Swimsuit

Xandra Pohl Shares Her Unique Pre-DJ Show Ritual to Get Her Blood Pumping

The SI Swimsuit rookie and content creator divulges the steps she takes before getting on stage.

Ananya Panchal

Xandra Pohl
Xandra Pohl / Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images

Xandra Pohl is slowly taking over the male-dominated industry of DJing. The SI Swimsuit rookie, who was photographed in Belize by Derek Kettela for this year’s issue, first connected with the franchise last year when she was the official DJ for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Runway Show at Miami Swim Week.

During this year’s 60th anniversary issue launch week festivities in Florida, the 23-year-old gushed all about her debut “Drunk Tour.” During it, she traveled all over the east coast and midwest and played her phenomenal, upbeat DJ sets to large audiences starting in North Carolina on March 1, and ending in Tennessee on May 4. Some weekends, the Miami resident, who is spending the summer in the Hamptons, was even playing up to four consecutive shows.

Rather than getting nervous before she does a set, the Ohio native says she just feels excited. And she has a very specific pre-show ritual that gets her in the zone to go on stage.

“Right before I go on I always have a Celsius [energy drink]. I need that energy, especially when I’m doing back-to-back shows. And, normally I go a little quiet and I stand in a corner and do jumping jacks because once you go up there for like 120 minutes, it’s constant energy, no breaks. I gotta get my heart rate up and my heart pumping,” the content creator shares. “If you looked at me before a show you would be like, ‘She’s losing her mind.’”

While Pohl has opened for artists like Kygo and Loud Luxury, launching her own tour was a super special experience and huge career move.

“When I was in high school, I was like ‘I want to be a DJ’ and everyone was like [mockingly] ‘Yeah, and I want to be the president of the United States.’ So it’s been crazy. The biggest thing is when you’re doing something that is against the grain of the normal, it’s going to be tough but it’s also going to be the most rewarding experience that you could ever have,” Pohl says. “It’s taken me seven years to get to where I am. So many people told me to just give it up and one thing about me is I’m just one stubborn b----. When everyone [was telling me] that I couldn’t do it, it motivated me 10 times more.”

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Ananya Panchal

ANANYA PANCHAL

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