We don’t know very many female DJs to begin with, but we certainly didn’t know any Bosnian Female DJs – that’s until we heard about the talented Valida who originally hails from Sarajevo, but has made Los Angeles her home since fleeing the once worn-torn country of Bosnia. Since moving to LA, Valida attended the UCLA, where she finished a bachelor’s degree in World Arts and Cultures, and then a master’s degree in Dance Ethnography and Video Production. This education led to her 2001 release of “Centric Beats” documentary, which heavily focused on the DJing and the drum’n'bass scene.
Even with very successful documentary where many fail to size up the first time, Valida was successful with her first documentary. This is mostly likely due to her being a musician and a performer since the age of four. But, her film was just the starting point of what she has become – a well recognizable figure amongst the celebrities and even a more recognized name that’s part of the LA music and nightclub scene. This was anything but an overnight process, but it was a process that took years of mixing different types of music, and rising through the ranks of LA’s nightlife scene.
Valida purchased her first set of turntables in 1998, and since then has become well known for her specialty is a seamless blending of a variety of music styles and her reputation for fearlessly fusing everything from disco to country and beyond. She has also performed at some fairly high profile events worldwide;
- Winter Music Conference
- SXSW Music Conference
- Regine – Paris
- Dragon-I – Hong Kong
- Mystique – Kuala Lumpur
- Boudoir – Dubai
- Nuphoria – Tokyo
- Candela – Puerto Rico
- Organic – Mexico
- and of course in our native homeland of Bosnia.
As some who’s been to Las Vegas for the past 7 years, I visited ‘The Cosmopolitan Hotel’ last year for the first time -only a month after it opened. Roughly 30 days prior to my visit, Valida played at the launch part for The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and continued to hold a monthly residency through the summer of 2011. Furthermore, she also co-founded Hollywood’s buzz-night, School Night at Bardot, which received Paper Magazine’s coveted People’s Choice Award for “America’s Best Party” in its first year. She deejayed and assisted with talent booking before shifting her focus on her own music making which, due to a demanding DJ schedule, had been on hiatus since 2006.
In the process of shifting focus to making her own music, she has created many mixes for iconic names such as LA’s Foaster The People, Jenny O., Saint Motel and even for Bosnia’s most recognized pop star Dino Merlin. Despite being overly booked, making mixes for others, and trying to launch her own music making, Valida landed a gig with with KCRW (89.9 FM) in Los Angeles on rotating Sundays from 3-6AM as part of their program called “The Lab”.
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[...] all the destruction that came of the deadly war, beauty and success were born with talents such as DJ Valida, Amra Silajdzic, Mirza Teletovic. Edin Dzeko . Today we wanted to talk about another Bosnian talent [...]