DJ Havana Brown: I had an awkward stare-off with Lady Gaga

Australian DJ Havana Brown has plenty of tales from touring with the biggest names in the business: Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias, and recent collaborator on her massive hit 'We Run The Night', Pitbull.

But unlike most support acts, the in-demand 27-year-old actually got to hang out, and even perform on stage with the stars. One bizarre encounter with Gaga on her 2010 Monster Ball tour really stands out.

"It was kind of an awkward situation," she told TheFIX over the phone from New York. "I was standing in my dressing room just talking to my manager, and the door was open, and she's standing right outside my door, and I thought she was talking to someone.

"But then, in the corner of my eye, I kind of realise that she's looking in. And after a little while I looked at her, because I didn't want to just stare at her, but I looked at her and she was just staring right at me. And she just continued that stare right into my eyes, for what felt like forever!"

While Havana is a "massive fan" of Gaga, she didn't get much of a chance to chat with her on tour. She makes a point of saying that touring with high-profile acts like Gaga and Britney makes you "see them as just normal people like you and me."

"They're down to earth, and they tend to be actually really nice," she added.

Havana got to know Enrique and Pitbull a lot better when she toured with them in Australia last year. One of the highlights was performing Enrique's Nicole Scherzinger duet 'Heartbeat' with him.

But it was the party atmosphere backstage that really added to the experience.

"Enrique is such an awesome guy, Pitbull is just awesome himself, everyone is just so much fun," she said. "Backstage there were parties every single night after the show – everyone would be dancing in the hallways, like in a huddle, big loud music, loud Hispanic music … it was just unbelievable."

"They had tequila in their hands, and they were drinking right out of the bottle. It was just the vibe they brought, you know, the Cuban, Spanish, Brazilian vibe to the corridors of the venues in Australia. And they were teaching me how to salsa dance, it was very, very fun."

Havana may soon be teaching her peers a thing or two. Her party anthem 'We Run the Night' topped the US dance charts, and she's busily working in the US at the moment, set to join Pitbull again for his tour in July. She'll be bringing the show down to Australia in August, along with Taio Cruz and Timomatic.

Havana also has an EP of original music coming out in June, and her latest release, Crave — Club Edition, the seventh of her hugely successful dance remix compilations, is out tomorrow.

"It gets you ready for the party, and it's actually what I would play at parties, at my DJ shows," she said.