JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — 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.
اضافة اعلان
The subdued scene
is a far cry from the high-profile stages — a Formula 1 Grand Prix in
Jeddah,
Expo 2020 in Dubai — that have helped the 26-year-old, known as DJ Leen, make a
name for herself on the Saudi music circuit.
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.
These days they
turn few heads as, gig after gig, they go about making a living from what once
was merely a pastime.
“A lot of female
DJs have been coming up,” Naif told AFP, adding that this has, over time, made
audiences “more comfortable” seeing them on stage.
“It is easier now
than it has been.”
Naif and her peers
embody two major reforms championed by
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: new
opportunities for women and expanding entertainment options — notably music,
which was once discouraged under Wahabism, a rigid Sunni version of Islam.
The possibility
that DJs would be welcomed at public events, let alone that many would be
women, is something “we did not expect” until recently, said Mohammed Nassar, a
Saudi DJ known as Vinyl Mode.
“You are seeing now
more female artists coming out,” Nassar said.
Before “it was just
a hobby to express themselves in their bedrooms”.
“Now we have
platforms, and you know they could even have careers. So it is really amazing.”
Winning over skeptics
Naif was first introduced to electronic music as a teenager by one of her
uncles, and she almost instantly started wondering whether DJing was a viable
job.
While her friends
dreamed of careers as doctors and teachers, she knew she did not have the
patience for the schooling those paths required.
“I am a work
person, not a studying person,” she said.
Unlike other women
DJs, she had the immediate support of her parents and siblings.
Other Saudis,
however, required some winning over.
Several years ago,
a man came up to her mid-performance, declaring she was “not allowed” and
demanding: “Why are you doing this?”
His complaints got Naif’s set shut down, but she
doubts the scene would play out the same way today.
“Now I bet that
same guy, if he sees me, he is going to stand first in line just to watch.”
Naif has benefited
from official attempts to trumpet Saudi Arabia’s new entertainment-friendly
image, which is often criticized by human rights groups as a distraction from
abuses.
Her nomination to
play at the Saudi pavilion of
Expo Dubai 2020 gave her an international
audience for the first time.
But it is the work
at home that supports her day-to-day, earning her 1,000 Saudi riyals (around
$260) per hour.
Here to stay
Other women DJs have encountered more resistance.
Lujain Albishi, who
performs under the name “Biirdperson”, started experimenting on DJ decks during
the pandemic.
Her family
disapproved when she started talking about DJing professionally, preferring she
strive to become a doctor.
She stuck with it
anyway, developing her skills at private parties.
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 revelers for performances
including a set by superstar French DJ David Guetta.
The experience left
her “really proud”.
“My family came to
Soundstorm, saw me on stage. They were dancing, they were happy,” she said.
Both Naif and
Albishi say they believe women DJs will remain fixtures in the kingdom, though
their reasoning varies.
For Naif, women DJs
succeed because they are better than men at “reading people” and playing what
they want to hear.
Albishi, for her
part, thinks there is no difference between men and women once they put their
headphones on, and that’s why women DJs belong.
“My music is not for females or for males,” she said. “It is
for music-lovers.”
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