At the age of 13, Lucy Monkman, more commonly known by her DJ name, Monki, was playing football at Chelsea FC’s academy. Her mum had been inundated with offers of signings from youth teams. Yet, Monkman was told to give it all up.
“I was told it wasn’t a career. Because women just don’t play football,” she says. “It didn’t exist as a job back then, I suppose.”
Now 27, Monkman has gone on to explore a totally different career path. Aged 17, she left her economics and law course at college to pursue internships in radio. Aged 18, she was working at Rinse FM, and was eventually given her own show. Aged 21, she was poached by Radio 1, where she hosted a show for six years.
Since then, she has joined Atlantic Records (home to Stormzy and Ed Sheeran) as an A&R consultant, and also DJs around the world. “My naivety worked in my favour when it came to leaving college. I didn’t have any qualifications so I had no choice but to succeed,” Monkman says.
Now a musical tastemaker for her listeners, in the way that Annie Mac was to her as a teenager growing up in London and glued to her radio, Monkman says: “Collecting music and playing it to people is a weird job, but it has a huge impact on people.”
Football has returned to Monkman’s life over the years. Aged 20, she started playing again, and now plays for the Dulwich Hamlet women’s team every Sunday, and trains twice a week. “It’s a complete contrast to the DJ world, and it’s a good way to clear my head.”
Monkman’s coach is “always telling me to look after my feet”. So she does. “It’s so important to have comfortable shoes on when you’re DJing, because you can sometimes be playing five-hour sets,” Monkman says. “I first wore Clarks to kick a football around in the playground at school, before I even joined a team. Now I wear Clarks boots to DJ in. They’re good for any gig – especially festivals,” she says. As a DJ, Monkman says she’s noticed that she is looked to as a style influencer, something that still hasn’t really sunk in. “Comfort is the main criteria for me,” she says. “It’s usually a baggy T-shirt, or a football shirt, and either baggy trousers or jeans. I think that what I wear has also become part of my brand too. I’ve never changed how I dress and luckily I’ve never felt pressured to dress other than the way I already do.”
Earlier this summer, Monkman travelled to France for the Women’s World Cup to make a daily podcast about the tournament. “It was the first time I’d been to a World Cup. It was a wicked experience. It was a completely different atmosphere to going to a men’s game. It was a real celebration,” she says.
“Women’s football has come so far, even in the past year. You only have to click on the comments section of any post about women’s football to see how it still isn’t fully accepted, but it has definitely come a long way since I was a teenager.”
Monkman’s footballing hero was Arsenal’s Thierry Henry (she even named her rabbit after him). Now, she is thrilled that young football fans will have both male and female football stars to idolise. “Megan Rapinoe got some stick after the World Cup, but she is just amazing,” says Monkman.
“There’s a player called Keira Walsh, and the World Cup was her first major tournament. She plays for Manchester City — she is definitely one to watch to become a future veteran of the England squad. It’s a totally different era now, where the women’s team are getting more attention and respect. It’s so exciting to watch and I’m so glad that young girls will realise it can be a job one day.”
Quickfire
Read: Stephen Hawking’s Brief Answers to the Big Questions. It’s mind-blowing – I almost have to read everything in it twice.
Download: Annie Mac’s Finding Annie podcast, all about her memories – everything from childbirth to DJing and special loves.
Stream: Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive series. To me, Formula One was just a load of rich dudes, but the politics behind it is fascinating.
Listen to: DART, a young lad from Ireland, out on my label soon. He had an amazing set on Boiler Room recently.
Watch: The Great Hack blew my mind. It definitely made me want to delete my Facebook …
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