Culture That Made Me: In advance of her Cork gig, DJ Jazzy picks her touchstones
Jazzy, aka Yasmine Byrne, is one of the artists playing at the Heineken Greenlight weekender in Cork.
DJ Jazzy, aka Yasmine Byrne, 29, grew up in Crumlin, Dublin. In 2023, she became the first Irish female artist to top the Irish single charts in 14 years with her debut solo track . Last year, she was the most streamed female DJ/vocalist globally, having completed an eight-date Pacha Ibiza residency, as well as performing at festivals such as Glastonbury and Tomorrowland. She is a headline act at Cork’s Heineken Greenlight June bank holiday weekender, Saturday, May 30, Rearden's Bar (upstairs). For details of other events through the weekend, see: heinekengreenlight.ie
Growing up, I listened to a lot of Rihanna. One of my favourite albums from her was . I still listen to that on rotation today. All her albums are great. She's an icon. I definitely resonated with her soulful voice. I feel like I have a little bit of Rihanna-esque in me. Sometimes people say that to me.
When I started getting into dance music, I was listening to a lot of tech house. I was big on Richy Ahmed. I remember going to see him when I was about 18. There used to be a club called Hangar. It was on there. That was a great place. It was in Andrew's Lane in Dublin. It's a hotel car park now. He's an absolute legend. I still play out his tunes today. Bless him, he had a broken leg, and he still showed up for the gig. He hobbled in. He was behind the decks with a cast on his leg. He still put on a great show.
There's a DJ duo from France called Amine Edge & DANCE that I went to see a few times. They were great. I loved all their tunes at that time. The sound then was called G-House. A lot of the DJs that were being booked at that stage in nightclubs were part of the G-House era. I was a big fan of G-House. I remember going to see them on my 18th birthday. It was a good one.
A classic is always good to play as well to bring a crowd back up. by Livin’ Joy is one I do have in the locker. It’s a high-energy, soulful vocals, ’90s track. I do drop that sometimes. I might play one of my own sometimes if I want to bring the crowd up and it's like a home crowd. I'll say one of the classics like That always goes down well.
My first time in Cork was playing a gig. All my sessions there have been brilliant — any time I played in Cork, the atmosphere is always amazing. I did a pop-up recently with Belters Only in Cork. It was a surprise thing. We had a back-to-back session. It was great, really fun.
I also played in Musgrave Park in Cork. I supported Becky Hill there in 2024. That was a great one. Musgrave Park is such a cool venue. I was on early enough as well. The crowd was great — they were so rowdy. That's what you want!
I absolutely love Mulan, the Disney film. It's basically about a girl Hua Mulan. She dresses up as a boy and leaves her family to join the Chinese Army. It's a great story. The music in it is great. It's one from my childhood. I've watched it since then, so I always go back to it.
I like , the American version. I like the dry humour. It doesn't have a laugh track; you just have to listen in on it. It's silly. I’m a bit silly sometimes myself, so that's probably why I find it funny! There's a bit where the main character is proposing to his partner. He gets everyone in the office to help out. It’s a lovely moment. I always shed a tear.
Most recently, the most impressive DJ set I've seen was a back-to-back set by Prospa and Josh Baker at Coachella. They were absolutely brilliant. They only played for an hour and a half, but I would have listened to them all night — they were great.
I like nature documentaries, any ones about the sea or animals. I really like David Attenborough’s ones. I have a good interest in animals. I’m vegetarian myself. I like learning about animals and the sea is crazy, just the amount of things that we don't know. I love learning about the unknown.
I love streetwear. I love sportswear. That's my thing. I like oversized outfits, sometimes jerseys, anything like that. An Irish designer I love is Rashhiid. She does amazing fur hats and fur clothing. She started out doing hats. She's progressed now into clothing as well. I've worn a couple of things from her before. Her stuff is unique. She has her own thing going on. She's killing it now.
I like true crime documentaries. They're definitely interesting to me. There was one called . It was so good, just the shock element of it. I'd never seen anything like that. It was so specific. It was about a Facebook chat group — where people were trying to figure out what was going on with a guy who posted a video online torturing and killing cats. That was a great one. I watched it twice.
There was a local theatre group that I used to be in. I got to be the fiddler in . It was about 10 years ago. I grew up playing the violin as well. I really enjoyed that because I got to play the fiddle in the actual show. I remember being up very high on a box because I was the fiddler on the roof!
