{"id":16776,"date":"2022-07-31T16:54:28","date_gmt":"2022-07-31T16:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/?p=16776"},"modified":"2022-07-31T16:54:32","modified_gmt":"2022-07-31T16:54:32","slug":"saudi-women-djs-go-from-hobbyists-to-headliners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/?p=16776&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Saudi women DJs go from hobbyists to headliners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mishaal Arshad C.M Underground News<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&#8220;Now we have platforms, and you know they could even have careers. So it&#8217;s really amazing,&#8221; says Saudi DJ known as Vinyl Mode.<\/li><li>For Naif, women DJs succeed because they are better than men at &#8220;reading people&#8221; and playing what they want to hear.<\/li><li>Naif has benefited from official attempts to trumpet Saudi Arabia&#8217;s new entertainment-friendly image.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-cnvs-separator-id-1659286366448\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEDDAH: Standing behind her control tower with headphones around her neck, Saudi DJ Leen Naif segues smoothly between pop hits and club tracks for a crowd of business school graduates noshing on sushi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The subdued scene is a far cry from the high-profile stages \u2014 a Formula 1 Grand Prix in Jeddah, Expo 2020 in Dubai \u2014 that have helped the 26-year-old, known as DJ Leen, make a name for herself on the Saudi music circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet it captures an important milestone: Women DJs, an unthinkable phenomenon just a few years ago in the traditionally ultraconservative kingdom, are becoming a relatively common sight in its main cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These days they turn few heads as, gig after gig, they go about making a living from what once was merely a pastime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;A lot of female DJs have been coming up,&#8221; Naif told&nbsp;<em>AFP<\/em>, adding that this has, over time, made audiences &#8220;more comfortable&#8221; seeing them on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It&#8217;s easier now than it has been.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The possibility that DJs would be welcomed at public events, let alone that many would be women, is something &#8220;we didn&#8217;t expect&#8221; until recently, said Mohammed Nassar, a Saudi DJ known as Vinyl Mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;You are seeing now more female artists coming out,&#8221; Nassar said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before &#8220;it was just a hobby to express themselves in their bedrooms&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Now we have platforms, and you know they could even have careers. So it&#8217;s really amazing.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"winning-over-sceptics\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Winning over sceptics&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Naif was first introduced to electronic music as a teenager by one of her uncles, and she almost instantly started wondering whether DJ&#8217;ing was a viable job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While her friends dreamed of careers as doctors and teachers, she knew she didn&#8217;t have the patience for the schooling those paths required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I&#8217;m a work person, not a studying person,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unlike other women DJs, she had the immediate support of her parents and siblings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other Saudis, however, required some winning over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several years ago, a man came up to her mid-performance, declaring she was &#8220;not allowed&#8221; and demanding &#8220;Why are you doing this?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His complaints got Naif&#8217;s set shut down, but she doubts the scene would play out the same way today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Now I bet that same guy, if he sees me, he&#8217;s going to stand first in line just to watch.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Naif has benefited from official attempts to trumpet Saudi Arabia&#8217;s new entertainment-friendly image, which is often criticised by human rights groups as a distraction from abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her nomination to play at the Saudi pavilion of Expo Dubai 2020 gave her an international audience for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it&#8217;s the work at home that supports her day-to-day, earning her 1,000 Saudi riyals (around $260) per hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"here-to-stay\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Here to stay&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other women DJs have encountered more resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lujain Albishi, who performs under the name &#8220;Biirdperson&#8221;, started experimenting on DJ decks during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her family disapproved when she started talking about DJ&#8217;ing professionally, preferring she strive to become a doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She stuck with it anyway, developing her skills at private parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her big break came last year when she was invited to perform at MDLBeast Soundstorm, a festival in the Saudi capital Riyadh that drew more than 700,000 revellers for performances including a set by superstar French DJ David Guetta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The experience left her &#8220;really proud&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;My family came to Soundstorm, saw me on stage. They were dancing, they were happy,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both Naif and Albishi say they believe women DJs will remain fixtures in the kingdom, though their reasoning varies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Naif, women DJs succeed because they are better than men at &#8220;reading people&#8221; and playing what they want to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Albishi, for her part, thinks there is no difference between men and women once they put their headphones on, and that\u00b4s why women DJs belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;My music is not for females or for males,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It\u00b4s for music-lovers.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mishaal Arshad C.M Underground News &#8220;Now we have platforms, and you know they could even have careers. So&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_appearance_grid":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,76,71,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-important-news","category-latest-news","category-world","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16780,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16776\/revisions\/16780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}