Girl bands have a long legacy of creating genre defying music and shattering gender norms; this is a new generation of young people continuing to challenge the gender disparity and racism in the music industry.
WOW Sounds is WOW’s dedicated music programme to championing under-represented artists, and features girls, women and non-binary musicians from across the world, all of whom are using their music to create social change and further the feminist movement.
Formed for First Timers 2019 have been described as ‘instantly charming,’ ‘a mix of nihilism and slapstick guaranteed to put a smile on your face’ and a ‘pop punk version of the Scooby Doo gang.’ They make scuzzy and melodic punk. Their last EP ‘What did you expect? I got it off the internet!’ was full of delicious basslines and angsty vocals.
Best friends from school Harini Dias, Chinthani Senevirathne and Shenali Kirindagamage have been playing together since 2010. They follow a wide variety of genres starting from Alternate rock, Indie rock, pop, RnB to classical, jazz and many more. Their objective is to contribute positively to the Sri Lankan music industry and to write songs to support women.
A pioneering girl band from the Roma community created in Serbia by a group of young women aged between 14-26 in the educational and artistic workshops of the GRUBB organisation. Pretty Loud is breaking moulds by creating their own unique music and speaking out for the next generation of Roma women. They proudly blend rap and hip hop with their traditional Roma music.
Rakaya Fetuga is a poet, facilitator and events producer based in London. Her work joins conversations on overlapping identities faith and culture as self-affirmation. Since winning the Roundhouse Poetry Slam, Rakaya debuted her monodrama, Unbraided, at the Roundhouse Last Word Festival 2021.
The UK acts have all been filmed at EartH Hackney. Each performance will be distributed via WOW’s IGTV and YouTube on 11th October.
The directory includes over 40 girl and non-binary activists aged 11-19 who are known for their work – both in their home countries and globally – in areas including climate justice, period poverty, girls education, sexual violence, disability, race, health and more. Presented in partnership with Purposeful, WOW will hold two private virtual convenings to bring together these activists to connect, share ideas and learn from one another to help establish a new network. A global online directory will be published on the WOW website to provide these 40 activists with a platform to share their work with girls all over the world.
The schoolgirls, aged between 14-18, are paired with highly influential and inspiring women mentors from across a range of professions and industries including science, film, media, engineering, sport, politics, transport, fashion and campaigning.
