![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WEB-Athenz-FIFA-26-2.jpg\")
DJ Athenz at Houston Stadium during FIFA World Cup 2026. Photo courtesy AthenzMedia.com.<\/p>\n DJ Athenz at Houston Stadium during FIFA World Cup 2026. Photo courtesy AthenzMedia.com.<\/p>\n
DJ Athenz is familiar to Houston crowds. She was the OutSmart Gayest & Greatest Readers\u2019 Choice Award Favorite Female DJ winner in 2021 and took home Favorite Music Producer honors in 2025.\u00a0 Working as a DJ for more than 15 years, she\u2019s worked for large stadium audiences, but her current audience, the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Houston, might be the largest she\u2019s ever worked. She\u2019s the official DJ for the Michelob Ultra Activation Zone for seven 2026 FIFA World Cup matches at the newly branded Houston Stadium.<\/p>\n
OutSmart: First of all, congratulations. Oh my god, what a gig! You must have been so excited when you got this news.
DJ Athenz: Yeah, it almost felt like it just wasn\u2019t real. I was like, I can\u2019t believe this is happening. It still doesn\u2019t feel real. Even when I\u2019m in it, it doesn\u2019t feel real.<\/p>\n
What has it been like so far?
So far, I\u2019ve done two games. And so two down and five more to go. It has been an incredible experience. I\u2019ve done a lot of cool things in my career, but for something that\u2019s on the level of the FIFA World Cup, it\u2019s just completely out of this world.<\/p>\n
So for this, for the first game, it was about 68,000 people. You know, I\u2019m not quite sure if I would honestly say that\u2019s the most people I ever played for. I did two seasons with the [NFL\u2019s] Houston Texans, and I was the official DJ wired into the stadium, controlling every sound. Then I did the same with USA soccer, with the USA National Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s soccer teams.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m working with the biggest sponsor, Michelob Ultra, in partnership with FIFA. And so it\u2019s basically just one big party where I\u2019m playing, as the gates open, so three hours before kickoff, and then I\u2019m playing post-game.<\/p>\n
I mean, as soon as the gate opened, you could feel the excitement of the people. Everyone\u2019s just rushing in. They\u2019re excited. They want to grab a drink. The music\u2019s going, and we\u2019re getting the party started, building the vibe.<\/p>\n
Post-game, everyone\u2019s already just hyped up off the energy of the game. They come, and they just want to celebrate.<\/p>\n
Tell me how you programmed your setlist. I can guess that you\u2019re going to do some music from the countries playing that day.
Definitely. For every game, a few days before, I\u2019m doing my research \u2014 what are the hottest artists from that country that I can incorporate into my set? And I want to make sure it fits my style. So I\u2019m looking for the most upbeat, maybe top 40 or house music artists from that country that I can curate into my set. It\u2019s been an experience because I\u2019m learning so much about all these different countries.<\/p>\n
How exhausted are you?
Well, on game days, there\u2019s just so much of a rush, the exhilaration is so high that I don\u2019t even know what\u2019s going on. Everything moves so quickly. I mean, the energy, the people, and yeah, it\u2019s just, it\u2019s very fast-paced. And I have to say, there\u2019s nothing like soccer fans. There is nothing like soccer fans.<\/p>\n
After the game, I\u2019m still running off the high, and I can\u2019t believe this is happening. And then once I have that come down, holy crap. Then that\u2019s when it\u2019s like, okay, I\u2019m tired.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WEB-Athenz-FIFA-26.jpg\")
DJ Athenz outside Houston Stadium for FIFA World Cup 2026. Photo courtesy AthenzMedia.com.<\/p>\n
People are coming from literally all over the world. You have to see that in the crowd.
I think that the most beautiful part is that Houston is already a melting pot of culture. We already have so many different cultures here. And so it\u2019s like the World Cup is just magnifying that.<\/p>\n
My favorite part so far has really just been connecting with and meeting all of these people who are traveling all over the world because of their love of the sport and their country. It\u2019s just so beautiful to me that all these different cultures can come together. And whether their team wins or loses, the vibes are just so high \u2014 everyone\u2019s happy no matter the result. It\u2019s just one big party, and that\u2019s what it feels like: a big celebration.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next for you?
So the next game is this Saturday. It is the Netherlands versus Sweden, and that\u2019s going to be a big one in the city because of all the Dutch. They\u2019re all coming in here. They\u2019re coming to Texas, nice and strong. It\u2019s gonna be a lot of fun.<\/p>\n
Also, aside from being on-site for all the live games in Houston, I will be at the watch parties at Levy Park. They\u2019re having a big watch party for literally every game, so I\u2019m gonna be playing at Levy Park all the way through July 19th \u2014 the whole experience.<\/p>\n
For more info, visit Houston FIFA<\/a> or AthenzMedia.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DJ Athenz at Houston Stadium during FIFA World Cup 2026. Photo courtesy AthenzMedia.com. DJ Athenz is familiar to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-343786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}