Meesha Shafi, Zeb Bangash, others call out LSA for failing to nominate female artists

The Lux Style Awards announced nominations for its upcoming celebration yesterday, drawing criticism from female artists from around the country. The music category disappointed womxn singers and musicians, since the list comprised only of men from the fraternity despite there being significant work from female artists this year.

Meesha Shafi

"Not a single woman nominated in the LSA music nominations," highlighted Meesha while tagging fellow female artists from the fraternity including Hadiqa Kiani, Quratulain Baloch, Nimra Rafiq, Zeb Bangash, Abida Parveen, Naseebo Lal, Natasha Noorani, Arooj Aftab, Eva B, Justin Bibis and more.

The long list of names was a testament to the fact that there isn't a dearth of female artists in Pakistan and hence, the choice to nominate only men would have to be a conscious one. "Erasure at this scale (there is an exceptionally high number of nominations this time) of the entire female population occupying the music industry is unjustifiable and highly problematic," she wrote. "The LSA brand and jury has set an example of women being blindsided and denied the recognition they deserve."

The Rajkumari singer took a jibe at the brand for advertising "on the back of women" to sell their products and still failing to be mindful of equity for gender. What particularly upset her was the “discrimination” at the jury’s end despite there being ample female artists that could’ve qualified for a nod. "LSA is accountable and should be answerable for these blatant discriminations," she concluded.

Zeb Bangash

Zeb reposted Meesha's story and shared that while awards in the country haven't "necessarily been a measure of an artist's calibre, contribution and/or popularity" they do reflect their acknowledgement and acceptance in the fraternity.

Therefore, "to completely ignore women on a platform fuelled by a woman-centric brand is surprising and gives cause for concern," she wrote while expressing her disbelief at how not even a single woman artist made the cut.

Momina Mustehsan

Momina Mustehsan penned an entire note to highlight the importance of LSA and the reputation it has garnered. “LSA holds value and respect of Pakistanis for being the longest-running event extending nods to arts and artists despite Lux not being an art, music, film entity. We need to address systematic inequalities that exist, specifically for women in music that are extremely problematic and sometimes subconscious, needing immediate conscious correction – like washing harmful germs with soap.” she wrote.

The Awari singer offered the brand the benefit of the doubt, suggesting that whatever transpired, maybe an “unintentional oversight from Unilever or Lux, to exclude an entire gender when setting out to acknowledge an entire industry.” She added, “Omitting female contributors even from the 80+ music works they did nominate in haphazard distribution. And that is exactly what the problem is. When we take responsibility for extending nods on behalf of people, we owe it to be intentional, responsible, inclusive and fair to all.”

Maria Unera

Giving a thumbs up to Meesha's criticism, Maria Unera chimed in, “You’ll have women sell you soaps and products but y’all don’t have the decency to nominate women in music? Should be ashamed of yourselves. I’m not even surprised anymore at this point, just straight-up disappointed.”

Attaching a local news report on the same, she pointed out that this is the only list she has seen and not a single female artist has been named in the music category. “Same…I just see the same dudes over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again…. What a damn shame,” she wrote.

Risham Faiz Bhutta

Punjabi musician Risham Faiz Bhutta, also tagged in the list by Meesha, took to Twitter to criticise the lack of inclusion. "I speak for all female musicians who have worked hard on their music/art. LSA should be answerable for this ignorance,” read her tweet.

Posting her tweet on Instagram, she further added, “Seeing the list didn’t demotivate me but shocked me to the core that no one from the jury thought about this. Was it THAT okay to have no female musician to be a part of the nominations?” The Kunwaray singer tagged the brand and demanded answers for the list made her feel like “women didn’t exist this year.”

Rachel Viccaji

Singer Rachel Viccaji also re-shared a post about Meesha, Zeb and Risham’s criticism of Lux Style Awards nominations and wrote, “where is the appreciation for our female artists? Women have been SLAYING in the music industry!" and asked the award show organisers to "do better."

Sameen Qasim

Singer Sameen Qasim also offered her two cents on the subject. “While LSA has always existed as a corrupt and money-mongering model that only works in favour of the who’s-who of Pakistan, this level of erasure is shocking! I guess the music industry was already predominantly a boy’s club but now institutions that should judge talent regardless of (any) gender are also hopeless.”

She went on to point out, “Arooj [Aftab] went on to win a Grammy but judges here don’t even think women are qualified for an LSA.” She started a Q&A on Instagram asking her followers for names of female artists they think should have been nominated. Many suggested Amna Riaz, Annual Khalid, Shae Gill, HoneyJamn, and Wajiha Naqvi’s should’ve been nominated.

Natasha Noorani

The Laiyan singer Natasha Noorani also reposted Meesha's Instagram Story to write, “The systemic erasure of women in music always manifests in new ways. So sick of the boys’ club. Gatekeeping starts in the studio.”

LSA responds

Fareshta Aslam, one of the organisers of LSA, commented on the chaos online and invalidated all concerns by female artists. “This is a submission list. Whoever submitted is on this list. Nominations will be announced after voting, and then finally a winner will be announced,” she said.

Meesha, respectfully disagreeing with Fareshta’s comment, took to her stories again and asked, “Shouldn’t it be called ‘the submission list’” instead of the nominations? “We know our male colleagues who are on the list and it is a fact that so many of them submitted nothing.”

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