Additional Information
Mixing oriental and occidental music, DJ Mina will present a DJ set this Thursday August 13 at Festival Orientalys on the Quai du Vieux-Port, where over 30 concerts this week-end will be presented. DJ Mina’s music journey started at age 6 when he learned oud at the Cairo Opera House, then singing as a tenor at Marie-Reine-du-Monde in Montreal. In his mixes, Mina blends music spanning from North Africa to the Gulf, mixing the traditional and modern with a penchant for EDM, always staying true to his Egyptian soul.
PAN M 360: Thank you for taking the time to speak to me today. Will it be your first time being part of this festival?
DJ Mina: No, actually, it’s my fourth time. I knew about the Festival Orientalys when I first came to Canada during Covid. I think my first festival was in 2021. I was looking for volunteer work, just to go as a volunteer, you know, to help with tickets, because I like to do some community work. I went there and I got introduced to the organizers, and honestly, like the vibes there are incomparable and so we became good friends.
And then when I started to DJ, I was playing on the small stage. I played there for three years in a row. And then this year, because I gained a little bit of an audience, they told me I had a spot on the big stage, so I’m very excited.
PAN M 360: For someone who has never heard of you and is going to the festival, can you talk to me a bit more about your DJing style?
DJ Mina: So I’m Egyptian and usually I like to play the Egyptian songs that I was raised with, basically the ’90s and the early 2000s, but I also like to play some electronic remixes. I’m trying to build a bridge between Eastern and Western music, like the sound of 2026, along with the nostalgic songs that we were familiar with growing up.
I like the possibility of mixing any kind of beat like Afrobeat or like techno or any kind of electronic music along with Arabic songs. So, yeah, that’s my style. And I also like to mix just like hardcore Egyptian belly dance music.
PAN M 360: I saw in your bio that you studied oud, and you are also a singer at the Basilique Marie-Reine du Monde. How did that, you think, shape you as a DJ, like having this very eclectic background?
DJ Mina: I was introduced to many musical instruments, including oud, piano and violin. I also played the ney, which is I could say a type of Egyptian flute, it’s the sad brother of the flute. And so since I was a kid, I have studied music and music was like my refuge.
It has always been music and singing like I was singing in my church back in Egypt. And then like I lived in Dubai for a couple of years, where I looked for choirs, and it is something I do everywhere I go.
But the DJ thing was just a coincidence, I was into singing, as I told you, I wanted to do Arabic karaoke for the community that speaks Arabic in Montreal, because there was none, honestly.
And so, I created this party and between each singer, I used to put a song for myself, to have time to prepare the other karaoke presentation. So, apparently, these songs that I was picking caught the attention of someone who has a party. They were like, “Mina, I like your choices.” I like your style of music. Have you ever considered DJing? Like, would you like to be in the lineup for our next party?
So I got like a small controller, and I started to study and practise, and in three months or something like that I went there to try it out and a couple of years later, I quit my day job as a pharmacist and currently taking music and DJing seriously, 100%.
I’m going to join college this September for sound design and music production. So, I believe that it will add to what I have as a talent or as a base. The goal is to be more seasoned and more professional and maybe see doors will open to me eventually.
Learning will always give you something more. Always. It will add to you.
PANM 360: Right. Maybe just one last quick question. Do you have any specific artists that you look up to or inspiration?
DJ Mina: Honestly, like there are so many I can’t even count them. But I would say David Morales. I like how fun he is in choosing his set; he’s so lighthearted when it comes to music choices on his set.
