Future Leaders: Keychange welcomes 2023 cohort of 74 artist and innovator participants from 12 countries to lead global movement for gender equity in music

10 January 2023 - Press release

 

• Keychange welcomes 74 new artist and innovator participants from 12 countries to its 2023 Talent Development Programme 

• Comprising artistic and music industry professional talent who are already leaders in their field (in production, management, synch and beyond), participants are selected by industry experts as future leaders of the global movement for gender equity

• The innovative year-long Talent Development Programme provides women and gender expansive participants with the skills, resources and pathways needed to unlock their full potential in their area of expertise

• The programme launches with a Full Network Meet Up at the concert venue, Ancienne Belgique in Brussels February 14th - 15th 2023

• Ancienne Belgique also plays host to the Keychange presents live event featuring alumni from the programme, British alternative soul singer, Tawiah & Swedish dream rock quartet, The Hanged Man. General Admission / Free Entry Tickets

• The Keychange Pledge now surpasses 600 global signatories united in creating change throughout the music industry  

• Pledge Report to be released, February 2023 detailing actions and findings from the 2018 - 2022 period of the Keychange Pledge

Today Keychange, the pioneering international initiative for gender equity in the music industry, welcomes 74 new participants to its 2023 Talent Development Programme. 

Bringing together a multitude of different skills and networks through the Keychange Pledge and Talent Development Programme, Keychange offers a unique ecosystem with international collaboration at its heart. 

Selected by industry and export specialists as future leaders, the newly announced participants mark the third cohort of artists and music industry professionals from 12 countries across Europe and Canada to take part in a year-long programme. It follows a highly competitive open call that received 830 applications.

Keychange introduces the 74 new participants: 

CANADA: (Artists) The Garrys, Desiree Dawson, Liza, Meisha and The Spanks

(Innovators)Roxanne Lemieux, Kingsley Swim, Nancy Lee, Gaby Gauthier-Durand

ESTONIA: (Artists)Maris Pihlap, Manna, Bedless Bones

(Innovators): Iti Teder, Tanya Korenik, Paula Hakkaja

FRANCE: (Artists)BRÖ, TOLVY, Poundo

(Innovators)Cecilia Pietrzko, Gina Périer, Lola Levant

GERMANY: (Artists) Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys, Gloria de Oliviera, Ava Vegas

(Innovators):Katie Wellenberg, Sarah Jane Nicholson, Amande Dagod 

ICELAND: (Artists)CYBER, Jelena Ciric, MSEA

(Innovators) Josie Anne Gaitens, Lama-sea Dear, Inga Magnes Weisshappel

ITALY: (Artists)IRuna, Claudym, Queen of Saba

(Innovators):Margherita Devalle, Alice Salvalai, Marika Lelario

NORWAY: (Artists):Moyka, Maud, KAMARA

(Innovators): Maria Bringsjord, Dana Jdid, Inger Braten

POLAND: (Artists)Izzy and the Black Trees, Agata Karczewska, Iza Smelczynska

(Innovators)Magda Jedrzejewska, Anna Klimczak, Urszula Nowak

 

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: (Artists): Pastiche, Tolü Makay, Katie Phelan

(Innovators):Bekah Molony, Maya Cullen Petrovic, Mags Blackburn 

SPAIN: (Artists):The Crab Apples, Gela, SUNESIS

(Innovators):Esther Cid, Grace Puluczek, Mabel Alonso 

SWEDEN: (Artists)Aasma, Felin, Kristina Issa 

(Innovators)Naomi Wood, Sorrel Salb, Jonna Eve Eriksson

UK: (Artists):Halina Rice, Pyra, Freddie Lewis 

(Innovators):Michelle Kombasha, NIKS, Saskhia Menendez

Keychange is proud to support exciting, diverse talent through the programme, and once again represents a broad range of music genres, sub-sectors and artists and professionals from diverse backgrounds. An inclusive approach aims to tackle complex intersectional barriers and within the latest cohort where participants responded to diversity and inclusion monitoring questions: 51.7% identify as LGBTQIA+; 9.5% of participants identify as gender expansive (non-binary, gender queer, gender fluid and other minority gender identities);  and 27.3% belong to racially marginalised communities within their countries. Keychange partners are also proud to offer additional access and childcare support to a number of selected participants and encourages others in the sector to help tackle such barriers to inclusion. 

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Keychange Talent Development Programme 2023

The Talent Development programme will launch with a Full Network Meet Up in Brussels on February 14th - 15th 2023. It will be curated by Sarah Bouhatous, programmer and co-ordinator at the Scivias platform, which works for greater inclusion in music in Wallonia-and-Brussels. The event will take place at the Keychange Pledge signatory and partner venue Ancienne Belgique -one of Belgium’s best concert halls and coordinator of Liveurope, the live music platform for new European talent. Furthermore, it will play host to a special Keychange live event featuring alumni from the Keychange programme: British alternative-soul singer, Tawiah and Swedish dream rock quartet, The Hanged Man 

The Talent Development programme aims to equip the 74 women and gender expansive  participants with the skills, resources and pathways needed to unlock their full potential in their area of expertise. 

Alongside the full network meet-ups, participants will take part in workshops, seminars and masterclasses at the 13 festivals that are partnered with Keychange across Europe and Canada. Artists will have the opportunity to perform at international showcases, whilst innovators will take part in international music conferences. Each participant will be invited to join a bespoke mentoring scheme created in collaboration with the global platform for women, gender non-conforming people, shesaid.so.

Isabelle Banos (Innovator, Canada) says,
After participating in Keychange I feel more energized, inspired and empowered than ever. This program has been one of the most amazing experiences in my career thus far, mainly because of my incredible fellow participants. Getting to connect with such talented women and gender minorities from all over the world has been absolutely life-changing to say the least. After a really tough couple of years, for all artists, this experience has left me feeling like I belong, like I matter, like I can do anything and actually have an impact on an industry that has, more often than not, made me feel like I can’t. Keychange has truly woken me up! -

The Keychange Talent Development programme and Pledge are working to create positive change towards an inclusive industry for all music creators and professionals that have experienced barriers as a result of their gender, including (but not limited to) transgender, non-binary, agender and genderfluid creators and professionals, as well as cis-women. 

 

Norwegian artist, Cham Léon, describes the positive impact of the programme:
Thanks to Keychange, underrepresented groups and genders are provided with a safe space to network and explore possibilities that would be very tough to achieve without their support. This opportunity is defining, in helping Keychange participants' with the resilience, skills and aspirations to realise their career potential in the music industry, and in providing international exposure that can unlock the potential to so much more. 

600+ Keychange Pledge Signatories and Pledge Report to be released, February ‘23

The announcement comes at a significant moment, as the Keychange Pledge has now achieved over 600 global signatories united in bringing about sustainable change by creating more opportunities and visibility for women and gender expansive artists and professionals throughout the music industry. The Keychange team is now working towards releasing a Pledge report which will summarise actions and findings from the 2018 - 2022 period of the Keychange Pledge, taking into account results and feedback from partners and signatories. The release of the report will coincide with the Keychange Full Network Meet-up in Brussels in February 2023, and will outline future areas of focus and next steps for the Pledge itself, as well as for Pledge signatories.

 

Merle Bremer, Project Lead Keychange (Reeperbahn Festival) says,
We are now in the third year of the Keychange programme. After two challenging years of the pandemic and in spite of a tense geo-political context, I look forward to the coming year with optimism. The Keychange Partner Network has selected 74 remarkable participants who will travel to festivals throughout Europe and Canada starting in spring. At Keychange, we are taking further steps to create sustainable change that insists upon a more equitable and inclusive music industry moving forward.

We will shortly be publishing an evaluation of the progress around the Keychange Pledge.

Over the past year we have been polling our pledge signatories on the progress of line-ups, team members and other fields in which they have committed to gender balance. I am looking forward to the results and hope that they will confirm the success of the Keychange movement. These findings will also form the building blocks for the next chapter of our work.

The latest Keychange Pledge signatories include Believe + TuneCore (US), The Society for the Administration of Copyright in Congo (DRC) and Royal Irish Academy of Music (IE)  to join Clockenflap (HK),  Eurosonic Noorderslag (NL), Iceland Airwaves (IS), Oslo World (NO), Tallinn Music Week (EE), Zandari Festa (KR), Royal Opera House (UK) Southbank Centre (UK) and EBU Music (EU). See the full list of organisations here. 

 

Keychange Alumni Network 
Keychange is currently creating frameworks to deepen the connections between the three cohorts to create a designated Alumni Network. The participants are at the core of the Keychange talent development programme, and the Alumni Network aims to build on the connections made during their time in the Keychange programme, and to further develop and promote international exchange and interdisciplinary knowledge sharing. In quarterly roundtables, participants will share their expertise with the group and provide webinars on matters such as mental health support and career strategising. 

 

we.grow Mentorship Programme extends to 2023
Keychange and shesaid.so continue their mentoring collaboration, we.grow in 2023, pairing the latest participants of the Keychange talent development programme with experts and industry specialists from across the global music industry for six months of impactful mentorship.

The we.grow mentorship collaboration was launched in April 2020, when Keychange and shesaid.so united to develop a bespoke peer to peer mentoring programme for women and gender expansive artists and innovators. This collaboration has provided invaluable connections and professional support through difficult times, by bringing more than 74 mentoring pairs together for both peer-to-peer sessions, as well as providing participants with mentorship from music industry professionals from multiple sectors. 

 

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