How Miss Monique Fell In Love With Dance Music
While many artists claim a lifelong obsession with music and an upbringing that supported it, Miss Monique fell in love with music organically during her teenage years in her home country of Ukraine.
The Siona Records label boss and rising progressive house star didn't come from a musical family, and her tight-knit friend group wasn't particularly artistic. When she was old enough to finally drop into her hometown's club and underground scene, however, she met an inspiring group of influential people in electronic music who took her in and helped her fall in love with the culture.
An early mix from Miss Monique.
Progressive house was Miss Monique's first love, and she aspired to learn how to mix the hypnotizing genre. One of her friends offered to teach her how to DJ in her first year of club life. Only ten years later, Monique has managed to land performance slots at renowned events like Tomorrowland, EDC Orlando, Seismic Dance Event, Arcadia Festival, Cercle, and more.
Nine years ago, she debuted her Mind Games podcast on Radio Intense's YouTube channel, plunging her deep into streaming long before it was en vogue. It's been one of the most fruitful forms of promotion for her. Now her channel boasts 576k subscribers, all thanks to her transformative, captivating mixes.
"I started playing at the clubs way before my YouTube podcast days. My first DJ gig was awful if I'm going to be honest. I didn't have much time to practice beforehand. I was so nervous and it overtook me," Monique told Gray Area in a recent Spotlight interview. "I'm just happy that people didn't really record and post sets online and it was just my time for me to let my fears go and perform in front of a crowd for the first time. It was a crowd of about 300 people. I'm still learning. I'm a firm believer in continuing to learn and advance your skills even when others view you as a professional or expert."
