djmag.com
Ukrainian DJ, producer and Siona Records founder Miss Monique is back at Hï Ibiza this season for her second year as a weekly resident in the Club Room. In the midst of an unforgettable season on the White Isle, Carl Loben chats to her about the joy and responsibility of helming such a high-profile residency, getting props from some of the biggest figures in the scene, and the mutual devotion she shares with her fans all over the world.
“I love the vibe of this place so much,” says Miss Monique, standing backstage at the magnificent Dalt Vila heritage site in Ibiza Town for the IMS 2026 closing party. “It’s one of my favourite places to visit on the island.”
Over the past few years, the Ukrainian DJ, producer and Siona Records founder has become increasingly well acquainted with what all that White Isle has to offer. When we sit down with her the following day to talk about her residency at Hï Ibiza’s club room, which returns to the island this year for its second season, we learn that she’s actually been coming here for longer than even some of her most devoted fans might realise.
Miss Monique first visited Ibiza in 2017 for a DJ gig, a trance party on a boat. “It was a crazy trip, and in that moment I realised that I got seasick,” she recalls. “I was supposed to play 45 minutes, but the whole ride was a few hours.”
The set went fine. The still-emerging DJ managed to click into action when the time came to play, but she spent the rest of the boat ride in the cabin feeling ill. A somewhat inauspicious beginning to her now flourishing on-island career.
Nevertheless, that first visit opened her eyes to some of the possibilities that were open to her within electronic music. She’d made her name in her home country, and up until that point had only played a couple of times abroad — in India and Egypt. She remembers going to Amnesia that first time and standing in the middle of the dancefloor, taking in the vibe during a Cosmic Gate set. Fuelled by coffee, her posse then jumped to a few more other parties. “I had fun and didn’t analyse it too much,” she says.
Fast forward to 2022 and Miss Monique — born Olesia Arkusha — started coming to Ibiza regularly, especially after being invited by David Guetta to play his Future Rave night after a chance meeting in Miami. “The next year David and MORTEN invited me many more times. And then it was decided to sometimes stay some extra days, so I had the possibility to visit some parties.” Her love of the island continued to flourish.
The following autumn she received a life-changing phone call from her manager. “He said, ‘Listen, there is something happening. You might feel stressed at first but you will like it’,” she recalls. “He then told me that the Night League team were thinking about offering me a residency at Hï Ibiza, and I remember my hands started shaking. I was emotional, it was probably one of the key moments of my life. That call changed a lot.”
She remembers feeling apprehensive of the huge, nerve-racking responsibility of such a high-profile residency. She was stressed about whether people would come to see her sets in the Club Room. But, of course, they did, and in their droves. “I had so much appreciation every night when they came and then stayed until 6AM,” she says, “because usually I was closing the night. Sometimes people leave because it’s late and they want to sleep, or they drank too much alcohol or whatever, but most of the people every week they stayed. I had so much appreciation for this — they pushed me to believe in myself.”
She shouts out the Night League team, including owner Yann Pissenem, for believing in her, and when she saw the poster with the full line-up of guest DJs she had invited to join her at Hï Ibiza throughout the season, she thought, “Oh my god, it’s really happening. I could only dream about something like this before.”
Miss Monique says that the whole of the 2025 season was a highlight for her. “One of the brightest moments was when David Guetta showed up in the booth. I never thought that David would come — artists are usually travelling, they’re busy. I remember I was playing my set and someone touched my back just at the moment where I was mixing a track, and I was like, ‘Just wait, just wait please’ [she remonstrates behind her], and I continued. Someone touched me again and I was like, ‘Just wait please’. I was mixing and I thought it was one of my team members or something, and then when I turned around and I saw David… I think someone caught this moment on video, and even now it makes me feel emotional. That was one of the highlights. That was huge support from his side for me. He always shows up in my life unexpectedly.”
The opening party last season was very emotional for her also, she says, as was the closing party in September when Afrojack joined her as a special guest. She’s now just released a track with Afrojack under his Kapuchon alias — maximal progressive house cut ‘Hot Sauce’ — and the Dutchman is just one of a number of significant names guesting with her for her second raft of Hï Ibiza dates this summer. “It means the world to me, these artists showing up for me for my residency,” she says, and begins to reel off some of the names: Pete Tong, Adam Beyer, Mathame, Benny Benassi, Joris Voorn, Nora En Pure, Kevin de Vries, Agents Of Time and Chris Avantgarde are all joining her across the season. “Last year was incredible, and I’m super excited for this one now.”
For each Hï Ibiza show, there’s one main guest and one DJ act from her Siona Records world. She begins to list some of these guests. “Just, Baset, Adapter, Carl Bee, Genesi, Glowal, Kiko B2B Oliver Giacomotto, Pablo Say, Paradoks, Pongo, Volkoder — he is in my playlist a lot right now,” she says. “Most of the artists who are opening the night are from my label.”
Over the course of the 18-week residency she’s again sharing the night with French DJ HUGEL, who heads up the line-up in the Theatre every week. Did she get to know him at all last year, we wonder? “I didn’t get to see him so much, that’s the problem with artist schedules,” Miss Monique replies. “As DJs on the night we always started at about the same time. So maybe in the artist room, when we come in a bit early, we will have the chance to speak a little bit. He’s incredibly talented, an amazing human; I’m very happy to be sharing this night with him.”
She begins to talk about how there are 20 or 30 artists that she knows who live relatively near each other in Lisbon, where she currently resides, but they never see each other because of their busy schedules. Miss Monique herself is staying in Ibiza all summer, flying out for festival gigs and the like at weekends following her Thursday night residency shows. She tells us about a special show she’s planning for the Freedom Stage at Tomorrowland in July, where she’s also playing the MainStage for the third year in a row. “It’s something I’ve never done in my 15-year career of DJing,” she says, revealing no more.
Miss Monique left her home country of Ukraine shortly after Russia invaded in February 2022. In the years since, she’s been vocal about plight of her home country, where most of her family and friends still live. “It’s painful in my heart,” she says. “Since the first day when Russia attacked my country, I’ve felt bad about this every day. I will never feel better until this horrible war is no longer happening in my home country. We’re all trying to do as much as we can to help and support. Even if we are out of the country, we are doing what we can to support.
“My fans are incredible, they support my country from the first second,” she continues. “I didn’t even need to ask them to do anything. I know so many people who have followed me for years who have done things themselves, without me even mentioning it. Like the rest of the world also. There are a lot of charities and organisations doing things, and a lot of people who need this help. It isn’t hard to find out who to support.”
Miss Monique herself prefers to target her help with specific donations to Ukrainian organisations. “When we found out that some soldiers didn’t have bulletproof vests, I did some gigs and we bought them from our office. For that, I knew exactly where the money was going — physically to people who really needed it. From time to time we will still do charity gigs, but I prefer to buy things or make donations myself.”
Sitting in the kitchen area of her hotel room in Talamanca, Miss Monique is warm, friendly and relaxed as conversation drifts toward the first time we saw her play at Dalt Vila in 2024, and how prog legend Sasha agreed when we remarked that they shared plenty of sonic DNA. Miss Monique admits that she had slightly adjusted her sound for that show, knowing that Sasha was playing too. “I’m not always playing one direction. If I’m playing [techno festival] Time Warp, I will adapt to a more underground sound. If I’m playing Tomorrowland MainStage, it will be a completely different set. And if I’m playing before Sasha it’s going to be that set that you heard. For me, it’s always an amazing and interesting challenge. That’s the main point of DJing — you must have the possibility to change your musical journey depending on where you’re playing and with whom you’re playing.”
Sport has also become increasingly important for her — she asks that as far as possible, the hotel she stays in for international gigs has a gym, so that she can do some simple exercises. She also plays tennis whenever she can, and her most recent discovery is cycling — hence her joining DJ Mag in the the charity Bridges For Music cycle ride earlier in the week during IMS. “I had so much fun, I did my personal record — 110 kilometres,” she beams. “It was a huge challenge.”
Even though she may be a new name to some, Miss Monique has been DJing since 2011, and has amassed a huge community of followers over the years. “I want to say a huge thanks to my listeners,” she says. “I think I’m very lucky to have them. They’re very kind and supportive, and even if I have troubles or mistakes they give me support — so I want to say a huge thanks to them.”
She talks about how positive messages from supporters have inspired her over the years, and that her Lisbon apartment walls are covered in presents given to her by well-wishers. “I never put them in the trash or leave them somewhere, I always take these huge packages with me. Bracelets, incredibly unique dolls, and besides all this they’ve done lots of tattoos, which for me is a crazy thing… When I see that they did this, I’m completely shocked — in a good way.”
Some make home-made MiMo flags, too. “I’m very appreciative, I know how much time goes into these things.” Miss Monique clearly has a deep connection with her audience, many of whom have also styled their hair in the same trademark green hue she’s been dying it for 13 years. She mostly gets it refreshed professionally, she says, although “if I’m on a one-month tour then of course I can do it myself, if it needs to be”.
The night after our interview she plays the opening of [UNVRS] alongside Carl Cox and Black Coffee amongst others. Effortlessly morphing her sound down different passages of melodic techno as she warms up the cavernous main room, it’s clear to all in attendance that Miss Monique is a refreshing, hyper-positive talent.
Miss Monique headlines the Club Room at Hï Ibiza every Thursday until 24th September.
