All images courtesy of the artists.

On January 5, one of Northern Ireland’s most listened to commercial radio stations, Cool FM, published an article titled “A timeline of Northern Ireland’s biggest names in music”, in which all 13 acts listed were cisgender, white, and male. Surely, a station which describes itself as “number one for music”, could have incorporated some of the female, non-binary, and people of colour who have contributed so much to the Northern Irish music scene? Or does it truly only consider talented cis, white and male artists as worthy of a place on the list? Queen’s Radio station manager and NI Music Prize 2021 “Best Album” judge Hebe Lawson says “With the latest NI Music awards all going to female artists, it is evident that Northern Ireland has had, and continues to produce a diverse plethora of successful artists”. And, she adds, “acknowledging female, non-binary and musicians of colour” would have “created a list far more representative of the Northern Irish music scene”.

Winnie Ama is a musician from Belfast and activist with Why Not Her?, a campaign for equality in the music industry. She says, “to not reference the fact” that all artists on the list are “white men”, is a “massive missed opportunity to highlight the systematic bias in the NI music industry”. She continues, “By not referencing this, it implies that there is no issue”, which in turn “perpetuates the problem of male artists being given more opportunities” than their female and non-binary counterparts.

Ciara King of Big Daisy and Problem Patterns

Ciara King fronts Big Daisy; “a Shoegazey, indie-fuzz band”, and is also a member of Problem Patterns; a “big shouty feminist punk band” from Belfast, who sing about queer and feminist issues. She says, “all of us outside of the umbrella of white cis, and male work tirelessly to be given crumbs of the validation that these men get”. She continues, “the issue lies within the inherent misogyny in the industry. We need to see ourselves represented, but these lists make us feel isolated and defeated. The answer is to keep addressing this and ask for better”. Earlier this week, Ciara curated a Spotify playlist, titled ‘Women & Non-Binary Musicians Who Aren’t Van Morrison’ of “60+ current NI musicians with predominantly women, non-binary and/or POC members”, which, she says, took “less than 30 minutes” to make.

CHERYM are a three-piece band from Derry, whose identity was born out of a “joint love of Garage Rock, Pop Punk and a desire to be the biggest band in the world”. Nyree points out that “there are so many female/NB artists who have contributed to NI music”. They would have also “included artists such as SOAK, Gemma Bradley and Roe” on the list, “who have paved the way for female/NB and POC artists like ourselves”. Hannah adds that “A lot of people are still under the prehistoric assumption that ‘men make the best rock music and sell more records’, which is simply not the case”. She continues, “We need to stand together and let people know that this mindset is no longer acceptable”. Alannagh claims, “if you’re anything but a white, cis man, your efforts have to be 10 times more powerful to be heard, no matter what industry you reside in”.

Also a Derry native, Susie Blue is a queer artist who has been playing in the scene for over 10 years. She notes that “the artists included in the list are all deserving of their spot, but this is exactly the problem. Not even having a single woman or non-binary artist on your radar screams inequality within the mainstream NI music industry”. Susie adds, “The women and non-binary folks who are giving our lives to this industry already have to work harder than any of the men on that list, and if the excuse is ‘they are all more well-known than the female artists’, then you’ve hit the nail on the head. We don’t get noticed, we don’t get played, and we don’t get the same opportunities that they do. It’s built into the industry and the only way to change it is to actively LOOK for us”.

Cheylene Murphy is from Belfast-based art-pop band Beauty Sleep, whose “dreamy soundscapes, bombastic guitars and dizzying songwriting” will represent Northern Ireland at the SXSW Festival in Texas in March. She says, “THIS is the widespread impression of NI music, and it hurts when it really doesn’t represent how fantastically diverse and strong the music scene is here”. Cheylene questions whether “In 40 years, because gatekeepers are less likely to back you if you are a woman, will lists exclude the diverse musicians making music here now? At what point do we become successful enough to finally be deemed ‘important’ in the eyes of media here?” She adds that articles like this one discourage “new musicians from picking up a microphone”, as well as the “vast number of talented musicians who are working hard every day to create a culture in NI that is inclusive”.

One new musician is Cherie Morgan, a 24-year-old singer/songwriter from Cookstown, who released her debut single, “Meet Me Halfway” at the end of 2021. She explains that as a new artist in the industry, she was “already aware of the bias within the music scene in Northern Ireland”, and discussing the release of her first single, she finds it “disheartening to think about how easy that would have been for a cis, white man, with the support they would have received”. She concludes, “For one of the largest radio stations in the north to continue to make it harder for us to get our music out there and not support us, shows that we have a lot to fix”.

The consensus is clear: representation matters. Northern Irish radio stations have a platform and must use it responsibly. If they don’t play and promote a diverse range of local artists, the public won’t learn about them; reinforcing the outdated narrative that our music scene is a boy’s-only club – a statement which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Kirsty King is a deputy Culture editor at The Scoop and an English student at Queen’s University Belfast

Not a boy’s club: NI radio stations must champion our diverse music scene, not ignore it