‘Supermodel deejays’ in S’pore (Pt 1): They’re sexy and they know it
In our two-part series on sexy female deejays making waves here in Singapore and across the region, we speak to Taiwan’s DJ Xin and Vietnam’s Angie Vu Ha, whose thumping beats are as hot as they are. Both are not afraid to dress skimpy on purpose – sex sells, and they know it. Both have modeled extensively in the region, with Xin pulling stints as a race girl and appearing at commercial events in Taiwan, while Angie made waves with her now infamous Playboy cover shoot last October. ELIZABETH SOH and LUNA PHAM report.
Popular with the younger set for both their looks and their spin, Angie, 25, already has over 40,000 “likes” on her Facebook fan page while Xin has over 12,000 followers on her personal page and her ‘friend requests’ are over Facebook’s official limit.
You can now catch them spinning at special club nights like Avalon, Indochine and Attica when they are in town.
But first, how did two hot babes with growing modeling careers end up behind spinning at clubs instead of strutting down runways? And why do they love our sunny island so?
Wild child Angie first set foot in Singapore in 2006 to pursue modeling and acting – after dropping out of a Vietnam university and forging her parents’ signature to quit.
Her parents, naturally, were furious.
“My parents were very conservative – others try so hard to get into university, and since I got into one, they felt I should finish my studies. After that, they thought I should get a job, marry a good man and have children. Vietnamese parents love stability,” said Angie.
“The job of someone in the entertainment industry is fleeting and free like the clouds – my parents’ generation can’t accept that.”
Things only started to change when, with the little money she made from modeling, Angie paid for a vacation for her entire family to come to Singapore and travel the region.
When they saw that she was financially independent, they began to accept she was able to decide what was best for herself.
So when she decided to become a professional deejay in 2010, her father was supportive.
“My dad asked me about my current job, and I said, I’m a deejay now,” said Angie. Her father, who did not know what being a DJ meant, googled it and decided to start attending his daughter’s events from time to time.
Angie’s decision to become a deejay started with an "obsession with dance music" when she was first a model in Singapore.
“It’s like being the conductor of an orchestra of light and music,” said the animated, curvy model.
According to Angie, she told her Singaporean model friend, Nicole Chen, about her plans to become a DJ – and found out later that her idea had been "stolen" by Chen, who started branding herself as a "celebrity model DJ".
Angie was so angry that she bought her own turntables and mixers out of her own pocket and started learning how to spin on her own.
Within a week, she had posted a 60-minute track on Facebook titled “Model DJ Angie Vu Ha Electro House Mix”, and within a day, her mix had received over a thousand plays, prompting questions from her industry friends about whether she was going to spin at clubs and gigs.
“So I returned to Singapore as Asia’s sexiest deejay. Nicole was a model DJ? I’m a super model deejay,” announced Angie, who broke a contract with Filipino talent agency Big Foot to spin in Singapore.
“I was cool before – she created the rivalry.”
For Taiwanese Xin Lee, 24, who is from Taipei, the road to becoming a turntable spinster was much smoother – like Angie, she also started in 2010, when her friends asked her if she had any interest in learning to spin the decks.
“I’ve loved being on stage since I was a kid, but I never had the opportunity to start. Then one of my friends told me that he’s interested in starting a all-girls “deejay group” and it was perfect timing for me to start pursuing my dream,” said the soft-spoken, leggy Xin in Taiwanese-accented Mandarin.
“Of course I said yes immediately!”
Within a few months of starting, Xin quickly developed a stable of fans in Taipei, many of whom were her fans since she started modeling.
“They often attend my events, and there have been more and more listening to my music recently,” said Xin.
She decided to come to Singapore to develop a regional presence in April last year, and has since spun at clubs like Indochine and Attica as well as at events like Formula One for STYLO, and the store opening of lingerie brand La Senza. Her mixes have also been used by international companies like Maybelline New York and menswear brand Ashworth.
It's since become a full-time job for Xin, who spends her days and night at clubs.
“I’ll be in clubs, listening to other deejays do their thing, looking at the clubbers and seeing how they react to different beats. In the day, I download new music to get inspiration, I go on the Internet to check out what’s hot,” said Xin.
She takes breaks by going onto Chinese video-streaming site PPS TV to check out what is trendy and funny.
Listen to her self-introduction here:
So how are they finding being a DJ in Singapore, and are they here for the long run?
Xin said that she feels the Singapore market has a wide-reaching audience, and she hopes to stay here for the long run.
“Singapore accepts all kinds of people and talent, and they respect that spinning can be a real profession and also a passion,” said Xin, who came to Singapore for gigs seven times last year.
“I hope to get more opportunities to continue deejaying here.”
Angie, on the other hand, told Yahoo! Singapore that while she loves Singapore as a "safe place for a female DJ with a sexy image", she's planning to go to the US to reach a wider audience.
“If you want worldwide success, it has to be America or the birthplace of my music like Europe. I’m not saying that I will be successful immediately when I get to the US, but I want to test my ability in a larger fight ring,” said the ambitious Angie.
Not surprisingly, while the more low-key Xin has attracted a mostly positive and supportive fan following, the outspoken Angie has rubbed many in the industry the wrong way with her bold career moves – including a spread in the Playboy magazine.
She appeared on their October cover in 2012 after winning a “Miss Social” competition, which she joined to gain more publicity for herself.
“When I saw the models on Playboy, I felt that they were so beautiful, so much more than those in fashion, who were all bones and skin. They are like the symbol of womanly beauty,” said Angie, defending her decision to bare-(almost) all.
“Playboy is the most high-end magazine, where you can show off your body and still receive respect from others. People dream of being on Playboy.”
Angie said her foray into the male-dominated world of deejaying also made many male counterparts “surprised and jealous” when she became more popular than they were, despite their years of experience.
Other downsides to her sexy image?
“Many people send me their nude photos on Facebook, both men and women,” said Angie.
There have also been requests to DJ topless at private parties, and a male ‘masseuse’ who offered her free services. Some offer to pay her money to “have a conversation”.
Instead of letting the creepy requests get to her, she decided to take them as compliments.
“Men’s admiration makes me feel happy and lucky because it means I am still pretty enough that they desire me. The more the better. When I’m 35 or 40 and men don’t ask me out to nice restaurants any more, that’s when I will get upset.”
Both Angie and Xin are happily attached – Xin to a Singaporean businessman in his early 30s, while Angie is currently dating a man of French-Swiss nationality.
“I want a man who can take the load off my shoulders and make me feel young and like a dependent woman again,” said Angie, who says her boyfriend makes her feel that way.
“I have dated men who are extremely wealthy, millionaires and even billionaires. But now I think men can’t be judged based on their wealth.”
“I now look for for maturity in men, the way he treats my friends and families, and how they act towards my job.”
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