The talent-laden 28-year-old best known as DJ Havana Brown (birth name Angelique Meunier) has the ambition and the glamorous good looks to match the singing, dancing and DJ skill sets that have made her highly sought-after on nightclub circuits worldwide.
She would also be quick to tell you, in her Australian-inflected voice, that part of the reason she has charted two No. 1 Billboard Club/Dance hits, earned a 12-month DJ residency at renowned Paris Las Vegas’ Chateau nightclub, toured as the support act for Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, the Pussycat Dolls, Rihanna and others, is that she was given her parents’ blessings to pursue her passions early on.
“I honestly can’t say that I always saw myself doing what I’m doing, but leaving high school I asked myself ‘well, what am I going to be doing the rest of my life? What do I love doing?’” she tells AC Weekly. “And the thought of going to university and studying something that I didn’t really enjoy passionately, I’d think ‘is that what life is about?’ I want to enjoy myself, have fun, be passionate and live for the moment.
“I told my parents I wanted to take a year off and just pursue music, and they told me I should do it now because it’s not something you can do 10 years from now. You can go back to university at 40 years old but you can’t start your pop-star career at 40.”
Brown gravitated toward DJing following a stint as a singer in a band, eventually signing with Island Records Australia (becoming the only female DJ to sign a major-label recording deal in Australia) and started releasing a compilation-album series called Crave that featured remixes of songs from other artists. That led to her series of touring support-act roles, and in 2009 she began providing remixes for Party People, a Saturday night radio show that broadcasts across Australia.
In 2010 she did a live vocal duet with Enrique Iglesias on the X Factor (an Australian music reality TV show) and in April 2011 released her debut single “We Run the Night” that would become certified triple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association. A remix of the song featuring American rapper Pitbull reached No. 1 on Billboard’s U.S. Hot Dance Club Songs chart, and she recently released a second song that gained No. 1 status, “Big Banana.”
“I was DJing for years before I released my first single,” she says. “I always enjoyed just DJing and always had fun and loved what I was doing, but when I got to involve an element of performance and singing, I just felt like I was connecting to the crowd a lot more — almost sharing a part of me, which is more fun but can be a bit scary at the same time. They seem to feel what I’m feeling and I feel what they’re feeling, and I can release a lot more energy toward them. So I don’t know if I could do just a DJ set anymore. For me, the standard is to be able to DJ and perform and sing and sometimes even incorporate my dances and do a full-blown performance in among the DJ set. That’s like my perfect night.”
Brown says that the trend of DJs gaining heightened celebrity status is one that has evolved over many years.
“Right now the music playing in the nightclubs and dance clubs is very popular, and you’re seeing more DJs coming forward and becoming artists known for their production work as much as their club work,” says Brown, who now resides in southern California. “These are popular times for dance music — styles like electro and house and dubstep and trap — that’s the trend. And since the DJs know what’s happening in the clubs right now, it makes sense to go to a DJ to produce something.
“We’re seeing it and noticing it more now [in the U.S.], but it’s been happening for decades, especially in Europe and Australia,” she says. “DJs were always making music and putting music out constantly, it just maybe never made it to popular radio as much as it does now. It’s a great time for us, and a great time for me. I’ve never really saw myself as just a DJ, I saw myself as a performer and being technically involved. I’m in my element right now.”
Brown’s electronic image is currently part of a six-week run on the largest moving billboard in Times Square, New York City.
“I haven’t seen it yet,” she says. “But actually, on my way to Atlantic City, I’m going to stop over in New York, I’m going to find a spot somewhere right in front of that billboard, have a coffee and sit there for maybe two or three hours looking at myself [laughs].”
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