Filmmaker and DJ Nelya Valamanesh will pay tribute to the pop-princess at a Kylie Minogue-themed party at LGBTQIA+ bar My Lover Cindi.

There’s no argument from CityMag when DJ Nelya Valamanesh describes the inspiration for her upcoming gig at My Lover Cindi as a “gay icon”.

Nelya will host Ultimate Kylie at the Flinders Street bar on Thursday, 25 May, where she hopes to see a full-house celebrating the pop singer.

There’ll be Kylie Minogue-themed cocktails and compulsory dancing, for an event befitting the dance-floor-filler.

“I just love that [Kylie’s] really fun, she’s got such a good vibe,” Nelya says.

“Throughout her whole career, she’s gone through so many different genres and she’s just still throwing out bangers really.”

The event will showcase rare Kylie Minogue memorabilia – items such as old cassette tapes and magazines from the Princess of Pop’s prime-time – and will function as a closing party for the South Australian History Festival.

Queen Kylie covers

A love of Kylie Minogue and a professional propensity for dropping her into nightclub sets is just one element of Nelya’s creative life.

In addition to being a DJ, Nelya is also an emerging filmmaker, and her web series Rules to Being a Fuckgurl (RTBAF) is about to begin shooting.

RTBAF follows friends Zarina and Nilu as they attempt to live their lives as so-called fuckgurls, both sharing an anti-relationship, pro-casual sex attitude.

“Each of the episodes, the character does go through a trial of something that she needs to overcome to succeed, and sometimes she succeeds and sometimes she fails,” Nelya says.

Success in the series is measured by how closely the protagonists align with a series of fuckgurl mantras, such as when deciding whether or not to give out a phone number after sleeping with someone.

The idea of fuckgurl status came to Nelya after she decided to reject the have-it-all persona women are pressured with in their early 20s.

“We’re supposed to get married and still have a social life and it was just kind of a funny thing of, like, why do we need to have it all? Why can’t we just choose one or the other?” Nelya says.

“I made up this whole anti-relationship kind of schtick of a fuckgurl because obviously we have fuckboys, so I just thought it was a funny way of looking at relationships and casual dating in this day and age.”

RTBAF set with fuckgurls doing fuckgurl things. This picture: supplied.

Nelya’s journey to RTBAF was not as smooth sailing as she initially hoped. She actually decided to give up on being a filmmaker altogether after becoming disengaged and unmotivated by the industry.

However, when the #OscarsSoWhite campaign emerged, Nelya’s spark was reignited. As a proud woman of colour, she felt a sense of responsibility to contribute to the movement.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, what the hell! I really wanna do this and I wanna tell [people of colour’s] stories’,” Nelya says.

“So I decided I wanted to write and I wanted to be able to tell some stories, because I think it’s important to have diversity – not just in front of the camera but behind.

“Especially as a woman from the SWANA region, which is Southwest Asia to North Africa, we are sexualised, but we’re never the main character in stories around relationships and sex — so I thought it would be a good time for us to take control of those kinds of narratives.”

Representation is a strong ethos in Nelya’s creative work.

“Obviously, we do see more and more stories of people of colour coming out, but when I started writing [RTBAF] I really wanted to represent someone that looks like me,” Nelya says.

RTBAF will begin filming in mid-June and Nelya hopes to air by the end of the year.

Connect with RTBAF and Nelya on Instagram to follow along.

Buy tickets to the Ultimate Kylie event, which takes place on Thursday, 25 May at My Lover Cindi, located at 223 Flinders Street, Adelaide.

Nelya (left) on set. This picture: supplied.