Words and Interview by Alexander Cheves
Eva Selezneva, born in Ukraine but living in Berlin, isn’t a famous, public-facing nightlife celebrity, but her role in the industry is key to making it run. Every DJ you love has someone like her.
Eva is 23, but carries herself as someone older—I would have guessed 27 or 28. She’s a booking agent with a growing roster of artists, most of them based in Berlin, including CRYME, DJ AYA, Bae Blade, Perra Inmunda, Salome, ALCATRAZ, UFO95, and Vera Grace.
She is also a DJ herself, playing under her own name, with a house-rooted, multi-genre sound.
When we meet, Eva walks into the room and instantly diffuses the tension with jokes—she’s a fast talker, present and gracious. She sits, looks at me, and says, “I have ADHD, so I get bored if I’m doing the same thing all the time.”
For this reason, the chaotic world of nightlife—and the stressful job of artist booking, which needs meticulous organisation skills—suits her.
“Everything is constantly shifting in this business.”
Her compass, in work and life, is an adage from her father, who also works in the music industry.
“If it’s not groovy, don’t do it,” her dad told her once. “Now that’s my motto.”
Tell us for readers who don’t know: What do bookers do?
She’s happy to explain—and instantly goes into professional mode, speaking plainly and patiently. “So, when you’re working with artists, the two main categories are booking and management.”
Booking covers everything related to shows—what gigs an artist takes, which venues or festivals they play, negotiating their fees, and deciding which opportunities they should pursue or avoid. “It’s strategy-focused,” she says.
This is different from management. A manager, not a booker, focuses on the artist’s public presence—their social media, PR, and branding.
“My job is booking,” she says. “I help artists with strategy, field requests, negotiate fees, and advise them on what makes sense to do or not do,” she says. “I also do some advancing, which means handling logistics with venues.”
Eva Selezneva works at Reprise Talent Agency in Berlin. “We handle contracts, travel, and other administrative tasks, but not every agency does that.”
“Right now, my main responsibility is making sure my artists have the right shows on their calendars, and that their calendars stay full!”
Some Berlin-based artists avoid playing too much locally as a strategy. Can you explain that?
Eva nods—this is her area of expertise.
“As artists grow, exclusivity gets more important, especially in their hometowns and major markets. We have big artists who play only one or two shows a year in Berlin, just to keep it special.”
She adds:
Even for mid-level or smaller artists, you have to be strategic. If you’re playing in Berlin every weekend, it lowers the perceived value of your set. Promoters see you as someone who won’t bring a unique crowd, because people already saw you last weekend.
So it’s not just about playing good clubs—it’s about when and where an artist plays.
How did you start working in nightlife?
Her journey was long and fraught, but she believes it started with her family, who instilled in her a passion for music.
Eva is originally from Ukraine. “I left on March 13th, 2022, a few weeks after the war started. So I’ve been here for about three and a half years.”
Many things changed when she moved to Berlin—even her name.
“It’s originally Yeva,” she says. “In Ukrainian, the letter ‘Y’ makes the ‘yeh’ sound.” She tells me that, in Berlin, most people call her Eva, but back home in Kyiv, it’s still Yeva.
What is the Eva Selezneva DJ sound?
COVID made her a DJ. When she was stuck at home, her father bought her a Pioneer controller. Later, she played house and disco sets at parties in Kyiv, then absorbed darker sounds in Berlin, like EBM (Electronic Body Music) and “darker electronic stuff.”
But Eva Selezneva doesn’t want to speak too specifically about her sound.
“I’m multi-genre. The best DJs can play across different styles, but it still feels like them. That’s what I try to do—create a vibe that’s true to my taste.”
Today, her sets move between house, hard house, electro, and Italo. She also writes and sings.
“Right now, my focus is on electronic music. But I’ve always loved singing, using my voice and writing lyrics. A few years ago, when I started working in nightclubs in Ukraine, I sold songs as a songwriter.”
You come from a music family. Tell me more!
“My parents are both musicians,” Eva Selezneva says. “They studied music at university. My dad specialised in drums and my mom trained as a choirmaster. I was born while they were finishing their studies.”
Her mother also sings and plays the piano, and her 15-year-old sister, Esenia Seleznova, is a professional ballerina who also does voiceover work for movies and cartoons—most recently for the Ukrainian versions of the Netflix show Wednesday and Avatar: The Way of Water.
Throughout our conversation, Eva beams when talking about her dad.
Her father is the drummer for the pop-folk band Verka Serduchka.
“Verka Serduchka” is a fictitious character created by Ukrainian singer Andrij Danylko in 1991, who performs in drag. Their performance at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007, which was awarded 2nd place, made Verka Serduchka internationally famous.
My dad is probably the best drummer in Ukraine.
I look them up: They are playing in Berlin for the first time on October 28th 2025, at the Uber Eats Music Hall.
In Kyiv, Eva’s father built a music career—he worked in orchestras for TV productions like The Voice and Dancing With the Stars in Ukraine. Today, he teaches music at a university there.
Eva Selezneva says her bond with her dad goes deep, far beyond music.
My dad is my everything. He’s my twin flame. My bestie. Touring with him is so much fun. We’ve done trips around Europe and always have a blast.
What does your folk-rock father think about house and techno?
He’s very supportive of her music, she says. Recently, he watched her DJ for the first time.
“He’s so cool with it! I was in Lviv for the weekend, and I got a last-minute request to play at a festival. So I asked my dad if he wanted to see me play. He had never seen one of my sets before. We went to the club together, and after my set, we just hung out in the club with my friends for a few hours.”
She says her father understands her work because he lives a version of it.
“He gets the structure of touring, performing, negotiating—he knows how it works. That makes it easier for me to vent about work. He understands the behind-the-scenes stuff.”
Since your father is also in the music industry, have you ever talked about drugs?
She smiles. “When I became a teenager, this topic was brought up, and we discussed it a lot. My dad warned me about substances and always asked me to take care of myself, as he saw a lot of it in his touring life.”
Once I started working in electronic music, my parents were even more worried about drugs, but after some chats, we were good. They trust me, and I know I can talk openly about it with them.
When homesickness hits—and it often does—Eva Selezneva misses family more than anything else.
What was it like when the war started?
She remembers waking up to explosions in late February of 2022.
“There’s this weird moment when even your parents, who usually know what to do, are just frozen. That’s when you realise no one knows what to do.”
Her family left for a village outside the city. “I had 30 minutes to pack my life into a small bag.”
Two weeks later, she decided to move to Berlin. “I didn’t want to sit at home spending my parents’ money. I wanted to support them and support myself.”
Berlin made sense—she had worked with artists who were already based in Berlin, and she had friends in the city who could help.
In Berlin, she landed bar shifts at Suicide Circus—now called Lokschuppen—and worked on the awareness team at Tresor. The city’s large Ukrainian community helped her find footing. “I was 20,” she says. “A baby.”
She says that “there’s a big sense of community here” among Ukrainians—and lots of support from all Berliners. She notes that the annual demonstrations on February 24, marking the day Russia invaded Ukraine, draws a large, local Ukrainian crowd and many non-Ukrainians throwing in support. “Thousands show up.”
What do you miss most from Ukraine?
Food, she says—but thanfkully there is lots of good Ukrainian food in Berlin.
“My current favourite is a new, all-female, Ukrainian-owned bakery on Proskauer Straße.” It’s called Bake and Take. “It’s so good.”
She also loves Café Pirouette on Torstraße: “They make amazing pierogies and borscht.”
Do you ever visit home?
Yes—as often as she can.
Every time I visit Kyiv, there’s some kind of danger. This last trip, I spent a night in a bomb shelter. Most of the time, air raid alerts are during the day. But, there were months where bombing happened daily. And my family—they’re all still there.
The fear never disappears, but she has learned to live with it. “Eventually, you kind of get used to it, which is a strange thing to say.”
If you don’t find a way to manage that constant fear and worry, it can drive you crazy. You have to live your life and find joy, or you’ll drown in it.
For Eva Selezneva, joy is political.
In my experience, the people going to the clubs are the same people working, donating, organising, fundraising, and protesting, and this joy gives them energy, helps them recharge, so they can keep helping.
She adds: “Some people judge Ukrainian clubs or organisers for still throwing events in wartime. But I believe it benefits people. Nightlife gives people work and helps keep businesses and the Ukrainian economy running during the war. And it’s important to have some time for your life, to breathe. Our soldiers on the front line don’t get that break, and I understand why some people are unhappy about such events still going on.”
How did you start as a booker?
Her path began in Kyiv. She worked as a restaurant hostess when she got her big break.
“A friend of mine had a job doing artist care at CLOSER, a well-known Ukrainian club, and I really wanted to do something similar. Coincidentally, someone at the restaurant I worked in was opening a new venue in Kyiv. He heard I wanted that kind of job and offered me the role of night manager and artist host.”
That meant looking after artists—like Mall Grab, Pablo Bozzi, and Partyboi69.
“It was a crash course in the backstage side of nightlife.”
When Russia invaded, nightlife in Kyiv shut down. Suddenly, there were no events, no artists to host. I lost my job.
After working in nightlife, first in Kyiv and then in Berlin, a friend connected her to Live From Earth, the Berlin-based artist collective.
Live from Earth were looking for a head booker for their festival. And somehow, they just hired me—a 19-year-old little baby! I was super lucky.
She began curating the festival lineup, worked on stage management, and supported artists.
Eva Selezneva recalls a memory from the first festival she worked: The DJ duo Red Axes closed the last stage, then, “Everyone from the crew was just hanging out, and the whole team started clapping when they saw me. I teared up. Until then, I’d never felt appreciated for my work.”
When Live From Earth’s main booker left, Eva stepped into the role.
“Eventually, we brought the whole Live From Earth roster into Reprise, and I came with them. Back then, there were only two people working at the agency, and I was the third.”
What does Eva Selezneva look for in an artist?
In a word: authenticity.
When an artist’s music and their online presence are really in sync—when what they play and how they present themselves match—that’s huge. When it feels authentic and harmonious, that’s the sign.
Are you optimistic about nightlife in Berlin?
“Yes, and no. Lately—especially since I started—there’s been a real shift. There’s more awareness around FLINTA* representation. More queer visibility. More conversations around harassment and safety. There’s a lot that still needs to change, but I do see things progressing.”
Still, working behind the curtain comes with trade-offs.
When you work behind the scenes in nightlife, you lose some magic. You see how everything works. The mystery fades a bit. But at the same time, I kind of love knowing all the backstage stuff too.
Overall, she stays (mostly) optimistic.
Nightlife is about making people happy. That’s why I love it. Being able to express yourself, release energy and connect with others—it’s so important.
Can you tell me about Sirenes, your FLINTA* collective?
Sirenes is a FLINTA* collective and event series she started with her friend Miura from Ukraine.
“After the war started, we both moved to Berlin. In Kyiv, she had the idea to start a FLINTA* focused collective. The war put the project on pause, but then we decided to do it in Berlin. Miura organised our first radio showcase, and from there, we started booking shows together.”
So far, they’ve hosted events with acts like Ferrari Rot, Rosa Red, and other FLINTA* artists from Ukraine, Georgia, and beyond.
Tokenism, she says, still shapes club lineups.
Even on bigger lineups, there’s often just one woman, and they’re not booking her because they value her as an artist, but just to tick a box.
How did you fall in love with music?
In a spark of synchronicity, Eva traces her club life back to Berlin. “When I was 17, I came to Berlin and went to my first club, KitKat. It was amazing. I knew I wanted to be in that world.”
Her heart, though, is rock music. “The angrier the music, the happier it makes me,” she says. Her early rock loves were Green Day, Bring Me the Horizon, and Slipknot.
“I’m a total rockhead.”
What advice would Eva Selezneva give an artist looking for a booker?
“For me, the most important thing is when an artist already has something going on—some kind of base in the scene. Maybe they don’t have a booker yet, but they’re already getting cool gigs and showing potential.”
Her advice is straightforward.
“Look at artists you admire, artists in your own circle who already have agents. Try to find agencies that match your style and energy. But more importantly, you have to know what you want. Only you can define your goals and direction, because no one else will do that for you. A booking agent can amplify your vision, but they won’t invent it for you.”
As our talk ends, I ask if we can go back to Ukraine—because, as an outsider, watching this conflict and rooting for the people of Ukraine, I sometimes feel helpless. I ask:
How can we support Ukraine?
“Share information,” she says. “Post. Repost. If you see news of heavy bombing or civilian casualties, share it. It might seem small, but raising awareness helps. People need to see it’s not over. Ukrainians aren’t ‘fine’ now. They’re suffering. Being aware matters.”
Eva Selezneva meets people in Europe who still don’t know what’s going on. “It’s been almost four years.”
For her, the personal and the political entwine. Berlin has given her stability, but Kyiv still shapes her life.
“From Berlin, Ukraine is only an eight to 10-hour drive. That’s two countries away, Germany, then Poland. It’s not far. The war is closer than you think.”
Eva Selezneva says that these organisations are making the biggest impact and deserve support: AIDx10, Lutidruzi, and the District One Foundation.
Words and Interview: Alexander Cheves
Photos: Mara Menzel with additional images provided by Eva Selezneva
