[Image: DavidSolomonMusic / IG]
Did you know that Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon used to moonlight as a DJ? That is until the US investment bank’s board became concerned his sideline would distract him from his main job. Bank boards can be such a buzzkill.
Even before he became the bank’s boss in 2018, Solomon had been spinning electronic dance records for years under the moniker DJ D-Sol. He has performed in Manhattan, in tiki bars in the Bahamas and at the huge Lollapalooza festival.
Solomons eventually hung up his headphones in 2023 after the bank became irate over a party in the Hamptons near New York in 2020 where Solomons was accused of ‘flouting social distancing rules’ during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the time, a Goldman Sachs spokesperson played down the board’s move, saying: “David hasn’t publicly DJed an event in well over a year, which we have confirmed multiple times in the past. Music was not a distraction from David’s work. The media attention became a distraction.”
View this post on Instagram
Solomons even appeared in the US TV drama Billions where he touted Goldman’s Marcus savings account, which is named after the bank’s founder. That media attention seemed to have carried the board’s approval.
Arguably Solomon’s biggest musical achievement is his remix of the Whitney Houston hit “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”. Larry Mestel’s company Primary Wave Music, which controls the rights to songs from artists including Houston, is a Goldman client.
View this post on Instagram
Solomon’s last big DJ performance was at Lollapalooza in July 2022. Fortunately, we have our own banger-bringing banker in the enigmatic RobboZA. Rob drops a sweet monthly mix of old and new tunes, so check him out on Spotify.
[Source: Guardian]
