STOCKHOLM - She drops the beat and gets her groove on, spinning discs like a pro as her head-to-toe sequins twinkle under the lights: 81-year-old DJ Gloria is filling dancefloors across Sweden.
"I've been a DJ for 16 years. Today I'm really good... There's not a person I can't get onto the dancefloor," she told AFP at her seniors' residence in a leafy neighbourhood of southern Stockholm.
DJ Gloria, whose real name is Madelein Mansson, plays Sweden's hottest nightclubs with special gigs for crowds over the age of 50 -- ID cards required! -- which primarily draw women who just want to get down and boogie.
On a recent evening at the Josefina club on Stockholm's waterfront, her setlist included hip-swinging hits like "Mamma Mia", "Funkytown", "Moves Like Jagger" and "I've Been Thinking About You".
Mansson decided to become a DJ after her husband passed away when she was 62, following nine years of caring for him around-the-clock.
"I was depressed. Listless and sad," she recalled.
She chose to become an aerobics instructor. Putting the music together for her classes was great fun, and her playlists grew longer and longer.
A friend's DJ son gave her three private lessons and she was on her way.
"I was really bad in the beginning," she admitted. She visited other clubs to see how DJs worked.
She discovered there was not a single Swedish club that opened before 11pm.
"Scandalous! I want to be home and in bed by 11pm. So I asked a friend, 'Do you want to start a 50-plus disco with me?'"
The friend agreed, and now they run a company together.
DJ Gloria's gigs usually start around 6pm and wrap up around 11pm.
She kicks off every set with "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor.
"It's totally perfect for starting a disco... It has 116 to 118 beats per minute. So it's not too fast and not too slow," she said. "And the lyrics are good."
Sometimes she rounds off the evening with Beyonce's version of "At Last", or a little Elvis, or "sometimes with AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck' if I'm in the mood".