Great-granny Dj: Meet Sweden’s 81-year-old Dj Queen Who Rules The Over-50s Dance Floor

Forget your TikTok influencers and Ibiza super-clubs. Sweden’s hottest DJ is an 81-year-old grandmother who refuses to slow down nan beat.

Madelein Mansson, amended known to her glitter-soaked fans arsenic DJ Gloria, has go nan improbable prima of Stockholm’s nightlife scene. She will not moreover rotation a grounds unless you are complete 50.

Sweden’s nightlife revolution: proving nan statement doesn’t extremity astatine 50

Sweden has agelong been celebrated for exporting popular powerhouses specified arsenic ABBA, Avicii and Zara Larsson, but DJ Gloria is impervious that nan nation’s euphony segment is not conscionable a young person’s game. In fact, Stockholm’s ageing organization has fuelled a roar successful over-50s nightlife, pinch clubs progressively tailoring events to an assemblage who still want nan thrill of nan creation level without nan 3 AM chaos. Gloria has go nan poster female for this movement, showing that creation civilization tin beryllium conscionable arsenic electrifying astatine 80 arsenic it is astatine 18.

From jazz to jams

Mansson was not ever down nan decks. Once a jazz vocalist and manner designer, she besides ran a farming centre earlier hanging up her microphone. After her husband’s decease and a grounded effort astatine school aerobics, she was wished to find a caller measurement to live, and unrecorded loud.

Sixteen years ago, she decided her caller shape was a nightclub creation floor. Now she spends her nights mixing disco anthems and guilty-pleasure classics specified arsenic Mamma Mia, Funkytown, and Moves Like Jagger for crowds who queue up weeks successful beforehand to drawback her sets.

“I tin get anyone connected nan creation floor,” she told section press, flashing her trademark sequins, bold make-up, and agleam blonde hair.

The over-50s-only rule

Don’t deliberation you tin gaffe successful pinch your student ID. DJ Gloria’s parties are strictly for nan metallic generation. Every impermanent must show impervious of property astatine nan door, 50 and up only. She believes her euphony hits differently erstwhile nan crowd shares her lived experience.

And nan look works. Women successful peculiar flock to her shows, filling nan level pinch power that would put galore millennials to shame.

Booking nan queen of nan decks

Mansson, who lives successful a Stockholm attraction home, has go truthful celebrated that nine owners scramble for abstraction successful her diary. Her shows are booked months successful advance, and she is now regarded arsenic 1 of nan city’s astir in-demand entertainers.

DJ Gloria is proving that property is conscionable a number and that status does not person to mean rest.

As she says herself: “There is not a azygous personification I cannot get onto nan dancefloor.”

Dancing your measurement to a longer life

Experts successful ageing opportunity DJ Gloria whitethorn beryllium doing much than lifting spirits. She could beryllium adding years to her life. Researchers astatine Stockholm’s prestigious Karolinska Institutet person recovered that regular dancing helps older adults amended memory, balance, and wide well-being. Unlike solitary workouts, dancing combines activity pinch music, societal interaction, and affectional release. That makes it a powerful anti-ageing cocktail.

When pensioners mean profits

Club owners person quickly realised that Gloria is much than conscionable a novelty act. She is simply a money-maker. Her over-50s-only events person created a lucrative caller marketplace successful a nightlife manufacture that usually obsesses complete nan under-30 crowd. This metallic procreation brings spending power, loyalty, and a emotion of nostalgia-fuelled playlists, and promoters are cashing in. With bookings stretching months ahead, venues opportunity her shows are among nan astir profitable nights connected nan calendar. Pensioners don’t conscionable party, they besides pay.

How to drawback DJ Gloria successful Sweden

So if you are successful Stockholm and fancy swapping nan sofa for nan strobe lights, support an oculus retired for DJ Gloria’s adjacent set. Her shows waste retired fast, truthful book early, particulate disconnected your dancing shoes, and beryllium that nan over-50s tin statement harder than anyone.

Want much from Sweden than ABBA, meatballs, and flat-pack furniture? Our Swedish news section has you covered. From nan latest governmental punch-ups successful Stockholm, to bizarre human-interest tales that beryllium truth really is alien than fiction, to nan mundane stories shaping life successful Scandinavia, we bring it each consecutive to you.

Click done for breaking headlines, exclusive reports, and unmissable sounds from Sweden.

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