Milady – Feature Interview – Issue 049

Brazilian-born DJ and promoter Milady brings rhythm, heart, and authenticity to Spain’s Afro House scene. With the THABO Afro House Festival about to hit Málaga, her rise shows no signs of slowing down.

Brazil-born and now lighting up Spain’s Costa del Sol, Milady has fast become one of the most exciting new names in Afro House. From gospel and samba roots to deep, percussive club cuts, her sound is pure energy — warm, soulful and unapologetically real. Her brand, THABO, has exploded onto the scene with a string of unforgettable events built on community, connection, and a dancefloor-first attitude. No VIP posturing here — just rhythm, sweat, and smiles. We caught up with Milady to talk about the wild ride of promotion, the rise of THABO, and what’s next for one of the scene’s most genuine new forces

What was the music that inspired you most growing up and how has that influenced the music that you promote today?

Well, back when I was an ugly little girl growing up in Brazil, I was singing in the church chorus and later ended up making a 360 degree turn from being the good girl in the church, to going baile funk parties and samba schools. So was listening to gospel, funk and samba which you can absolutely recognise in my sets that I am playing, just since then they turned to house and afro house.

What are favourite gigs to play at?

Milady: I love small events where I can be really close to the crowd. When I can see their faces, being happy with the music I play, gives me energy to continue.

What music do you normally play at home these days?

Samba.

So what are some of your favourite clubs that you’ve played in and why?

My favourite so far is a beach club in Torremolinos, Spain, it’s called Santo Pitote. It’s quite a funny story though, in that I started my DJ career being a resident DJ there, but the owner at that time didn’t really like my style. Often he ran to the DJ booth, saying “it’s too dark, it’s too deep, change it quickly!” until a point when I decided to quit. Fast forward 2 years, and now I am organising afro house events there, playing the exact same type of “too deep too dark” music but he doesn’t complain anymore because our successful events fill the beach club with hundreds of people. haha

So, your brand THABO has been hosting Afro House events on the Costa Del Sol for almost 2 years now no?

Yeah, we are quite new on the scene, with zero experience in organising events, however we managed to grow and earn the respect of the other players of the market who have been doing this for tens of years. I believe our energy, open-mindedness and our love for the music is the key, why we were able to achieve a lot in this short time.

What motivated you to get involved at the time, what were your starting points? How did you see the scene at that time? What were your expectations?

That’s a funny question. I was a newbie DJ and I’ve contacted some promoters that I would like to play at their afro-house events. Unfortunately, nobody was interested in giving me a chance to prove myself, not even as warm-up DJ. So, with the help of my husband, I’ve decided that we start our own event series where we do things differently. We know so many people who say that “I have a new concept” but they actually don’t. Starting a new brand and doing what everybody does is nothing new. Our new concept was that we give newbies a chance and also opportunity to grow with us! If someone plays at our event and we like their style and quality, then we invite them again and we even give them better set times in the line-up. We are actually supporting the local DJ scene.

What do you feel have been the biggest changes in the industry during that time you’ve been promoting events? What have been the positives/negatives?

Two years is not that long, so there were not many major changes, however I can tell that even within this short time, I know about 20+ people just in my friend circle who started learning to DJ. Imagine how rapidly the number of DJs is growing and how much pressure it puts on everyone in the industry. Many DJs try to start their events as well, becoming promoters like us, but unfortunately, there are not enough venues, at least not in our area. Maybe it’s the same in the whole world, but it seems like for every 100 DJs there are 20 promoters and 5 venues, which is crazy if you think about it.

What do you put your rapid success down to?

That we actually care about people. Many parties they just want to exploit their guest as much as possible and they don’t really care if people have a good time or not. They book a DJ, throw a party and call it a day. We try our best to make sure everyone in our events actually have a good time and being entertained.

What advice would you give to someone going into the promotions game these days?

Just don’t. hahaha Unless you have a lot of spare money that you don’t mind losing, because in the beginning for sure you will have negative balance. The DJs who attract people are expensive, so they are even more risk to book. Also there are many other events on the same day, plus crazy weather and who knows what unknown factors that can make your theoretically successful even a disaster from one day to another. However, if someone has enough money to think long term and a build a brand, then absolutely, this can work. The key is consistency, the stay on the market with good events and vibes long enough for the people to realise it worth to support your event with their presence.

When did you start DJing…and what got you into it in the first place?

Well… my story is not the “usual” that every DJ tells about how they grew up with music, crate digging with their dads in the record store, playing vinyl, etc. I will be honest with you, I’ve never meant to be a DJ. Yes, I love music, but I never thought that I am going to play in front of a crowd. I am left handed, quite clumsy, and dealing with all these buttons and knobs was my living nightmare. So, then how did I end up being a DJ you ask?

My husband sold me the idea that because I love music and traveling, I should try DJ’ing, because as a DJ I am going to travel and party a lot. I gave it a try and indeed the partying a lot part worked out, because we party much more since I am a DJ. However the travels are still far away, because nobody told us that for me to be successful as a DJ, I have to be a producer as well. If you don’t produce then you can go just as far as the local scene, outside that nobody knows you. So, after learning how to DJ, I had to learn how to produce. Again… more knobs, more buttons, music theory, software, plugins, synth presets… OMG! And guess what, that’s still not enough! Because you have to learn marketing and all the other stuff, that you need in 2025 to market yourself. The reason is, that there is so much noise in today’s oversaturated music industry. Many old-school DJ’s think, that starting to DJ nowadays is easier than 20 years ago. But I would say, it’s just as hard as back then, but we have different struggles, such as social media, which didn’t exist in the “good old days”.

Where are your next gigs? When is the next release?

Our next event will be the THABO AFRO HOUSE FESTIVAL on 6th December in Malaga Forum. This will be our biggest event so far, which is a lot of stress and work and pressure but fingers crossed it will all work out well.

How do you feel about the health of the afro house scene at the moment? And how do you see it progressing in the next 5-10 years? And how do you see your role in the scene?

I believe afro-house is coming to its peak and in the next years it will lose from its importance. Right now it’s very trendy that will certainly not last forever. Of course, because half of the afro house songs are actually just pop songs with some extra percussion, it will be always popular and easy listening, even for those people who are not hard-core into electronic music. At our parties we try to find the healthy balance between the real afro house songs and the popular ones, to make people dance and have a good time, while staying true to our roots.

How and why are you different than other afro house parties? There are plenty of these on the Costa del Sol, especially in Marbella.

Haha, Marbella. Been there, did that but we are different. How? There are memes about afro house parties all around the world that people don’t dance, they are just standing with their phones in the air. Instead of living in the moment and enjoying the party, dancing, they are just… posting the exact same video on their Instagram and seeing the world through their phone’s screen. Our events are different. People come to dance, to have fun, to forget their troubles on the dancefloor. We are like the old-school house parties from back in the days before mobile phones were invented. Our goal is to provide an unforgettable experience to all the guests, not just for the VIP tables. And people feel that. They feel that we are like a big family, everyone is friendly and nice with everyone, resulting in such amazing vibe that worth to come back for next time.

Tell us about your next projects, what does the next 12 months have lined up for you, personally?

I need to really jump on producing music, because being a DJ and playing other people’s records in 2025 is not enough. Which is a pity, because just like Bumblebee from the Transformers, I can express myself quite well with other’s songs, yet the requirement on today’s market is to have my own “voice”.

What has been the best concert/event you have ever been to. Outside of your own events?

My absolute favourite event where I’ve been to was Ultra Europe in Croatia. But I was not DJing there. If you mean, an event where I was a DJ, then I would put the What The House Boat Party 2025 to the top, because it was really fun and challenging at the same time as the boat was rocking on the waves and I had to keep my balance while mixing.

Who’s been your favourite DJ you have ever booked?

Eli Rojas was the absolute favourite, and so far the only not local DJ that we booked. We mostly work with local talents. At every event we try to book some new DJs, so our line-up is ever changing.

Funniest/Most romantic/loveliest moments ever at one of your parties.

Oh my god, our events are crazy. I don’t know if it’s the same with other DJs/organisers, but every single time something crazy happens at our events. For example, one time the staff with a confetti gun managed to shoot down our brand sign that was hanged above the DJ booth and it almost fell onto my head. My only luck was that I was busy blowing the confetti from the DJ equipment, so I was bending over instead of standing so the falling sign didn’t hit me in the head. Is this crazy enough?

What is the best/worst part about running the business and/or working in this industry?

Best? All the happy faces, all the emotions, the love, the adrenaline. The worst? Hahaha…. Everything else. It’s a lot of time, work, stress and it doesn’t pay that well. We keep going because we hope that the next event will be bigger, better, louder, funnier and maybe financially will worth it more. But sometimes it feels like we are just party junkies running for the next hit.

If you were stuck on a desert island and could only take 5 records with you, what would they be?

Does that deserted island have electricity? Because without that my USB would be pretty useless, just as your vinyl’s hahaha! Jokes aside, my favourite songs are: Maz – Banho de Folhas, Nic Fanciulli – Set me free, Gal Costa – Azul, Spacemotion – Baiana, Antdot, Tato (BR)- Morar no mar

Tell us about your next projects, what does the next 12 months have lined up for you and your brand? What’s getting you excited?

Our plan is to grow out of the local bubble that we are in right now. Our brand is already well known on the Costa del Sol, but we would like to go further than that. For that guess what we need to do? Yes… more social media. Yay! Hahaha When you think that for your music career you need to deal with music, that is absolutely wrong in 2025. So… next 12 months will be heavy social media content creation to let people know that we exist, what are our values and that we are the event that they were missing from their lives.