The Blessed Madonna

Known professionally as the Blessed Madonna, Marea Stamper stands among her generation’s most acclaimed DJs on account of vibrant, wide-ranging performances that move freely between vintage electro and new wave selections and the freshest techno and house white labels. Her studio output, highlighted by the acclaimed 2016 single “He Is the Voice I Hear,” occupies the space where disco’s emotional depth meets techno’s forward drive. Following high-profile remixes for artists including Dua Lipa and Florence + the Machine, she made her Warner debut in 2022 with the house track “Serotonin Moonbeams.” Her first full-length album, the guest-filled Godspeed, appeared in 2024. Long recognized as a leading activist within dance music, she is noted for sustained humanitarian efforts and vocal advocacy for LGBTQ rights and gender inclusivity.

Born in 1977 to a Christian family in rural Kentucky, Stamper first encountered electronic dance music at age fourteen after sneaking into a rave. Two years later she left school to crisscross the United States selling rave merchandise and mixtapes at parties. While studying English at Louisville University she taught herself to DJ, relying on the college radio station and a barn stocked with rare funk records for her earliest sets. Shortly after graduation she was offered a job at the fledgling Chicago label Dust Traxx by Radek, an acquaintance from her mixtape-selling period, prompting her move to that city, where she began performing under the name Lady Foursquare.

Over the next several years she developed a personal style and adopted the moniker the Black Madonna, drawn from religious imagery. Her first release, the 2012 single Alright This Morning on Home Taping Is Killing Music, led to a residency at Smart Bar; the following year she was named the venue’s creative director and used the position to promote greater diversity, notably by founding DAPHNE: A Women’s Movement in Dance Music. Her 2013 EP Lady of Sorrows outsold earlier work, expanding her audience and international bookings. A series of subsequent releases culminated in the 2016 single “He Is the Voice I Hear,” the inaugural record on her own imprint, We Still Believe. Mixmag named her DJ of the year—the first woman to receive the honor—and featured her on the cover wearing a gold crown.

In 2017 she began a residency at London’s XOYO that sold out for thirteen consecutive weeks; she later settled in the city and became a regular presence on BBC Radio One. She appeared as herself in Grand Theft Auto Online, hosting a station titled We Believe. Although she issued no new original material for five years after “He Is the Voice I Hear,” she supplied prominent remixes for Robyn, Silk City & Dua Lipa, Georgia, and others. In July 2020, amid global Black Lives Matter protests, she formally changed her stage name to the Blessed Madonna. She mixed Dua Lipa’s Club Future Nostalgia: The Remix Album, released the following August; its lead single was her rework of “Levitating” featuring Missy Elliott alongside the better-known Madonna. In 2021 she was sampled on Fred again..’s “Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing)” and released the mix NYE 2021. A remix of Florence + the Machine’s “Free” appeared in June 2022, and in November she debuted on Warner Records with “Serotonin Moonbeams” featuring Uffie; a remix of ALYSS’s “Pyramid” closed the year.

Further singles followed in 2023, among them collaborations with Jamie Principle, the Joy, and Todd Edwards. After setting aside an earlier completed album, Stamper spent several years shaping her proper debut, Godspeed, which surfaced in 2024 with appearances by Kylie Minogue, Shaun J. Wright, Danielle Ponder, and Clementine Douglas.