Meet Vladimir Putin’s favourite DJ
- Text by HUCK HQ
The whomp-whomp beats of EDM could very well be the soundtrack to Kremlin meetings as Vladimir Putin attempts to rescue Russia from its worsening economic crisis.
DJ Fenix aka Alex Mamonov has become a Kremlin favourite after becoming the first turntablist to play there publicly in November and entertaining prime minister Dmitri Medvedev with a series of private sets.
While an exclusive slot spinning wax for British prime minister David Cameron would be the kiss of death for any self-respecting DJ in the UK, it seems playing for members of Russia’s wealthy elite is much sought after by the country’s aspiring EDM DJs. “He plays for the elite [In Russia],” his manager Rostik Rusev recently told The Guardian. “Let’s just hope he can play for the elite everywhere.”
His cosiness with the country’s political and economic high-rollers clearly hasn’t hurt DJ Fenix’s public image, as he was recently named “Russia’s most eligible bachelor” by Cosmopolitan magazine. But Russia’s wealth and celebrity-obsessed dance music culture seems a far cry from the scene in the UK, where playing the grottiest possible East London warehouse is the way to earn your stripes, or the US where dance music evolved from its black soul and disco roots in Detroit, Chicago and NY.
Russia’s wealth and celebrity-obsessed dance music culture seems a far cry from the scene in the UK, where playing the grottiest possible East London warehouse is the way to earn your stripes, or the US where dance music evolved from its black soul and disco roots in Detroit, Chicago and NY.
But DJ Fenix’s cosiness with the country’s political and economic high-rollers clearly hasn’t hurt his public image as he was recently named “Russia’s most eligible bachelor” by Cosmopolitan magazine.
Head over to DJ Fenix’s website for his live dates.
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