Look: Saudi women DJs go from hobbyists to headliners

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 eating sushi.

"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's easier now than it has been." Above, a reveller stands in the DJ booth as a female DJ plays at a beach event in Saudia Arabia's Red Sea city of Jeddah.

Saudi DJ Lujain Albishi plays at a beach event in Saudia Arabia's Red Sea city of Jeddah. The possibility that DJs would be welcomed at public events, let alone that many would be women, is something "we didn't expect" until recently, said Mohammed Nassar, a Saudi DJ known as Vinyl Mode. Over the last few years, many women DJs in Saudi Arabia have performed at grand events like the Formula 1 Grand Prix and Expo 2020 Dubai.

Saudi DJ Leen Naif plays at a university event in Saudia Arabia's Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah. Naif was first introduced to electronic music as a teenager by one of her uncles, and she almost instantly started wondering whether DJ'ing was a viable job. While her friends dreamed of careers as doctors and teachers, she knew she didn't have the patience for the schooling those paths required. "I'm a working 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.

Lujain Albishi, who performs under the name "Biirdperson", started experimenting on DJ decks during the pandemic.

Youths react while a female DJ plays at a beach event in Saudia Arabia's Red Sea city of Jeddah.

DJ Leen Naif plays at a university event in Saudia Arabia's Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah.