According to Variety, Alicia Keys announced on Wednesday the formation of a music industry group for female advancement called She is the Music. She made the revelation as part of her acceptance speech for the Icon Songwriter honor at the National Music Publishers Association’s annual meeting in New York.
In her speech, she cited statistics from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism study of Grammy nominees. “Of almost 3,000 pop songwriters credited last year only 12% were female, only 3% of the engineers were female, and one of them is Ann [Mincieli, Keys’ regular engineer]. Only 2% of producers are female and one of them is me! Our world is 50-50, and it’s time for our industry to reflect that.”
My mama taught me that every year is the year of the woman… but this year is definitely something else. It’s a powerful year, it’s an empowering year, and it’s the beginning of so many things. And many of us in the music world are working more diligently than ever to showcase and support the work of female songwriters, musicians, engineers, and producers.
Keys went on to talk about the Time’s Up movement as well as the gender pay gap. “We deserve the utmost respect, and so many of these women across industries are telling our culture that time is up on double standards.” She further stated, “and it is over for pay inequity and colleagues who are at best disrespectful and at the worst unsafe – so it’s over for that.”
The singer highlighted the importance of diversity and women of color in the music industry. “Songwriters tell our stories, they sing who we are as people — don’t we all want to hear from all of us? My ancestors’ spiritual songs told their stories and gave them strength, and we’re all stronger because of it.” Keys named some of her influences, such as Joan Baez, Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin. Contemporary female artists of color such, as Janelle Monáe, SZA, Solange and Mary J. Blige were also mentioned.
The singer concluded by saying: “We were told we need to step up. Well, you feel that step up now?”
We over at QM definitely feel that step up and are ecstatic about this new movement. The singer has shown that not only is she famous for being incredibly talented, she cares for the rights of people of colour as well as those of women and we couldn’t be more proud that she’s utilising her platform for good.
