Notable women artists have called out the Lux Style Awards for excluding female musicians from their list of nominees.
Artists like Meesha Shafi, Zeb Bangash, Maria Unera , Rachel Viccaji, and others took to social media and expressed their disappointment over the list of nominees.
It all started when Meesha Shafi first bashed the awards nomination on her Instagram story, “Not a single woman nominated in the LSA music nominations. Erasure at this scale (there is an exceptionally high number of nominations this time) of the entire female population occupying the Pakistani music industry is unjustifiable and highly problematic.”
It was Bangash who shared Shafi’s post first and wrote that awards and nominations in our industry haven’t necessarily been a measure of an artist’s caliber, contribution, or perhaps even popularity. However, they do reflect a certain form of acknowledgment and acceptance of an artist in the mainstream fraternity, she said.
Maria Unera also acknowledged Shafi’s criticism and wrote, “You’ll have women sell you soaps and products but y’all don’t have the decency to nominate women in music? Should be ashamed of yourselves. I’m not even surprised anymore at this point, just straight up disappointed.”
Rachel Viccaji also re-shared and wrote, “where is the appreciation for our female artists? Women have been SLAYING in the music industry! Come on Lux Style PK! Do better.”
“The systemic erasure of women in music always manifests in new ways. So sick of the boys club. Gatekeeping starts in the studio,” wrote Natasha Noorani while reposting Shafi’s Instagram Story.
