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———- NFB
Notes from Barcelona is back one last time with a special instalment. This closing chapter revolves around a subject very close to Punktastic’s heart and mission.
Having reviewed much of Barcelona’s local and regional live underground scene over the last year – including a number of wonderful female-led acts – we thought we would bring you food for thought from a praiseworthy cause. One with a very unique tie to the city.
For this final feature we connected with shesaid.so, a global network of women who operate in the music industry, including a relatively small yet strong representation in the Catalan capital. Established in 2014, shesaid.so’s vision is to establish an environment that fuels collaboration, creativity, and positive values among female music industry practitioners and artists. Working on this goal, the project aims to provide a platform for discussion and community building around the world.
shesaid.so has been active ever since founder Andreea Magdalina toyed with the idea of consolidating an autonomous community for women fighting against the establishment’s structural discrimination.
From the beginning, one of its primary intents was to create interactive events for its members and their extended network, and to showcase talented female artists and their representatives. They do this by curating and speaking on panels aimed at promoting exceptional work by women in the industry, as well as offering partnership and networking opportunities to its members.
Today the community counts an active membership of almost 3,000 women around the world. Its headquarters are in London (where the movement originally began) and Los Angeles, while other key hubs are located in the Bay Area, NYC, Paris, Berlin, Mumbai and other musical poles around the globe, to a total of fourteen active cities. Barcelona is proudly one of them, as it quickly grew to host and coordinate more than 400 women across their professional and artistic endeavours.
We took the chance to speak to Barcelona-based director Georgia Taglietti and shesaid.so’s founder Andreea, discussing the origins of the initiative, the importance of keeping the community connected, the role of Barcelona in the wider community, and their new mentoring scheme.
Los Angeles-based Andreea, with a background in the UK music technology space, tells us how the idea for shesaid.so first came her when she realised that “music and technology have always struggled with diversity, particularly as one went up the career ladder to roles with decision-making power”. She noticed that the issues she was experiencing weren’t isolated, which is why she decided to put together “a group of women to start sharing these frustrations, and opportunities that would help us grow in our careers”.
One of the key objectives of the movement is the abolishment of gender stereotypes within music, by encouraging future role models. Explains Andreea, “It was important to launch initiatives that would help bridge the gap between men and women.” Primarily this would be achieved “by increasing the number of women who enter the music industry workforce, but also increasing the number of those who stay and progress in their careers”.
The initial reception to the cause, as well as its subsequent growth, have been excellent. “I wasn’t really planning for shesaid.so to become as big of an initiative as it has become”, admits Andreea, who now feels like she has the responsibility to continue with her work improving diversity and positive actions, regardless of what’s trending in the media and how much of a momentum there is at any given time.
This is why, to counter systemic and ideological struggles – and in times when even the most powerful female artists are sometimes accused of failing the Bechdel test – the community strives to achieve concrete and career-related goals by connecting the network together. “shesaid.so is a place where women can share job opportunities, interesting articles, personal stories, call for contacts and so on”, explains Andreea. “It’s all just useful stuff that helps their careers get better”.
Georgia Taglietti, who heads up the Barcelona hub, and also doubles as Global Board Member, is quick to stress how the Catalan capital represented an ideal working environment for the movement, due to its historical and cultural context. “Barcelona is still a quite conservative work environment, so I wanted to give local women the hope that things can be as diverse and inclusive as in other international music cities”.
Georgia has a wealth of experience in the music space, not least spearheading PR and communications for Barcelona’s very own music festival Sónar (where, she notes, her bosses “are all men”). Her resume and expertise put her in an ideal role when it comes to guiding and mentoring younger women within the shesaid.so’s sisterhood. She explains that “being one of the oldest members in the community, I made it a clear mission of mine to help younger and upcoming female professionals and artists going up the ladder”.
Having lived in Catalonia for 33 years, she is no stranger to Barcelona’s social and cultural dynamics. “Barcelona is a small city, however too often isolated clusters are quick to form within it, both privately and professionally”, says Georgia. This results in groups made up of “foreigners with foreigners, locals with locals, and people from the music industry not even talking to each other”.
At the same time, the seasoned shesaid.so Barcelona director knows that the movement possesses a global network and reach, both online and in-person. Ultimately, says Georgia, her contribution is “about promoting the bigger picture”, inspired as she was by the realisation that “before shesaid.so, girls and women who live here didn’t feel like there was real community for music industry people, let alone women in the music space”.
Today, Barcelona’s hub within the wider initiative is becoming increasingly mature, funnelling tangible benefits for all the women involved. “shesaid.so in Barcelona is very focused on sharing hiring options for younger local girls”, says Georgia, as “hiring is the most important thing here”. Interestingly, however, “some of the strongest and most active members in Barcelona are artists. The artist is the most visible manifestation of the movement for the public”.
More recently, shesaid.so launched its first global mentorship scheme, dubbed she.grows, after a successful pilot programme last year when it paired up 22 members of the shesaid.so community. Andreea tells us how she.grows is “a very practical way in which one can help someone else in her career, by simply mentoring them”. She adds that as part of this year’s programme, the movement will be helping 100 different women by connecting 50 pairs of mentors and mentees around the world.
When asked about some of the movement’s similar milestones over the years, the founder openly reveals: “I feel like every time I receive an email from someone who is thanking the movement for impacting their career or their life in any small way, that’s a huge milestone every single time”. This results in a win-win situation, as she is quick to point out how “that’s the kind of attitude that helps us push forward with our mission”.
Both Andreea and Georgia hope for shesaid.so to become a long-lasting effort with long-lasting effects, and they agree that things are starting to change. People within and outside the music space are noticing. “[Men] are getting more and more conscious, and that’s important”, reveals Georgia, adding how oftentimes “it’s almost like a fear-effect. They don’t look scared, but they are”.
Our two interviewees aren’t shy to admit that there is still room for potential improvement. In the years to come, they want to grow the wider network sustainably, for instance by building business plans with appropriate trade partners. And they want to optimise the intersection between female industry people and performing artists, by involving more women performers at their live events and showcases.
The overall impression is that shesaid.so is a powerful movement that is eager to achieve more, with an impressive trajectory that has great potential for the future of women in the music industry. There are big decisions waiting to be made, as the core team is working on optimising their communication channels and deciding what is best for their members. Today, both Andreea and Georgia are sure of one thing: “shesaid.so is about feeling stronger, together. And this feeling is amazing.”
Gràcies per tot i viva Catalunya!
———- NFB
Still, I’d urge you all to check out the source feature article directly on Punktastic too, as it’s wonderfully wrapped in shiny and fancy designs as well as relevant music discovery embeds that massively elevate the final product. More generally, go show them some love and explore all the incredible articles and reviews they publish, as it’s by far a much better site than this one and you won’t be disappointed.
I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.
AV
Everything Must Swing 