Female Musicians
in Grammies
ONE LIKE on social media gains them more exposure.
Intro: What is Grammy?
The Grammy Award, or just Grammy, is an award presented by the Recording Academy to recognize "Outstanding Achievement in the music industry" of the United States. The trophy depicts a gilded gramophone.
The Grammy is considered one of the four major annual American entertainment awards, along with the Academy Awards (for film achievements), the Emmy Awards (for television achievements), and the Tony Awards (for theater achievements).
Photo by Sudhith Xavier on Unsplash
Photo by Sudhith Xavier on Unsplash
Why are Grammies so important to musicians?
Grammy awards drive the sales of songs and are one of the best ways to ADVERTISE artists’ songs.
What happened to Female Musicians?
vicious circle:
1. No money to advertise their songs.
2. No popularity makes it hard to gain Grammys.
3. No reveal opportunities at the Grammys.
4. Grammies always gained by famous artists: groups dominated by Male Musicians.
Women In Grammies History
Dubbed “The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century.
In 1959, she became the first women who won Grammy in history.
In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.
During the 1st Grammy where Ella was the only female winner, there were in total 109 nominees for 26 awards, out of which only 17 are women.
This means: for every 6 male nominees, there is only 1 female nominee.
Women In Grammies Today
In recent years, female nominees'
representation fluctuates with an
INCREASING trend.
However, if we look at the total of
recent 9 years' Grammies(52nd - 60th),
female nominees' representation
BARELY CHANGED
Do other music awards have similar situations?
Out of 20 CMA winners from 2000 to 2019,
only 5 winners are women.
Does the Industry have similar situations?
Gender discrimination is not limited to Grammy, but also the whole music industry. Lots of talented female musicians are overlooked.
Why is Female Musicians' Representation
SO LOW?
💡 Reason 1: Sexual Harassment in Music Industry Scared Talents Away
Musician Union surveyed 800 female musicians in 2019 about sexual harassment issues in their workplace.
Sexual harassment is highly prevalent in the music industry and severely underreported.
Women who want to pursue a career in this industry dare not enter it because of the prevalent issues here and some talented women artists just left this industry because of the harassment issues.
💡 Reason 2: Ageism — The industry prefers female artists who are YOUNG
The music industry tends to have a higher requirement for female artists' age.
Music companies prefer artists who are young. This can be proved by the average age comparison here:
the average age of male winners of Album of the Year in Grammy from 1985 to 2014 is 48 while that of women winners is 28.
💡 Reason 3: Male-dominated jury: The Grammy Jury Association: Recording Academy is dominated by male members
Among the Recording Academy members who are on the jury of Grammy Music Awards, in 2019, only 31% of members are female.
According to Spotify, with 5 million subscribers, male users listened to only 3.3% female artists.
Female listeners have more diverse habits, since they listened to 30.8% female artists, 55% male artists, and 14.2% mixed groups
With men dominant jury having strong male artists' songs preference, it's hard for female musicians to be seen.
We Don't Want To End Up
Having Only Male Musicians' Songs
With Diversity & Equality In Music Industry
We Will Witness More
Creativity & Innovation
We Want A Music Industry With
Equality & Diversity
Let's Help Female Musicians!
Use Your Social Media Power to gain them exposure!
Follow, interact, comment, retweet, and share. Speak up when gender discrimination discussions happen online.
Your simple click and voice can make a huge difference.
Listen to female music podcasts:
Hear their songs and learn about their music stories.
Donate to organizations that support women in audio
Donating a few dollars to these organizations can help a lot of women artists approach their dreams.
If you are an aspiring female musician, here are some resources for you!
Join Female Music Community
A lot of female-focused music communities exist offering support.
Here are some lists of communities:
Bravely Say No To Harassment
Sexual harassment is prevalent but YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Let's fight it all together:
Join Female Music Campaigns
Campaigns on social media and music platforms gain you more exposure.
Here are some lists of campaigns:
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