RIYADH, 23 November 2007 — The concept of Saudi women DJs is relatively new in the Kingdom. Women DJs who often perform at weddings, birthday parties and other women-only functions, have been around for quite some time but Saudi women are only recently venturing into this field. Our protagonist today is a young Saudi woman in her 20s who has earned a reputation for being savvy with mixing and presenting music.
Mona, who is from Riyadh, is one of the first (if not the first) Saudi woman DJs. With so many young adults in Saudi Arabia, it should be no surprise to anyone that weddings are incomplete without DJs to keep the music rolling. DJs are hired, particularly for the “henna” function (the Saudi version of a bachelorette party), to provide and mix the music for these get-togethers.
An avid music fan drawn to the allure of making money doing something she loves, Mona quit her teaching job and, after unsuccessfully finding other work, she decided to pursue a small venture in being a wedding DJ.
After making a few mix CDs for friends and family, others began encouraging her to try out being a professional DJ.
“My brothers and friends talked me into becoming a DJ, and I appreciate this — especially from my brothers,” she said. “Society looks upon this as a trivial job and families fear that this is viewed as a degrading thing by society.”
With employment opportunities for Saudi women restricted to certain fields, being self-employed is often a matter of necessity for women seeking vocations.
Mona said that some Saudis are apprehensive about using a fellow Saudi, let alone a woman, to provide DJ services at parties. Saudis, after all, are accustomed to using foreigners for services viewed as base or pedestrian. Eventually, however, Mona says she was able to overcome this stigma.
“After a while I taught many to respect me through the way I carried myself professionally” said Mona.
Mona said she has declined offers to DJ events involving men and women; she only DJs to female audiences, usually wedding hennas. She also only DJs locally and vets potential customers carefully out of fear of certain elements that might have ulterior motives for hiring her.
“Sometimes the voice of the caller reveals their character,” she said.
Mona stressed that she’s never encountered a shady situation.
Being a DJ might sound like fun, but Mona insists that it’s hard work and that the equipment needed is expensive. Nevertheless, Mona’s love for music means that her job is also her hobby.
Will this become a new craze among Saudi women? Mona doesn’t think so.
“It takes a lot of hard work and following up,” she said. “Unless they have real desire, they will not succeed.”
Mona says the preparation for an even takes hours. The client will give guidance on what kind of music she wants, and Mona must set up play lists and decide when and where songs will start and finish. She must ensure that her equipment is working and set up properly to guarantee no uncomfortable breaks during the party. One of the most important skills of a DJ is being able to read the audience and make alterations to the play list and field song requests.
Mona admits that this is not her lifetime endeavor, but for now it’s OK.
“I’m still looking forward to finding a ‘proper’ job,” she said. “But even when I do, I will still be a DJ on my spare time.”
What Is a ‘DJ’ Anyway?
DJ stands for “Disc Jockey”, a term that originally referred to the men and women of music radio.
Beginning in the late 70s, the term DJ in the US started to refer to people who collected boxes of vinyl LPs and mixed music at social gatherings using a pair of turntables plugged into a two-channel mixer.
The two turntables and mixer allow one song to fade into the next one, eliminating breaks between songs and creating an atmosphere of non-stop music.
An offshoot of this DJ culture includes so-called “turntablists”, people who took DJ-ing a step further and used their records as hip-hop rhythm instruments. Using a series of techniques invented on the streets of the Bronx (New York City) in the 80s, these artists manipulate the speed of the records by hand, making scratching sounds and loops is an integral part of hip hop music to this day. One of the greatest practitioners and pioneers of this urban art form was New York’s Grandmaster Flash, who got started scratching out beats in parks in the Bronx in the 80s.
Today, few DJs are as technically capable as the founders of turntablism. Most DJs are people who simply have large music collections who earn reputations for being able to gauge the crowd and pick out the best songs and mixes of songs.
Most modern DJs have forgone the traditional (and expensive) analog turntables and replaced them with more economical and smaller digital CDs or even just a pair of iPods (or laptops) plugged into a two-channel audio mixer. The wedding is the bread and butter of a contemporary DJ. In Europe and the United States, DJs are also popular nightclub fixtures.