Reasons why record labels don’t like to sign female artists – Singer, Tiwa Savage

Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage is opening up on the phenomenon that prevailed for a very long time and still prevails today: of major labels having a significantly higher rate of male artistes when compared to female artistes. Speaking about why this happens and how she feels about it, here is what Tiwa had to say.

Speaking about why major labels don’t like signing female artistes, and her experience as a female artiste, Tiwa Savage said:

TIWA SAVAGE: Things are getting better but I think it’s still hard because girls are high maintenance. So like, as a female artiste, you have to have hair, makeup, styling. You can show up and be pregnant. I know those are some of the challenges for a country like Nigeria where we are still building an art infrastructure and stuff. So I think they try to shy away from signing female artistes. But, major labels across the world are signing Afrobeats artistes anyway. So, it’s definitely getting better.

I’ve got stories of female artistes for days. They get overlooked. You can’t do soundcheck. Like initially, when I first moved back to Nigeria, I would turn up at a show and they would say I can’t perform because my outfit was too risque. Even some of my first videos were not played on national TV. They banned the music videos, and I’m literally wearing like a catsuit. It’s not even like a bikini or anything. But I’m very stubborn, so I was like my dress is going to get shorter, my tops are going to be more revealing. It was just getting worse as they were bashing me. And then, it was funny because the females were now secretly loving me. So then they couldn’t deny my followers, my fanbase was growing. So they had to put me on shows. They had to play my music, because there was a demand for it.

When we girls do something, we do something, we do it way better.

What do you think about what Tiwa said?

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