The nominees for this years Lux Style Awards (LSA) have left many perplexed, as not a single woman has been nominated among the 82 nominations for the four music categories.
Paying no heed to the criticism earnt by the Hum Style Awards for hosting an elaborate awards show at a time when the nation was battling with the worst climate catastrophe in recent history, the LSA team announced they were going ahead with this years show as well.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the list of nominees that has emerged has given people another reason to be upset. It has emerged that out of the 82 musicians nominated for an award in the four music categories, not a single one of them is a woman. For this to happen despite the fact that this year saw so much brilliant music from so many wonderful women is very perplexing, especially for a brand like Lux.
The four music categories are Song of the Year, Singer of the Year, Most Streamed Song of the Year and Best Live Performance of the Year. A complete list of nominations are up on the LSA website.
Since them, women musicians have been speaking out against the blatant erasure of women from the LSA platform, which aims to 'celebrate and honor' Pakistani talent. Singer Meesha Shafi posted about the LSA on her Instagram Story, demanding accountability from the awards management.
Speaking on Instagram, she said, "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," adding that a brand like Lux, who 'sells their soaps on the back of women' in their ads, should pay more attention to equal representation, "especially when there is no dearth of women singing/songwriting and releasing high quality music in any given year."
Her post was reshared by various other artists, including Haniya Aslam, Sania aka Justin Bibi, Rutaba Yaqub and Sanam Marvi. Reposting Meesha's post on her own Instagram, singer Natasha Noorani said that the systemic erasure of women in music always manifests in new ways. "So sick of the boys club," she wrote.
Singer Risham Faiz Bhutta told The Friday Times, "Already fed up with how the uniqueness of a female artist takes 10+ years at least for everyone to adapt to but for a male artist it takes 1, and now it’s happening at the awards too. Disappointing but not so shocking, really."
Paying no heed to the criticism earnt by the Hum Style Awards for hosting an elaborate awards show at a time when the nation was battling with the worst climate catastrophe in recent history, the LSA team announced they were going ahead with this years show as well.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the list of nominees that has emerged has given people another reason to be upset. It has emerged that out of the 82 musicians nominated for an award in the four music categories, not a single one of them is a woman. For this to happen despite the fact that this year saw so much brilliant music from so many wonderful women is very perplexing, especially for a brand like Lux.
The four music categories are Song of the Year, Singer of the Year, Most Streamed Song of the Year and Best Live Performance of the Year. A complete list of nominations are up on the LSA website.
Since them, women musicians have been speaking out against the blatant erasure of women from the LSA platform, which aims to 'celebrate and honor' Pakistani talent. Singer Meesha Shafi posted about the LSA on her Instagram Story, demanding accountability from the awards management.
Speaking on Instagram, she said, "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," adding that a brand like Lux, who 'sells their soaps on the back of women' in their ads, should pay more attention to equal representation, "especially when there is no dearth of women singing/songwriting and releasing high quality music in any given year."
Her post was reshared by various other artists, including Haniya Aslam, Sania aka Justin Bibi, Rutaba Yaqub and Sanam Marvi. Reposting Meesha's post on her own Instagram, singer Natasha Noorani said that the systemic erasure of women in music always manifests in new ways. "So sick of the boys club," she wrote.
Singer Risham Faiz Bhutta told The Friday Times, "Already fed up with how the uniqueness of a female artist takes 10+ years at least for everyone to adapt to but for a male artist it takes 1, and now it’s happening at the awards too. Disappointing but not so shocking, really."