Josette "DJ Safire" Christie has deejayed some of the biggest events Atlantis has offered, and now she's taking her show on the road, and deejaying at what will be her biggest gig to date -- the Food Network Magazine's Concert at Ravinia in Chicago.
Christie will play two gigs at one of the hottest events of the summer at which the likes of seven-time Grammy-winning recording artist John Mayer and Phillip Phillips, Twin Forks and Raul Midon will take to the stage during a day filled with unique food and music experiences.
Christie will spin tunes at two events -- "Hot Hot Hot", which is sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, and "I Want Candy" at the Saturday, September 20 event in Chicago.
During the "Hot Hot Hot" segment, Christie will play a mixture of Bahamian and pop music, with emphasis placed on the Bahamian music, at the reception-style event. The heat will be turned up by Bahamian Chef Simeon Hall Jr., along with a number of other chefs who will challenge the taste buds of concert patrons with varying levels of heat injected into their fiery frissons.
On the sweeter side of things, Christie will also play at the "I Want Candy Dessert Party" set to the sounds of the 80s. The confectioner's dreamscape hosted by Food Network Star Anne Burrell will feature nine pastry chefs and showcase recipes from Food Network Magazine's new cookbook, "Sweet!."
Christie will play for two hours at each event.
"I'm looking forward to both events, which I think will be a lot of fun," said Christie from her home base on Harbour Island. She was recommended for the Food Network event by an influential person in the entertainment industry (as she's not a name-dropper and she keeps her client list confidential she preferred not to say who). The deejay, who has entertained at a number of big events at Atlantis, said the Food Network Concert in Ravinia will be her biggest gig to date.
"It's an amazing experience and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I feel blessed to have been chosen to do this and I'm going to go to have a lot of fun," said Christie.
For the biggest event of her deejaying career to date, she's preparing the same way she prepares for all of her events, and it entails lots of research and song downloads to create play lists with the client in mind, which she says she does for the smallest wedding to an event like the Food Network Concert.
"For something like this it's days and weeks of preparation. My play list alone for the 'Hot Hot Hot' event I've got over 700 songs on a play list, and I've got to listen to every song for at least a minute, so that's 700 minutes or 11 hours just doing that," she said. Christie also practices 12 hours daily -- sessions that she said are important for any deejay.
Christie rocketed onto the scene as DJ Safire in 2009, but has only been a deejay full time since 2011, after giving up her management job at Aura nightclub at Atlantis.
She did not just recently stumble upon the art form. Music has always been a love for Christie. She became enthralled with music back in the 80s and would take advantage of the opportunity to spin unofficially for a friend during his gigs at a popular club at the time, for a time before putting it aside and forgetting about it for life -- you know ... marriage and all that other stuff.
As the manager at Aura, which she managed for five years, she was responsible for hiring most of the talent and was insistent that resident local deejays were spinning as well as foreign talent.
Her love for music roared to the surface again. She became fascinated with seeing the effect the deejay's music had on the crowd. She wanted to do it too.
"I saw what some of them were doing and thought I could probably do that too, because the repertoire in their libraries were the same stuff I had," she said. "And I'm just in love with music, and in love with making people happy, and music is one of the key ways to make people happy, and I could see the effect these deejays have on the crowd, and I just wanted to do that."
Christie enlisted DJ Kido to teach her the fundamentals of deejaying and she taught herself the rest.
Since then she has developed quite a following in only a few years in the booth, has been accepted into the coveted ranks of Atlantis' AOS (Ambassadors of Sound) and is one of only a handful of female deejays in The Bahamas.
Her signature style is eclectic, a seamless mixing of genres crossing decades and spinning treasured classics and hot new hits. She challenges the idea of music by incorporating clever and quirky mixes into her performance. Her ultimate goal is to conjure nostalgia and touch the soul of the people who hear her music.
As she prepares for the biggest event of her still young career, Christie said her plan is to enjoy it all and to entertain the masses while she feeds her soul with her love of music.
"I didn't start deejaying to be famous -- that's not why I do what I do. I love what I do, but of course every deejay would love to play a big music festival, which I'm doing now," she said. Other than that, she would love the opportunity to spin at an Electric Dance Music (EDM) concert.
Right now, Christie said she enjoys every single gig she plays, from a child's birthday party to a nightclub.
"Once I am doing what I love and I see people responding to what I do, that's pretty much it for me," she said.
Christie, who does everything from weddings, parties and special events, said she would encourage any young person that has the desire to deejay to follow their passion and to work hard and take it seriously. She said any great deejay's advice to the next generation of spin masters would be to practice all the time. She said it's not easy, as most of the best deejays do not have day jobs and give deejaying 100 percent.
"If you are going to become great, you have to put in the time, work and sacrifice. There are no shortcuts and sync buttons for real deejays. In this field you never stop learning. I left a very lucrative career to follow my passion," said Christie of the competitive business that she said can be extremely difficult, but also rewarding.
For those females who want to enter the industry, she said they should be aware that they will face many obstacles that their male counterparts don't face, and they will be put under much more scrutiny. Christie said females will always have to prove themselves and she still goes on gigs where people are amazed that she deejays and mixes music -- which she finds amusing.
"I always ask them: Are there not female doctors, lawyers, mechanics, pilots and judges? Why does a female deejay baffle you so?," she said.
But from her unique perspective she said the female deejays bring a different element to the field as they are more emotional and intuitive and as a result, when trained can perhaps read a crowd better than their counterparts.
"We lack the ego that some male deejays exhibit and we never have to worry about looking 'soft'. Also we know what women want to hear because these are the same songs we identify with which is a bonus for a venue looking to attract a female crowd -- plus we can be a little more 'easy on the eyes' than the guys," she said.
In The Bahamas, female deejays like DJ Safire and DJ Baby D are still a novelty, but internationally there are many women deejays that are getting top billing as performers and producers.
Christie said her goal is to eventually train and bring more female deejays to the forefront.

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