“I Alienated Music Directors”: Sona Mohapatra On Calling Out Gender Disparity In Music Industry

It appears that candor is a virtue singer Sona Mohapatra is amply blessed with, for she has often raised her voice against trolls and even bullies in the world of music. This time around she speaks of poor representation of female singers in the music industry. 

HT reports her saying that it is all about testosterone. “Be it your big music festivals, releases or in mainstream… even if you switch on the radio, you will see that out of 10 songs, you will at best find two songs with female voices. Out of 100 songs, only eight-nine have female voices, solo female songs have completely been down in mainstream,” says the singer.

The woman who lent her voice to Ambarsariya, adds, “I was someone calling it out, upsetting my peers, alienating a lot of music directors, guys who call the shots because I come across as a troublesome woman, all the time complaining. But here’s the good news. After all those years of calling out NH7 music festival, I didn’t get invited by them, but in their last edition, the representation suddenly went up from an average of 4-5% to 21%. 

Sona muses, “It was a significant jump, so they did listen, maybe there was a certain embarrassment or consciousness, I am not the one to know.” She opines that perhaps ”troublesome women” like her do bring about lasting change. “It could be at your own cost, when you are this person who doesn’t let go of things unless they change. You don’t necessarily endear yourself to everyone,” Sona signs off.

Do you believe more labels need to sign women in the music industry? Tell us!

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