As you may have heard, it’s International Women’s Day today and we are definitely all for it. Here at Wordplay though we believe that championing new music and advocating gender equality in the industry should be an all-year outlook. We pride ourselves on promoting creative endeavours in an egalitarian way at every point, from production to collaboration, performance to promotion. As part of IWD we feel it’s important to reiterate this as well as highlight some women who’re making some serious nosie in the industry…

Arlo Parks burst onto the scene with her hauntingly beautiful songs – which proved immensely popular soundtracks for last year’s uncertain times – such as ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Eugene’ amongst others in the run up to the astounding ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’ album. Her signature bittersweet songwriting and lyrical impetus has been pure musical escapism for many people – garnering a huge 3.3m monthly listeners on Spotify and a huge amount of media coverage, including Wordplay! Arlo Parks is our cover artist for our latest issue with an in-depth interview and stellar photos.

Henrie Kwushe London based presenter and DJ recently joined Kiss Fm. Best known for her work on Spotify's Who We Be UKs podcast. No Signal Radio station online and Reprezent Radio. Henrie won the Dazed 100 fund, which allowed her to hire creatives from underprivileged backgrounds to work on the production of a series of short films under the title ‘Untold Stories’.

FLOHIO, the Lagos-born, Bermondsey-based, fuelled-up MC had a blinding 2020 after dropping ‘No Panic No Pain’ – which if you haven’t rinsed yet you’re in for a treat; every track is a heater – alongside blazing videos for ‘Unveiled’ and ‘Roundtown’. FLOHIO has also appeared on COLORS this year with her blistering track from the same album, ‘Flash’. We can’t wait for more heat from FLOHIO…

Saffron Music is a Bristol-based organisation – so much more than a label – that actively advances gender equality in the music industry; a woeful 5% of which is currently composed of women. Saffron offers production, sound engineering, DJing and artist development programs with a view for women to take a bigger share in the sector and become subsequent role models for other women in future.

Bobbie Johnson gained the nickname 'Rapping Adele'. Is a rapper/producer from seaside city Brighton. Has supported the likes of RagnBone man, Roots Manuva and The Pharcyde. Her recent remix ‘Grown’ produced by Clementine Douglas (Kudu Blue) has been played on Radio One out on 12th March.

Taluah Ruby raised in Spain by British parents now residing in East London is post-soul artist Taluah Ruby. ‘All for You’ originally produced by Gabriel Gifford who has collaborated with Harvey Causon, Lucy Lu and Maya Law. On a remix version of her track ‘All for You’ she worked with Foru (aka Rudi Creswisk) he has played bass for Jorja Smith Poppy Ajudha, Alfa Mist and more. Her first single ‘Hot Water’ racked up over 25k Youtube views and 300k streams.

Ego Ella May hailing from South London Ego Ella may channels her own neo soul and contemporary jazz compositions. Features in Wordplay magazine and she also has two COLORS video of ‘In the Morning’ and ‘Girls Don’t Always Sing About Boys’.

Sophie Vaughan based in London is a photographer and artist. Has photographed Bklava, Green Tea Peng, Jordan Mackampa and KOKOROKO. She also writes gig reviews for Gig wise.

North London based Little Simz is riding high off the back of her 2019 – Best Album Mercury Award nominee – album ‘GREY Area.’ She followed up last year with the formidable ‘Drop 6 ‘EP featuring Alewya – might bang, might not is a big favourite here at Wordplay. With a light at the end of the lockdown tunnel, Little Simz should be high up your list to catch live!

Aflo. The poet (aka Annie Whilby) poet, doctoral researcher, activist and based in Brighton. Recently has become part of Sussex Writers of colour and her 'Wake Up' a black lives matter film which features Priss Nash racked up over 37k views on vimeo.

The insanely talented and influential Br3yna has powered through last year with the unapologetically evocative single ‘Maldives’ – alongside the equally fierce Bezerk, Plenty and her freestyles. 2021 started out with a bang for Br3yna after releasing the jaw-dropping ‘Homecoming Freestyle’ – three minutes of straight shooting lyricism. 115,449 monthly listeners aren’t wrong and we’re here for more…

London-based photographer Ellie Ramsden is spearheading advocacy for women in the creative industries – especially within photography and the visual arts. Tackling the gender imbalance in the music industry whilst affording female artists the recognition they deserve are key points in Ellie’s work, notably so in the visually stunning ‘Too Many Man’ and ‘Time For Change’ projects. Ellie is just about to drop a follow-up 144 page photobook as part of the ‘Too Many Man’ project, focussing further on women in the grime scene; we cannot wait to get see it!