Blu DeTiger, Olivia Dean, Orla Gartland and Miss Grit have all been confirmed to play NME‘s Girls To The Front online special for International Women’s Day 2021.
Initially created as a live event series that showcases female and non-binary artists as well as celebrating gigs as a safe place for all genders, in the past shows have featured performances from Poppy, AMA, Nasty Cherry, Tove Lo, The Japanese House, Beabadoobee, Dream Wife, GIRLI, GLOWIE, and Black Honey among others.
Now NME will be bringing Girls To The Front online for a special live streamed show to mark International Women’s Day on March 8.
The show will air at 8pm GMT, and be available to watch on the NME YouTube channel and NME.com.
Also joining the artists above are five acts from Asia and Australia: Bitch Diesel, LÂLKA, The Buildings, Grrrl Gang and Pyra. They will perform at 1pm GMT / 7pm Singapore and Malaysia time / 8pm WIB and Thailand time / 10pm AEDT.
Blu DeTiger is New York’s “achingly cool bass virtuoso” – known for her viral TikTok videos that have seen her cover everything from ‘WAP’ by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s to Janet Jackson‘s ‘Control’.
Speaking to NME last month Blu explained that she wants to rally against sexist stereotypes in the industry through her music. “Growing up I didn’t really have anyone to look up to besides Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads,” she told NME. “I definitely want to be a role model and inspire young people to pick up an instrument – that’s one of my main goals.”
Miss Grit will be joining Blu DeTiger on the bill. The Michigan-born, NYC-based artist (real name Margaret Sohn) released her acclaimed EP ‘Imposter’ last month – which NME hailed as “a reflective collection brimming with confidence”. Also performing will be East Londoner Olivia Dean, who shared her gorgeous ‘What Am I Gonna Do On Sundays?’ EP at the end of last year – a stunning four-track release that demonstrates her brilliant diaristic lyricism.
Rounding off our line-up is Orla Gartland. The rising Dublin singer-songwriter-producer is gearing up to release her debut album – and if it’s anything like irresistible recent single ‘More Like You’, it’s one to get excited for.
Explaining why she wanted to be involved in NME’s Girls to the Front, Orla Gartland told NME: “Whether I realised it or not, my experience in music as an artist, song-writer and producer, it is through the lens of being a woman, and it’s easy to forget that sometimes; but then sometimes I’m in rooms or at gigs, and I do become very aware of it maybe for the wrong reasons.”
She added: “I think it’s important because in pre-Covid life when it came to festival stages, there obviously has been a conversation happening for a few years about festival headliners and making sure there’s diversity; but there’s also something great in just literally pushing the girls to the front and letting them be the main event.”
NME’s Girls to the Front International Women’s Day online will take place on 8 March 2021, at 8pm GMT. You can watch it on the NME YouTube or NME.com.