Women are great, we’re pretty clear on that. But they’re seriously underrepresented when it comes to the music industry.
And a month-long celebration of women working in the music industry — both onstage and behind the scenes — has arrived in London to raise awareness of the problem and fight to change it.
Women make up almost two-thirds of entry-level roles in the music industry, according to the UK Music Diversity Survey 2017. But when it comes to the senior levels — the label management, promoters, board members, and senior executives — women seem to vanish.
Take action and Earn Tickets: Pledge to Level the Law, Because Discrimination Is a Daily Reality for Women & Girls
Singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, an ambassador for the "Sounds Like London" campaign, said in a statement that these statistics show that “something is definitely off.”
And it gets worse.
Two-thirds of Britain’s live music acts feature all-male line-ups and just 5% of DJs, producers, and sound engineers are women.
And that’s where “Sounds Like London” comes in.
It’s a summer programme across the capital, running throughout June, with gigs and events every day — all working to shine a light on the music industry’s female talent and inspire the next generation.
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With Global Citizen, you can be a part of it. Global Citizen is partnering with music broadcasting platform Boiler Room to offer you the chance to earn tickets to a one-night-only, all-female line-up show in central London on June 27.
The incredible line-up of inspirational women includes Ray Blk, Jamz Supernova, Rina Sawayama, Flohio, Ellie Prohan, and A.G.
And you can earn a free ticket by taking action for our #LevelTheLaw campaign — which calls on world leaders to put an end to laws that discriminate against women and girls, and perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
“We know that women are underrepresented in the music industry, so I’m delighted that the Sounds Like London programme is bringing great female talent to the fore, highlighting the capital’s wealth of fantastic women artists, producers, and promoters,” said Justine Simons, London’s deputy mayor for culture and creative industries.
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“Sounds Like London” is also working to protect London’s grassroots music scene.
“London is a powerhouse of music, having produced artists from Adele to Stormzy, and the XX to Dua Lipa,” said London mayor Sadiq Khan.
“Grassroots music venues are at the very heart of our success as a global capital of music — they are the places where emerging artists are able to hone their talent, and great producers and promoters are able to cut their teeth in the industry,” he said.
The month-long celebration is part of the mayor’s year-long gender equality campaign “Behind Every Great City”, which celebrates the role of women in the capital.
Read more: 9 Completely Incredible Things That Happened at Global Citizen Live in London
You can find the full programme of events here.
Global Citizen campaigns to achieve the UN’s Global Goals, which include action on achieving gender equality. You can join us by taking action here to support women and girls around the world in achieving their full potential, and ending the cycle of poverty.