Her viral TikTok mash-ups paved her way into the DJ industry at 24
TL;DR: DJ and content creator Kiara picked up the deck just two years ago as a fresh business graduate, and it led her onto a different career path. As a female in a male-dominated industry, the young DJ, who is known for creating song mash-ups on TikTok, worked her way to where she is today.
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Ashley Kiara, also known as DJ Kiara, earned her first performance at the Cherry Discotheque at Keck Seng Tower after an audition.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF ASHLEY KIARA
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Ashley Kiara picked up the DJ deck over two years ago, and little did she know it would lead to her dream job.
More commonly known as DJ Kiara, the 24-year-old business finance graduate is now a full-time DJ and music content creator with more than 386,000 followers on TikTok.
It all started when she joined Stereometa, the Singapore Management University’s DJ co-curricular activity (CCA) during her third year in 2022, as a way to make new friends.
After attending training sessions weekly for about six months, Kiara placed third, out of about 30 participants, in a competition held within the CCA. She realised she had talent as well as interest in DJing, and it pushed her to keep going and improving with practice, she said.
Musically inclined, Kiara completed all piano grades by 12 and always wanted to pursue music as a full-time career.
“I used to frequent music festivals when I was 18 and also admired DJs like Zedd, Avicii and Martin Garrix,” she said. “I wanted to be like them and when I started DJing, I understood why they’re so happy doing what they do – I felt the same way.”
She earned her first performance at the Cherry Discotheque at Keck Seng Tower following an audition for the spot six months after she joined the CCA. It was “a surreal experience” seeing people rave to the iconic 2010s pop music she played such as Party Rock Anthem and I Love It.
For the two weeks leading up to the event, Kiara stayed up till 2am rehearsing at home, for at least six hours every day, she said.
Musically inclined, Kiara completed all piano grades by 12 and always wanted to pursue music as a full-time career.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF ASHLEY KIARA
Apart from gigs at local clubs, Kiara also frequently posts short-form videos of trendy song mash-ups in her bedroom – reaching thousands, sometimes millions, of viewers at a time.
She started creating online content in December 2022, when she was on an undergraduate exchange programme in France. Finding she had little to do during the long winter nights, she bought a cheap DJ set and created her first mash-up featuring the songs I Could Be The One by Avicii and Alive by Krewella. It garnered more than 100,000 views on TikTok, boosting her followers from 8,000 to 15,000 overnight.
One sour note has been the gender-biased comments she got as a female DJ when she first started.
“One comment said: You’re ‘cooking’ – which is slang for doing well. Another comment read: Go back to the kitchen,” she said.
Now, she plays about two shows monthly while creating online DJ content every other day. She has played at clubs in Myanmar, Indonesia and the Philippines. She specialises in the big room house genre: grand music, usually played in bigger clubs. “I need a big sound to make up for my short height behind the DJ booth,” she said.
She will also be releasing her first single later in 2025 in the same genre.
