Apple Picked the World’s Unlikeliest Voice to Sell the iPhone
When the world’s most valuable company rolled out the latest marketing campaign for its most valuable product, Apple picked two songs to make sure its new iPhone commercials would get stuck in our brains. The first was “Get Him Back!" by Olivia Rodrigo, a global pop star who shot the music video for her hit single with an iPhone. The second was “Karangailyg Kara Hovaa (Dyngyldai)" by Yat-Kha, a Tuvan throat-singing fusion band led by someone who doesn’t own an iPhone.
“I have a Huawei," says Albert Kuvezin, the group’s throat-singer and guitarist. “Because it was very cheap." There might not be a more unlikely partnership in tech history than the pairing of Albert Kuvezin and Apple—and not just because he’s never bought the product he’s selling. It’s also because he lives in Siberia.
To be more precise, he lives near the Mongolian border in the remote republic of Tuva, one of Russia’s poorest regions, a place the size of Florida with 1% of the state’s population. The only time he’s been to Silicon Valley was before the invention of the iPod. His favorite Apple device is a Powerbook G4 laptop that’s older than Olivia Rodrigo.
And the song that Apple licensed? It was released a few decades ago on an album that sold a few thousand copies. But what makes this obscure artist a singular talent is the way that he combines Tuvan folk with Western rock to mesmerizing effect. Kuvezin’s voice and particular genius have taken a man from Tuva around the world.
He played Carnegie Hall. He wowed crowds at a Glastonbury Festival headlined by David Bowie. And now his beautiful guttural sounds are getting amplified by the megaphone of a trillion-dollar company.
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