Jacinda Ardern: How NZ Prime Minister used to be a music DJ

The Prime Minister of New Zealand is doing an incredible job leading her country — but she nearly had a very different career.

She’s arguably the most highly regarded politician in the world right now.

But before Jacinda Ardern was leading New Zealand through the worst tragedy they’ve faced in recent times it seems she was headed down a very different path.

Old photos of the mum-of-one have emerged, showing her performing at a festival — mixing up tracks for the Kiwi crowd as a fully-fledged DJ.

In the epic snaps, Ms Ardern can be seen egging on the crowd as she spins away on a professional mixer.

Photos of Jacinda Ardern DJing at an Auckland festival in 2014 have emerged, showing she nearly went down a different path than her successful political one. Picture: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

Clearly enjoying her earlier past time mixing tracks for the crowd. Picture: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

But it wasn’t the first time she stepped aside from her duties in the Labour Party to try her hand at mixing music. Picture: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

Ms Ardern is currently the leader of New Zealand and has been navigating the country through the worst mass shooting in its history. Picture: Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images

It sounds rather unbelievable as it’s such a different direction from the role we know her in today.

But if you scroll back far enough — and we mean way back to April 2013 — there’s further evidence of her love of music.

In one post, Ms Ardern sports a retro red singlet as she spins some tunes at a record store event.

“There’s still time to come join record store day festivities at Real Groovy! Thankfully, you’ll miss my attempt at being a DJ,” she wrote.

While Ms Ardern didn’t rate her performance, someone else did — taking to Twitter to reveal her blend of a Beatles number into Toy Love (a NZ punk rock band) was “excellent”.

She returned to play at the same event a year later, looking much for comfortable behind the decks second time around.

During this spin, she revealed she had her “first ever request” — appearing to be delighted about the accomplishment.

While she never grew out of her amateur status, she became confident enough to play at a friend’s wedding, local NZ music website Spin Off once reported.

They also stated she performed at the University of Auckland where she “came offstage during her set to have a dance with the crowd”.

If you’re still in doubt, there’s even a full playlist on Spotify from her Laneway Festival set in 2014 and it features some pretty catchy tracks.

These included classics such as the Spice Girl’s Wannabe, The Beatles Come Together and No Scrubs by TLC.

Spotify has the whole track list from Jacinda's set at Laneway.

The festival’s former co-promoter Ben Howe revealed she had always attended the festival as a fan and when he suggested she should “come and DJ” she jumped at the opportunity.

Since her stint on stage, Ms Ardern has gone on to achieve huge success in her political career.

She’s widely credited with changing the country’s view of the Labour Party, leading them to win the election in October 2017 and becoming the world’s youngest female leader at 37.

In January 2018 she announced she was expecting her first baby with Clarke Gayford, her partner of four years.

She took six weeks of maternity leave after welcoming baby Neve — a decision that again won her heaps of praise — then returned to office, while her partner became a stay-at-home dad.

Ms Ardern took six weeks maternity leave before partner Clarke Gayford became a stay-at-home dad to their baby girl Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, born on June 24, 2018 in Auckland. Picture: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

But just last week she faced her biggest challenge yet when a gunman killed 50 people in attacks on two Christchurch mosques.

However she has proven her incredible strength in such a difficult time, with countries around the world applauding her for the way she’s handled the atrocious event — including refusing to acknowledge the killer by name, displaying incredible empathy and banning all military-style weapons, all semiautomatic weapons and all devices that allow a firearm to generate semiautomatic, automatic or close to automatic gunfire with immediate effect.

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