STOCKHOLM – She drops the beat and gets her groove on, spinning discs like a pro as her head-to-toe sequins twinkle under the lights. DJ Gloria, 81, is filling dance floors across Sweden.
“I’ve been a DJ for 16 years. Today, I’m really good,” she said at her seniors’ residence in a leafy neighbourhood of southern Stockholm. “There’s not a person I can’t get onto the dance floor.”
DJ Gloria, whose real name is Madelein Mansson, plays Sweden’s hottest nightclubs with special gigs for crowds over the age of 50 – ID cards required – which primarily draw women who want to just get down and boogie.
On a recent evening at the Josefina club on Stockholm’s waterfront, her set list included hip-swinging hits such as Mamma Mia (1975), Funkytown (1979) and Moves Like Jagger (2010).
“She’s just fantastic,” 63-year-old reveller Eva Jakobson said while taking a break from the dance floor.
“I mean, at that age… She brings so much energy and love. If you are 55-plus, it’s not so easy to find somewhere to go dancing. And Gloria started this just for all of us.”
Another partygoer, known only as Louise, 69, agreed and declared: “She’s the best DJ we have ever had in Sweden.
“She promotes all these women. She makes them strong. Look at them, they are young forever.”
Mansson decided to become a DJ after her husband died when she was 62, following nine years of caring for him around the clock.
“I was depressed. Listless and sad,” she recalled.
She chose to become an aerobics instructor. Putting the music together for her classes was great fun, and her playlists grew longer and longer.
“One night, I was having dinner with friends. We were sitting outside. It was summer and we were drinking wine, and I heard myself say: ‘I think I’m going to be a DJ.’”
A friend’s DJ son gave her three private lessons and she was on her way.
“I was really bad in the beginning,” she admitted. She visited other clubs to see how DJs worked.
She discovered there was not a single Swedish club that opened before 11pm.
“Scandalous! I want to be home and in bed by 11pm. So, I asked a friend, ‘Do you want to start a 50-plus disco with me?’”
The friend agreed. They now run a company together.
DJ Gloria’s gigs usually start around 6pm and wrap up about 11pm, and she kicks off every set with I Will Survive (1978) by American singer Gloria Gaynor.
“It’s perfect for starting a disco. It has 116 to 118 beats a minute, so it’s not too fast and not too slow,” she said. “And the lyrics are good.”
Sometimes, she rounds off the evening with American pop star Beyonce’s version of At Last (2008), a little Elvis Presley or “sometimes with AC/DC’s Thunderstruck (1990) if I’m in the mood”.
At her gigs, the Swede can be seen interacting with the crowd, clapping, stepping and swinging lithely to the thumping beat, her dazzling DJ Gloria headphones hugging her ears.
Some women come up to her booth to take wefies with her, while others request songs on colourful Post-it notes on a side table.
Mansson – who has a varied background as a jazz singer, clothing designer and garden centre owner – keeps up with music trends, picking up influences from everyone she meets.
“I recently met a 15-year-old girl who was listening to Canadian music stars The Weeknd and Drake. I think they’re great.”
And while she already has DJ gigs booked a year in advance, she also has another side hustle up her sequinned sleeve – writing a book about exercise for seniors called Good Enough: A Little But Often. AFP
MusicBars and clubsSenior citizensSweden