Chasing a Dream to Work in Music

Martin Benedek has always dreamed of a career in music, but that wasn’t possible in his home country of Argentina.

After a 10-day visit to Amsterdam, he found a job that will allow him to stay in the country and pursue his dreams.

Video Transcript

Amsterdam, Holland: Martin Benedek is a musician from Argentina. He just moved to Amsterdam to pursue his dream as an artist.

Martin Benedek: When I came to Amsterdam, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This is my first time in Europe. I’ve never been out of my country. There was always too much violence in the streets, and so much poverty and corruption and stuff like that. When I get here, I found something completely different — like another planet.

When I was a kid, I was living next to a record store, and I used to go there and just look at the covers. It was, like, my thing to do everyday. I was all the time asking to the owner, Can you put this record on? When you see these covers, you think how it will sound.

For Martin, music has always been a channel for human interaction.

I think music, for me, is love. Simple like that: Love is music, music is love. Music is my life, since I was 5 years old. So music means everything to me.

It was hard in the music scene in Argentina, so I started writing my songs in English. I was about to be here for 10 days. Yeah, it was like kind of sad to leave. I had nothing. Well, we’re still here. We found a job — the best job ever. I’m running a place — an old tavern from the 1920s — with live music, all completely acoustic, and it will be awesome. I can’t wait for the day it will start because it will be amazing.

Now every Sunday, Martin runs a live music venue in the heart of Amsterdam.

As a musician, I want to look into the eyes of the public, you know? It’s really nice to be here because it’s like they’re all here and you can share everything with them. They can hear you breathe, and that’s beautiful. And my dream is becoming true.