Inspirational Women from the World of Music

I want to look at myself in the mirror at the end of my life and say I’ve done my share and I’m proud of what I’ve done.”

Angélique Kidjo

Next Friday, the 8th is International Women’s Day and as you know by now, I’m a bit of a nutcase when it comes to music so, today, I’m going to write about some women in the world of music that have transcended their music that you may or may not have heard of that have inspired me!

Lhasa de Sela

Lhasa de Sela was an inspiring American-Canadian artist who sang and wrote in English, Spanish and French. She was able to express her feelings and life through her music that transcended into many different cultures and genres, including Mexican and gypsy folk melodies. She started singing as a young girl in bars and came to be an inspiration who touched millions of people’s souls over her short time with us. Lhasa sadly died of breast cancer in 2010.

Lhasa inspired an emotional connection with me many moons ago. Her soulful voice, poetic lyrics, and haunting melodies even now evoke profound emotions of happiness, sorrow, and reflection within me. Lhasa also had a strong commitment to social justice and human rights. She was a strong supporter of women’s rights, which cascaded into her music, addressing issues such as violence against women and the struggle for female empowerment.

One of my fav songs is Love Came here, if you’ve never heard of give it a listen!

Angélique Kidjo

As a child, she listened closely to her brothers’ band and their U.S. soul record collections. As a teenager, her father challenged her to write songs that build bridges and teach acceptance. Since arriving in France in her early twenties as a refugee, she has shined across genres, including jazz, western classical, R&B, Afropop, Latin salsa, and reggae. Kidjo’s must-have album from for me is, Mother Nature, which finds her connecting to younger audiences through her collaborations with rising African talents like Burna Boy, Sampa the Great, and Zeynab.

Female empowerment is an ongoing theme in Kidjo’s work. Her exposure to activists like Winnie Mandela, musicians like Aretha Franklin and Miriam Makeba, and her mother’s involvement in campaigns for the right to vote and against domestic violence made her a staunch feminist. In 2006, Kidjo started her own foundation, Batonga, to help girls in Africa get a secondary education. Her 2014 album, Eve, celebrates the beauty and strength of women in everyday life; around the same time, she joined an all-women supergroup of west African musicians known as Les Amazones d’Afrique, formed to campaign for gender equality on their eventual album République Amazone.

I’d heard of Angélique however, it was only after reading her book; Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music did I become a life long fan!

If you listen to one song today, try Love Song To The Earth

Anaïs Mitchell

Anaïs Mitchell is an American folk singer/songwriter/ playwright who grew up believing that if you could write a song good enough, you could change the world. Raised on folk ballads and protest music, inspired by other bold female songwriters (Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos, Dar Williams), and fuelled by political activism, Mitchell began writing her own songs early on and has since released 8 studio albums.

Anaïs fourth full-length album, Hadestown was made into a musical! Hadestown is a magical musical with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial version of the Greek underworld to escape poverty and the cold, and her poor singer-songwriter lover Orpheus comes to attempt to rescue her. The show recently came to London and yes, of course I have tickets for April the 20th!

Mitchell was recently named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, and is also a member of Grammy-nominated folk supergroup Bonny Light Horseman. As a fan of her work in all its forms, I’m amazed by Mitchell’s musical talent and of course, as a music fan overall, believe in and am inspired by the idea of using art as a way to fuel necessary change.

If you’ve never heard of her try All I’ve Ever Known, be warned, makes me cry every time I hear it!

Marin Aslop

For those of you that know me, you’ll know I have a Love of classical music through my Love of the piano so, Marin should be no surprise! World renowned conductor Marin Alsop made history as the first woman to head a major American symphony orchestra when she was appointed as music director of the Baltimore Symphony in 2005.

After seeing Leonard Bernstein in concert for the first time, an inspired nine-year-old Marin told her violin teacher that she wanted to be a conductor, too. Her teacher told her no, that girls cannot be conductors. But Bernstein eventually became her mentor, and despite the sexism and discrimination that persists in the field, Marin now enjoys a history-making, illustrious career. She has worked with some of the world’s leading orchestras including the London Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras, La Scala Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris. She has served as music director for Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and she is currently the chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the chief conductor and curator of Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, where she curates and conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s summer residencies. I mean… WOW!!!

Her remarkable career inspired the documentary film, The Conductor, and as a classically trained musician and a woman, it inspires me to see a woman reach such prominence in what remains a largely male-dominated area of the classical music world.

If you’re not a classical music fan, I defy you not to be moved by Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra which Marin conducted… Spine tingling!

Mylène Farmer

Mylène Farmer is a successful Canadian/French singer and songwriter, whose career has spanned almost 40 years. She has sold over 30 million records in France alone and is one of the most successful artists of all time in the country.

Since the beginning of her career, her songwriting has carried themes of female empowerment and inclusion. As a result she has been a powerful voice for many women as well as many in the LGBTQ community. Through her music and exquisite film-like music videos, Mylène champions women, and validates all shades of femininity; from calling for love for all women in her anthem “XXL” to fighting for women in the music video for “California”, as well as portraying women as warriors and being her own saviour in her music video for “Fuck Them All”. Mylène is an artist who is unafraid to speak about sometimes difficult subject matters, and songs such as her 2018 release “Désobéissance” is a reminder to disobey and stand unafraid to challenge ideas in order to make positive change!

Throughout her career she has played with ideas surrounding gender, androgyny and challenged perceptions of what women are expected to be. Mylène has been a huge influence on me both musically and personally, and has always been the voice of empowerment and inspiration that I return to time and time again!

Want to listen to a Fuck Them All, you can find it here!

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