Following the news just a couple of weeks ago that American band Haim had fired their agent after a gender-biased paycheck, a similar thing has happened at this year Wireless Music Festival.
The London music event, that will take place on July 6-8 at Finsbury Park, has encountered a storm of criticism and accusations after many pointed out that the line up was almost exclusively lead by male artists.
Taking this into account, supported by Wireless, the Smirnoff Equalising Music initiative is teaming up with Rinse FM, London’s pioneering underground music station, to show the way forward, bringing the scene’s foremost female talent to the Wireless 2018. The stage will feature impressive performances from the likes of Lady Leshurr, Bad Gyal and Paigey Cakey amongst others.
Back in January, singer Lily Allen called out the organizers of the festival, with a tweet that perfectly showcased that only three women, out of 37 performers, were on the billing to perform.
The struggle is real pic.twitter.com/R58zKuCaK2
— LILYALLEN2.0 (@lilyallen) January 23, 2018
Embarrassment and outrage rose within the music industry over the controversy, with several music festivals’ directors defending themselves by pointing the finger towards the fact that “there is an industry-wide issue of fewer female acts available at all levels that has affected the booking process“.
Truth be told, it’s not the lack of musicians, but the lack of representation both on stage and off the stage. If female artists had been paid ten times less than a male artist for the same performance, you can bet that festival line ups won’t flourish anytime soon, at least not gender-wise.
There are plenty of established as well as upcoming female artists that would love to be booked and perform on stage, but as long as they are overshadowed by their male counterpart it will be hard to sign them on.
Following this debate, a lot of female singers have stepped up and are trying to change things from within the industry. Singer Alicia Keys, for example, has come up with the initiative She Is The Music, that aims to support and further female musicians’ careers.
In the meantime, we will have to do with an only-female stage at this year Wireless Festival, hoping that the next time it won’t sound so extraordinary but just an ordinary event, as is the case with the heavy-dominated male artists’ line up of this year.
#Peace.Love.WirelessFestival
