Check out the first episode of Madame Talk Europe, the podcast that raises the visibility of queer and female rap artists in Europe!
In this first episode, we take a look at France.
According to a study by the National Music Center (CNM) entitled “Le rap dans l’écosystème musical français”, published in May 2024, rap is the musical genre that generated the highest number of streams per track in 2024: 6.4 million. Yet female and LGBT+ rappers remain largely invisible on this scene.
Hardly ever signed to major labels, given little coverage in the mainstream media, forgotten at festivals, women and queer artists seem almost non-existent.
Still according to the CNM study, in 2022, less than 2% of all rap tracks in the top 10,000 were by French female rappers. 15% of rap tracks produced and recorded in France were performed by “female leads”, and only 17% of rap track productions were performed by women.
Contrary to what these figures might suggest, female rappers do exist. Madame Rap lists almost 500 in France alone.
So where are they? Why are they still invisible? What responsibility do the various players in the music industry hold? What can be done to find alternative paths and still make it in a hostile system? Which solutions can be found?
Thérèse, committed multidisciplinary artist, and Antoine Dabrowski, editor-in-chief of Tsugi Radio, try to answer these questions.
Madame Talk Europe is available on all listening platforms and in 6 languages: listen here.
Produced by Madame Rap and supported by the European Union via LIVEMX.
