan to start his masters in Fashion Management, his focus has become being able to effectively communicate the Young Dadi persona to his audiences, and with that hopefully expand into other parts of the music industry. He’s also eager to meet new artists from Milan and branch out internationally. As a creative force, he hopes to collaborate with creatives from different industries, and potentially explore a career in fashion.