[Japan Visit Coming Soon] Amelie Lens Plays Osaka's ALZAR on Friday, March 22 & Tokyo's Contact Tokyo on Saturday, March 23

Often called the “Queen of Techno”, one of the world's most popular female DJs, Amelie Lens, is very close to arriving in Japan.

So this time I will ask who is Amelie Lens? and write down the various things I know about her.

Biography

She was born in Vilvoorde, Belgium, on May 31, 1990, making her 28 now. Richie Hawtin wished her a happy birthday during her DJ set in 2018, which moved her deeply, apparently.

According to her, she is 180 cm tall.

I briefly passed her at ADE, and her legs were very long, haha.

Her childhood idols included Jeff Mills and Derrick May. She was probably devoted entirely to techno.

As a teenager, she also apparently went alone to Ellen Allien's gigs. You can certainly feel the influence in her stage presence.

Wikipedia lists her active years as 2014–present, but that probably refers to her professional career. If I remember correctly from Instagram, she was already active as a student.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amelie Lens (@amelie_lens) – July 23, 2018 at 3:13 p.m. PDT

*Incidentally, the female DJ on the right is apparently not fellow popular Belgian female techno DJ Charlotte de Witte, haha.

Her favorite animals are cats—she has three, frequently seen on social media—and her favorite foods are pizza and potatoes.

There are plenty of cat lovers, techno DJs, and female DJs in the world, but the position of cat-loving female techno DJ must surely belong to Amelie, haha.

She apparently lost her mother in childhood and was raised by her grandmother. Perhaps for that reason, she has invited her grandmother and father into the booth or backstage at major festivals.

View this post on Instagram

I was raised by my grandmother and it was important for us both that she understands what I do, so I took her with me to @pukkelpop festival a few years ago. When I arranged for her to be driven directly to the stage (because she is 80), they asked if they could film this moment, at first I hesitated but now I am so happy this beautiful moment was captured ❤️ Really excited to be back at Pukkelpop this year!!

A post shared by Amelie Lens (@amelie_lens) – March 18, 2019 at 4:48 a.m. PDT

DJ and Producer Skills

Unfortunately, female DJs' skills are often questioned, and some really do have no skills and outsource their tracks entirely to ghostwriters. However, Amelie is completely different.

Lost in a sonic bubble on the dance floor listening2 @AmelieLens Best hypnotic intense set I’ve heard in years. #Techno has a bright future

— Richie Hawtin (@richiehawtin) October 19, 2017

These words from a “living encyclopedia of techno” tell us about her ability and potential.

Apparently she has been playing instruments since childhood, and vinyl DJ sets from her home are uploaded to YouTube. Personally, I think female DJs who can play vinyl are the real thing.

It is also impressive that she can handle all-night-long sets, from opening to closing. Her tracks are not particularly to my taste, but many are well made.

Part of the Drumcode and Second State Families, and Owner of LENSKE

Amelie is part of Adam Beyer's Drumcode and Pan-Pot's Second State. Recently, she remixed Adam Beyer's Teach Me.

By the way, Amelie seems like the type who fully demonstrates her abilities in a male-dominated world without holding back for others.

In fact, although Adam's wife Ida Engberg is there, Drumcode and Second State both feel quite male-dominated, and the artists releasing on her own label LENSKE are all men too.

Perhaps female techno DJs worldwide are generally like that, but Amelie's gaze, expressions, and physique make me feel it especially strongly.

This is quite a tangent, but personally I do not like events billed as “Girls Techno DJ”, haha.

That is because techno has an unmistakably masculine feel, and it has a clean, meritocratic atmosphere: women break into it, and the men don't look at them as "women." Conversely, in other genres, content is often affected by that lens of being female, haha.

Besides Amelie, Nicole Moudaber is a perfect example.

That is why “Girls Techno DJ” events feel like extensions of girls' gatherings to me. International female techno DJs rarely group together with other female techno DJs to do something in the first place.

That ends the digression.

Her Long-Awaited First Japan Visit Includes Two Shows, in Tokyo and Osaka

So Amelie's arrival in Japan is imminent. What is more, there are two shows in total, in Tokyo and Osaka.

If you can make both, you will not regret it.
The dance floors are sure to be packed, so buying tickets in advance seems wise.

I live abroad in Southeast Asia, and apparently only Japan and Korea are included in the Asian tour this time, so I will be sitting it out… Someone please write a report afterward, haha.

I look forward to seeing her in action again in the near future at somewhere like Awakenings or Loveland in Europe.