"Breaking Barriers: How Mado is Shaping the Future of EDM"

By Kayla Bowie

At last year’s Mempho Music Fest, local DJ Mado took the stage with confidence

while fans, pumped up for her set, applauded.

As fire poured out of a dome above the audiences’ heads, Mado played upbeat dubstep with heavy beat drops that got the crowd dancing.

She will never forget how she owned the stage at her first music fest performance, an event she recounts with pride.

“It's so badass to play at a nationally recognized festival in your hometown,” said Madeleine. “It's the next best thing next to BSMF.”

Mado was also surprised to play, since the Memphis Music Fest isn't traditionally an electric dance music festival. “I was honored,” she recalled.

With only a few years of DJing under her belt, Mado’s career has taken off. She is part of an international embrace of electronic dance music that is making way for more artists to experiment and showcase their talent for making and mixing free-form soundtracks.

Madeleine is from Memphis and is a U of M alum, with a Bachelor’s in Psychology and French. “Completely different from music,” she laughed.

When local Memphian Madeleine Holdford was introduced to the electronic dance music (EDM) scene by her sister, she decided she wanted in on the action a year later in 2019, when she began teaching herself how to Dj.

Madeleine explained her reason for wanting to Dj was so that she could offer her own take on dance music, because while she loved the music other artists played, she thought something was missing and took it upon herself to fill those gaps.

Davis Thomas, one of Mado’s biggest fans said that she has an acute understanding of the energy exchange between herself as the Dj and her crowd. “I feel like when she’s up on stage, she’s blasting out her heart chakra to each listener.”

Madeleine eventually became known as Mado and has since played a number of shows and has already performed at two music festivals, with her third festival coming up in just a few weeks, The Awakening 2022.

Mado explained some of her challenges getting started were that there were no solid steps to follow so she had to earn her respect in the industry by putting her music out there and into the right hands (or ears) and hoping for the best.

“I practiced recording mixes at home almost daily, so whenever I felt like it was good, I sent to a couple of guys in the community. I was so excited and proud, but then it was just crickets,” she said.

Mado explained that if one of the main guys in the Memphis community had not asked her to play her first show months after, she knows she would have wedged herself in there somehow, but it would have taken longer.

In addition to her growing career as a female DJ, Madeleine has also worked with Memphis radio station, WYXR since it began October 2020. She has her own show Thursday nights at 11 p.m. where she showcases new mixes called “The Mado Experience.”

The artist and the programming manager go way back to their high school days so when he asked if she would like her own show she said, “Of course, I agreed, and so I've been with WYXR for a year and a half now.”

Exciting things are in the works for her future as a DJ. Mado says her life goal is to headline a world tour!