Miss Monique (UA)

Miss Monique is miss unique.

A Ukrainian DJ, producer and label owner who has become a YouTube, clubland and streaming sensation. Her metrics across Spotify, YouTube and Instagram are in the millions and move too fast to list specifically in a traditional artist biography.

A trailblazing musician in the progressive/melodic space with a huge online following hooked on her exquisitely crafted and produced livestreams: a recent installment of her filmed MiMo Podcast, number 042, tracked one million views within a month.

A talent incubator and champion in her own right, Miss Monique’s Siona Records label celebrated its fifth anniversary in 2024. Her Siona Records 3rd Anniversary @ Ibiza mix, launched on YouTube in June 2022, has been viewed over 20 million times.

A fast-rising international performing phenom, drawing huge audiences from Argentina (where the announce for a headline show in Buenos Aires resulted in 10,000 people trying to buy 6,000 tickets in under two hours), to Canada (her 2022 set at Montreal’s Biosphere Museum for the Cercle platform is also online, six million views and counting), to Ibiza (multiple annual shows with the likes of David Guetta and Eric Prydz) to the US (a commanding debut at Coachella), to the UK – Junction 2 festival and Drumsheds. All of this energy captured in her debut Essential Mix for Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1. "That was an honour!” she says.

And Miss Monique is a breakthrough recording artist who cut through in 2023. Building on the success of her 2022 remix of Sied van Riel's Rush (the most-sold progressive house track on Beatport that year), last year she remixed Sorry by BLOND:ISH featuring Madonna and Ringo by Lufthaus, Robbie Williams’s dance project with Tim Metcalfe and Flynn Francis. And she released a series of big singles of her own: Subterranean (Armada), Look At You (Interstellar / Insomniac Records), Bloom At Night (Tomorrowland Music) and City Boy (Drumcode).

Those artist releases range from Adam Beyer’s techno label Drumcode and Armin Van Burren’s more trance-driven Armada. Factor in her proven ability to remix across the electronic spectrum and collaborate with producers and vocalists such as Avira and Luna (both on Subterranean), and it all speaks to another game-changing aspect of Miss Monique’s skillset: her effortless ability to shapeshift between genres and sounds. Little wonder that she signed to WME globally, and is a priority act for the powerhouse Los Angeles-based entertainment agency’s Electronic Division.

This, then, is Miss Monique’s kaleidoscopic world. It’s a space where her signature green hair (an iconic look now much-copied by fans) is far from the only colour in the creative palette of an effervescent, positivity-promoting artist who prioritises and promotes good mental and physical health. Those ideas are also at the heart, sonically and metaphorically, of her epically uplifting, powerfully percussive track, Veselka. Long teased as the opener in her sets, the instrumental was finally released on Siona Records in 2024. The translation of that Ukrainian word? Rainbow.

"Veselka is the last track which was finished in my hometown Kyiv before I had to leave my country due to the war," explains Miss Monique, real name Olesia Arusha. "This track has pure energy, good vibes and is imprinted in my memory like a bright moment of peaceful times.”

But beyond the facts, stats and hits, she’s something more. Born in the small town of Kirovograd and raised in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital where she cut her teeth as a teenage DJ, Lisbon-based Miss Monique is a reluctant artist-in-exile. She's using her music and her performances to spread messages of peace, unity, solidarity and joyful defiance. Despite the length of time it has been since she was forced to leave her war-torn country, she’s proud that, wherever she travels in the world, her shows are as much about flags in the air as hands in the air.

“This kind of support, it's incredible,” she says appreciatively of the fans, of multiple nationalities, who wave the Ukrainian flag at her gigs. “But at the beginning, it was very hard. You don't know how to control your feelings. I remember when the first time I saw the flag, I ran away for a few seconds because it was very painful. “Now I'm more controlled in my emotions. But I'm very appreciative of everyone doing this, because that means that people still remember, even after all this time. They're still trying to help us. The main thing is that they don't forget, and they show that every time they come.”

Miss Monique’s emergence as a global talent came during the pandemic. She was already a big draw at home in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries, her profile hard-earned after a decade playing out and, way ahead of her peers, honing her YouTube artistry. But during the lockdowns her livestreamed sets from her home studio went viral. They were characterised by high production values, with Miss Monique’s natural, unforced decks-appeal radiating good vibes at a time when the world needed them most. Then, as restrictions eased, her profile rocketed as online fans around the world were finally able to see her live – by her estimation, in 2022 she and her close-knit team took some 200 flights to over 100 events.

There, again, it’s important for her to be an ambassador not just for her country but for a better way of pursuing both artistry and fan satisfaction. For that reason, “I take care of my body as much as I can,” Miss Monique says. “Because I want to be fresh, young and healthy as long as possible.”

And, of course, that clean-living and progressive mental attitude helps with a productivity that is as boundless as it is impressive. A key focus is to expand the activities of Siona Records in promoting the new artists she and her team have discovered and are supporting. She’ll be touring wherever the music takes her: from main stage performances at Tomorrowland and the Carl Cox stage at Ultra Miami. There’s talk, too, of a fashion collaboration on her own capsule collection, with that signature look having drawn attention from various brands.

Music production is evolving quickly, a constant flow of new music is being released, alongside a huge demand for remixes peaking with David Guetta & One Republic’s I Don’t Wanna Wait - which came to her after developing a relationship with David during their Ibiza shows together "I’m always testing my new music in the clubs, because it's very important to me to first of all see how it's working, then I do some more edits. Only then do I release the music.” Somehow, amidst her performing schedule, she vows to “work harder on the production side of my own music. More collaborations with singers, some bigger artists…”

Miss Monique, then, is excited for the opportunities ahead. It’s a role that’s fired by feelings that, compared to most of her peers are, inarguably, more meaningful, more important and more powerful. “If I have a party in two hours, but I’m reading in the news that Kyiv was just bombed again, I can sit and cry. But at the same time, I know that I have to turn off my feelings, and still bring the people happiness. Because I always try to make people happy.”