Future Leaders: Keychange announces a new 2022 cohort of 76 artist and innovator participants from 12 countries to lead global movement for gender equality in music

The innovative year-long talent development programme provides women and gender minority participants with the skills and opportunities they need to progress to the next stage in their career. 

Today Keychange, the pioneering international initiative for gender equality in the music industry, welcomes 76 new faces to its 2022 talent development programme. Selected by industry and export experts as future leaders, the new cohort of artists and music industry professionals from 12 different countries will take part in a year-long programme, following an open call that received 590 applications. 

Participants include Shereen Perera, Senior Producer of Women of the World Foundation (UK), Samantha Slattery, Founder of Women in Music Canada (CA), Mathilde Neuville, Co-founder of Consentis for the prevention of sexism and sexual violence in music (FR) and the hotly tipped alternative indie Rough Trade artist, Laura Lee & the Jettes (DE) who is poised to play key festival slots this March at NYC Festival New Colossus and SXSW. 

Keychange is delighted to introduce the 76 new participants:

CANADA: (Artists) Alysha Brilla, Liliane Chlela, Mise en Scene, Paris Pick

(Innovators) Flora Garnier, Isabelle Banos, Noreen Hamid, Samantha Slattery

ESTONIA: (Artists) Anett, OOPUS, Tuulikki Bartosik, Vera Vice

(Innovators): Britt Randma, Kertu Mägar, Sandra Perens

FRANCE: (Artists) ٥٥ گليثرGlitter, Anna Majidson, Bandit Bandit

(Innovators) Emily Gonneau, Gwendolenn Sharp, Mathilde Neuville

GERMANY: (Artists) Albertine Sarges, Laura Lee & the Jettes, lùisa

(Innovators): AZLAY, Imke Machura, Katharin Ahrend

ICELAND: (Artists) Possimiste, Sunna Margrét, Ultraflex

(Innovators) Anna Dungal, Björt Sigfinnsdóttir, Bryndís Jonatansdóttir, Kim Wagenaar

IRELAND: (Artists): Dani Larkin, NIMF, shiv

(Innovators): Ismay Bourke, Laura McCabe, Naoise Roo Callan

ITALY: (Artists) Anna Bassy, Arya, effe effe

(Innovators): Flavia Guarino, Sara Colantonio, Silvia Nocentini aka NoOx

NORWAY: (Artists): Nedja, Cham Léon

(Innovators): Camilla Christensen, Kine Lundervold, Lennea Lyssand, Sofie Søndervik Sæther

POLAND: (Artists) IFI UDE, Misia Furtak, Moriah Woods

(Innovators) Gosia Bego, Inga Plewicka, Tamara Kaminska

SPAIN: (Artists): airu, Efe Ce Ele, LAU

(Innovators): Alayna Hughes, Ariane Paras, Jeanny Ricci

SWEDEN: (Artists) Fågelle, The Magnettes, Sissel Wincent

(Innovators) Affa Alizadeh, Ivy Ofori, Sofia Sandqvist

UK: (Artists): caro♡, Eliza Shaddad, IMOGEN

(Innovators): Bishi, Eve Horne, Shereen Perera

Listen to the Keychange 2022 artist playlists here: SoundCloud, Spotify. Read more about each of the brilliant participants on the Keychange website here, which also serves as a vital resource of fresh international talent for festivals and Keychange signatories to draw upon. 

Keychange Talent Development Programme 2022

Launching with a digital kick-off on February 16th - 18th 2022, this extensive programme aims to equip the 76 women and gender minority participants with the skills, resources and opportunities needed to fast track them to the next stage in their career. 

Alongside the full network meet-ups, participants will take part in Creative Labs at the 13 festivals that are partnered with Keychange in Europe and Canada. The Creative Labs will take the form of workshops, seminars, studio sessions, masterclasses and more. In addition to these opportunities, the programme’s artists will take part in international showcases, Innovators will be invited to international music conferences and each participant will be invited to benefit from a mentoring scheme created in collaboration with shesaid.so.

International collaboration lies at the heart of the programme, which will be curated by Sofie Marin throughout 2022. 

Sofie Marin, Keychange Capacity Building Lead, founder and CEO of From Sweden Productions / Arts Dynamics says,
It is a great honour to curate the programme for the 2022 cohort in close partnership with esteemed Keychange colleagues and partners across Europe and Canada. Keychange is a unique project in the sense that as a capacity building initiative it not only provides the strategies, tools and connections for up-skilling, mastery and growth. It also empowers the participants with a voice, clarity and direction to bring about positive change as emerging cultural leaders in their respective fields. Something that is much needed in the world today. She continues: Now more than ever there’s a need for human connection, interaction, inclusion, and support across the borders which will be at the core of everything we do; whether physical, hybrid and/or digital. More details about the programme will be presented in London 16-18 February.

The Keychange Talent Development programme includes:

- Participation in digital kick-off in February 16th, 17th & 18th 2022*

- Participation in full network meet-up in London, UK, in June 8th and 9th 2022 and Reeperbahn    Festival in September

- Mentoring via shesaid.so and Keychange’s collaborative scheme, we.grow

- For Artists: showcase and Creative Lab activity at one of the 13 international partner festivals

- For Innovators: participation and Creative Lab activity at one of the 13 international partner festivals

- Capacity building with a bespoke training programme

- Participating in a global network of past Keychange participants and music organisations working to achieve better gender representation at every levels of the music industry 

* In light of the ongoing uncertainty with COVID19 and in order to prioritise the safety of participants coming from several countries, Keychange has taken the difficult decision to hold it’s Kick-Off Online and to move the in-person Full Network Meet Up to June.

Merle Bremer, Project Lead Keychange (Reeperbahn Festival) says,

With joy and excitement, I look forward to the coming year and to seeing the many talented artists and innovators who will participate in the Keychange Capacity Building Programme 2022.

Unfortunately, Covid is still ubiquitous. Studies show that women and non-binary people are more affected by the impact of the pandemic than others. However, I am confident that with Keychange we are creating a motivating programme that will support all participants to (re)build their professional and personal skills and achieve their career goals in 2022. In this context, Keychange is working hard to deliver a better experience for participants and use all the tools at its disposal to create a robust and truly worldwide network - even across European borders.

Barbara Gessler, Head of Unit Creative Europe, and Susanne Hollmann, Deputy Head Cultural Policy Unit say

We are very happy to support a project like Keychange through our EU funding programme “Creative Europe”. It’s a remarkable and inspiring project which promotes underrepresented talent in music by equipping women and gender minorities with the necessary skills and competences, helping them to build networks and encouraging them to increase their mobility. We’re looking forward to the next phase of its implementation!

The announcement comes at an exciting moment for Keychange, as the number of music organisations that have signed up to the gender balance pledge surpasses 550 - with latest signatories including Believe, Snowbombing festival and Ted Baker’s Street Party Sessions, who also join the movement as a Sponsor. Watch the Ted Baker X Keychange: Clare Amfo in conversation with Jamz Supernova piece here.

To date, 133 participants have taken part in the Keychange programme, the impressive achievements of its alumna include: 

Double platinum recognition to folk artist Hafdis Huld for her album Vogguvisur, ranking Top Artist Iceland #1 in Spotify Charts. In Canada, indigenous indie electronic artist Iskwe received a Juno Award 2020 (CA) for ‘Video of the Year’, and was nominated for the SOCAN prize shortly after. 2020 also saw a slew of international nominations go to Keychange artists including the rapper and audio engineer, Cell7 at the ‘Nordic Music Prize’, Welsh singer songwriter Violet Skies for International Rookie of the Year at the ‘Denniz Pop Award’ (SE) and experimental pop act Islet for best album at the Welsh Music Prize (UK). RTÉ Choice Music Prize also recognised Dublin indie rock outfit, Pillow Queens with a nomination for Irish Album of the Year (2020), with the singer song-writer Elaine Mai receiving recognition in 2021.

Prior to this, Soul R & B singer songwriter Poppy Ajudha, was named as one of Barack Obama’s favourite artists, Kat Frankie, was nominated as ‘best producer’ at the ‘PopKulture Prize 2018’ (DE). Harriet Moss was promoted to Managing Director of publishers Manners McDade, and songwriter IMAN (SE), wrote a multi-million streamed track with Zara Larsson.

we.grow Mentorship Programme extends to 2022

Keychange and shesaid.so are proud to reveal that their mentoring collaboration, we.grow will continue into 2022, providing the latest participants of the Keychange talent development programme with one-to-one mentoring throughout the coming year.

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 minority artists and innovators. This collaboration has endured throughout the pandemic so far, providing invaluable connections and professional support through difficult times, by bringing more than 35 mentoring pairs together for both peer-to-peer sessions, as well as providing participants with mentorship from music industry professionals from multiple sectors. 

Andreea Magdalina, founder of shesaid.so says

Following the success of our partnership in 2021, we’re excited to be able to continue our journey with Keychange to deliver a high impact mentorship programme for the 2022 Cohort. At shesaid.so we believe in the transformative power of mentoring on an international level - to develop careers in the music industry and help build businesses that have a strong understanding of cultures and markets worldwide. At such a pivotal time for the industry, it's more important than ever to provide individualized professional development for women and gender minorities that allows them to create connections, and be guided by role models.

Flore Benguigui, Keychange Ambassador, singer and songwriter with the band L’Impératrice (FR) says

Despite how hard it was to select just a few people from so many brilliant candidates, it’s also very exciting (and unfortunately so rare) to bring together these international talents of different ages, ethnicities, social backgrounds, genres and career levels, to create a rich exchange of information and knowledge between them all. Because in the end, that’s what music is all about : exchange, connection, transmission. This connection is very precious for the music industry, as it allows this new talent to be more involved in contributing to changing, adapting and improving the future of music programming, representation in boardrooms and beyond.

Quotes from 2021 Keychange participants

Mar Sellars - Mar On Music Management, Radio Host, PR and Consultant (CA) says 

My experience with Keychange was nothing that I could ever have expected. When we met up (pre-COVID) in Sweden, I was blown away by the amazing people I met as fellow Keychange participants, incredibly smart, talented, worldly, creative humans. Everyone has such a dynamically different background, colleagues who are in production, marketing, psychology, the musicians themselves and more. 

Magda Cholyst, Founder of Artist in Bloom, Artist Coach, Educator (PL) says

Keychange is like a huge mastermind. You get a unique opportunity to be in active conversation with an experienced, inspiring, open-minded international community. For people who seek not only for business growth, but also understanding of themselves as well as the world changing everyday, this experience is priceless. For me, as a woman in the music industry, cultural entrepreneur and human being, Keychange is one of the turning points in my personal and professional story.

Rosana Corbacho, Music Industry Psychologist, Founder of M.I. Therapy (ES) says

What a trip! Keychange offered a phenomenal space and structure for connecting within the group and in the international festivals network. I have been able to help with the group therapy sessions during the pandemic. I also gained more experience and confidence doing workshops, panels & conferences. My favourite part is definitely everyone I got to meet and learn from. 

Katie Tavini, Mastering Engineer, 2x Music Producers Guild Mastering Engineer of the Year nominee (UK) says

During the Keychange programme, I met Kat Kennedy who is a music manager at Big Life, and we’ve gone on to work on loads of projects together, including We Are Scientists latest album Huffy. Kat was one of the first people who I met at the first Keychange event in Sweden. She’s a brilliant manager and it’s been such an honour to work with artists who she manages! I also worked with Pillow Queens on their first album during the pandemic, I love them so much and was already a big fan! Honestly, Keychange has changed my life! I’m so grateful for the opportunities Keychange has given me, and also the opportunities from other Keychange participants.