Anoushka Shankar Announced as Inaugural President of the F-List

Photograph by Harald Krichel

Anoushka Shankar, award-winning musician and daughter of Ravi Shankar, has been announced as the president of the F-List. The F-List is a website directory of female artists, made freely available in a push to end the gender inequality prevalent in the music business. Having experienced the negative impact of gender imbalance in her own career, Anoushka Shankar hopes that the F-List will help correct this.

'I noticed that, even as a female artist and a self-proclaimed feminist, I was hiring way more male musicians than female and it was something I had to try and actively correct.'

Anoushka Shankar pointed to falling into choosing to work with people that she was familiar with, rather than seeking out new and diverse talent.

Music festivals have frequently come under criticism for their lack of female artists in their line-ups, with women making up just 15% of the headline acts for many major festivals. The hope is that next year, festivals will reach the appropriate 50/50 split, with Glastonbury already committed to achieving this.