Women in the music industry

To celebrate International Women's Rights Day, whose theme this year is ‘For ALL women and girls: rights, equality and empowerment’, Les Abattoirs is organising a round-table discussion on ‘Women in the music industry’ on Saturday 8 March 2025.

The Centre national de la musique held its second Assises de l'égalité femmes-hommes dans la musique on 9 February 2023.  This report takes stock of the presence of women in the music industry: it has to be said that parity between women and men on stage and in the studio has not yet been achieved. This study highlights the fact that women artists are half as visible as their male peers, whether in the programming of French concert halls, on recordings produced and marketed, or on the titles most widely played in the traditional media and on streaming platforms. Within companies, the workforce is more evenly balanced, particularly in permanent positions, although other inequalities persist: the pay gap widens with age, part-time work is more common among women, and access to positions of responsibility is more difficult. Inequalities in pay for intermittent positions are also present, to the detriment of women technicians and artists.

Highlighting the presence of women in the music industry in 2025 is the aim of this round-table discussion with the rapper Zinée, Laetitia Leroy, backlineuse, stage manager and Sophie Levy-Valensi, producer. The meeting will be moderated by Lauriane Gricourt, director of Les Abattoirs, Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse.

Zinée, an artist from Toulouse, introduced herself to her public in 2020 with a number of singles, including ‘Tour de magie’, ‘Tournoi’ and ‘313’. They reveal the subtle yet determined tone of an artist with an incisive pen. A first EP, ‘Futée’, followed later that year. With the tracks on this project, Zinée confirms her artistic direction and supports a nonchalant flow at the heart of a nebulous sound universe. Zinée quickly gained a following among fans of the indie scene. A growing underground following that eventually reached the ears of La 75e session, the Paris-based breeding ground for rap talent. The rapper then surrounded herself with the advice and influences of some of her artists (Népal, Sheldon, Damlif...) and released her first album, ‘Cobalt’ in 2021. A successful project, through which many people have been able to discover her. Zinée is back with ‘Osmin’, a long-awaited project carved out of memories and the quest for serenity. Her distinctive voice is transformed into raw rap or melancholy melodies, odes to determination in the face of the trials that punctuate her life and her music.

‘We've come full circle’, says Zinée. For several months now, the rapper has been back living in her childhood home in Toulouse, after an exodus to Brussels and four years in Paris that saw her blossom into an atypical and respected artist. But the ‘child of the South’, as she defines herself, remains a child of the South and cannot resist the call of her roots. Her first album, Osmin, was entirely composed and recorded in the midst of memories and isolation, with producer Sheldon as her only other architect. His third album explores the difficult balance between strength and fragility, between the vestiges of childhood and the need to look to the future.

Backliner technician Laetitia Leroy has been setting up, adjusting and looking after instruments and artists alike for over ten years now. She's been with Bigflo and Oli for nearly 6 years and has worked with Georgio, 3 Cafés Gourmands and Age Tendre et têtes de Bois, among others. These experiences have taken her to some of the biggest festivals and venues in France and beyond. Originally from the Pas de Calais, this Toulousan by adoption is proud of the career she has built up. Woman - technician, a dream that she has transformed into a daily routine. A daily life that she enriches with her work as a painter under the name Vulvedor, a committed project that questions the place of women in our society.

Originally from Toulouse, Sophie Levy-Valensi started out as a lawyer, but soon realised that she had a passion for music, artists and organising events, so she resigned from the law courts. It was at Bleu Citron, a broadcaster, producer and promoter of shows, that she learned all about private entertainment, in particular the freedom to undertake and follow her desires. Some 6,000 concerts later, and hundreds of festival editions in the past, she retains the daily excitement of bringing musical and comedy events to life and guiding teams towards new projects.

With her roots firmly planted in the Toulouse region, she has a strong attachment to this land of independent music: the constant theme of her work over the last 25 years has been local promotion.  At Bleu Citron, Sophie Levy-Valensi has pursued a real HR policy, which has led her to make a number of observations and develop the integration of women into the technical professions.

‘I have a real appetite for working in mixed and female teams, and I pay close attention to the role of women in our company, which now has 70 employees and takes on several hundred temporary workers a year’, she says.