Still One

In the UK, one female artist made the top 10 albums last year. Dua Lipa. You see it everywhere: Ariana Grande as the sole woman in the most-streamed artists, Helene Fischer as the only female voice in Germany’s charts. The pattern’s so consistent it’s almost funny.

I remember believing things would change around five or six years ago. The Me Too moment felt genuinely different, like something structural might actually shift. Women started saying no. Conversations spread everywhere. The industry was supposed to reckon with itself. But then you see a year’s numbers and realize the machinery kept running exactly as before. The conversation got louder. The lists stayed the same.

Universal Music did a whole campaign around International Women’s Day, #Feminize, bringing in Dua Lipa, Lena, Anne-Sophie Mutter to talk about representation. I respect that they’re saying it. I just also know that a campaign about equality in music and actual equality in music are two very different things. Women make incredible records. The numbers have nothing to do with that.

I’ve been following music long enough to know better than to expect sudden change, but I still get this small disappointment seeing one name on a list that should have five or ten. That feeling of watching a system protect itself while everyone agrees it needs fixing. It doesn’t make me angry. Just tired.