Over the weekend, people the world over came together to celebrate International Women’s Day. In London, singer Anne-Marie led the charge, headlining an evening of empowerment and fun with Pandora. Held in support of UNICEF, it proved the perfect way to mark the annual date, a vital time to focus on raising women up. For Anne-Marie, her role in proceedings was her small way to be a part of something bigger.
‘I feel like the world is suffocated with bad news stories’, she tells Grazia after the event. ‘So it’s really important to have a day that’s focused solely on women and their success stories. I try to celebrate women every day and am lucky to have such strong women in my life, including my mum and sister.’
Anne-Marie’s booking aligns with Pandora’s work with UNICEF to support girls and young women with what they need to achieve their dreams. Now, they’ve launched a new charm to support UNICEF’s endeavours.
Through her work, which has seen her become a familiar voice on the airwaves thanks to songs like Alarm, Friends and Clean Bandit’s Rockabye, Anne-Marie has witnessed the rollercoaster of the music industry first-hand, so is more than aware of its problems, such as a lack of female representation in festivals. ‘I’ve been lucky enough to play at so many festivals myself I hadn’t realised how so many of them actually lack diversity and have such a low percentage of female acts,’ she explains. ‘It feels like the same thing sometimes happens with awards ceremonies. Unfortunately, I think it goes deeper than just having more women nominated: it’s about having more opportunities for women to get into roles within music, film, TV and beyond.’
But, she adds, it’s not going to change overnight: the biggest challenge, she says, is that the industry is so male-dominated. ‘It can be quite an intimidating place,’ she says. ‘However, I have always been opinionated and outspoken about my own path and career: I try to promote women as much as possible by supporting other new artists and other women in the music industry. Whenever I go on tour, I try to take new, young female artists with me so they can get experience of being on the road.’
With women like Anne-Marie fighting their corner, the music industry may just become a more inclusive and equal place. Watch this space.
Shop the Pandora for UNICEF We Can Do Anything charm here.
Between 5 March and 30 April 2020, Pandora will donate £12 of the purchase price of each charm sold to UNICEF.