New research has highlighted the lack of airplay for female Irish artists. The Gender Disparity Report was compiled by music PR consultant Linda Coogan Byrne and her colleague Aine Tyrrel and takes account of airplay over the last 12 months.
The research found that, out of the top 20 Irish artists across 28 music-paying radio stations encompassing 560 artists, just 41 are female.
This means that female artists represent just 7.3% of the all the top 20 artists. The Cranberries, featuring the late Dolores O’Riordan, make up six entries on the 41 female-featured artists. Soulé accounts for nine of those entries.
Four stations, FM 104, LM FM, WLR FM and South East Radio, had no female artists in their top 20. Of the remainder that did feature a female artist, most had just one woman in the top 20. RTÉ Radio One was the only station to have a gender balanced top 20, featuring a 50-50 split in the top 20. RTÉ 2FM had two female acts in its top 20, Roisin Murphy and Soulé. headtopics.com
Source: Linda Coogan Byrne The research also looked at the top 5 most-played songs by Irish artists at each of the stations.