Hello Dear Reader
It is International Women’s Day today, but as far as I am concerned we peaked in the early hours of this morning when Madonna and Kylie sang I Will Survive in a Los Angeles Arena.
There is nothing more I need to say, nothing anybody could add; we could all go home now really.
It did make me think though. For years, there was always this supposition that two female artists - especially those deemed divas - were naturally in competition with one another. The media would stoke a cat fight at the drop of a hat. You don’t, for example, see many photographs from back in the day of female artists hanging out together, getting shitfaced with hot men writhing about in their laps in the way that you do of The Rolling Stones or Rod Stewart et al.
The men had their boys’ club: and as far as ancient lore decreed, the women were there to vie for their attention.
One of the beautiful things I have seen come to pass in my now lengthy career is the way women have eschewed this traditional narrative and instead grown a supportive community of female artists in solidarity with other female artists. Taylor Swift is brilliant at this; so too Phoebe Bridgers. We’re not quite at the point where the still male skewed rock press are beyond drawing attention to the gender of bands like Wet Leg or The Last Dinner Party, but we are getting there.
I love to see it.
Perhaps at this point in their careers, when whatever the race was, they have both won it and smashed records while doing so, Madonna and Kylie are so above and beyond competition, so firmly entrenched in the hearts of their respective audiences that the only logical thing for them to do is to stand on top of Olympus and sing one of the greatest anthems of all time. How many times were each written off? How many times did each come back? Two diminutive women that at the start of their careers nobody would have bet the farm on being here forty years later.
I thank God for them both - for inspiration, for hope, for the reminder to keep going and not worry about my age.
So here’s to two Goddesses who deserve all their flowers, always.
And to all women everywhere who are determined to keep going and survive, no matter what it takes.
With love to you all
Nerina xxx
P.S. In other news, quite important news actually, today sees the launch of the new merchandise store on my nerinapallot.com website, with new and exclusive beautiful things you might want in your life, including Fires socks, Idaho t-shirts and one-off artworks and limited editions.
Hi Nerina. My weekly two hour indie music radio show is 50/50 male female artists. Is this difficult to achieve? Yes, it’s tricky to find good new music by male artists or bands, whereas there is an increasingly dominant supply of good new material from women-led bands, female artists and all-girls bands!
Madonna unfortunately has become a parody of herself, giving in to pressure to continue to look good, when in fact if she had allowed herself to age gracefully and say "yes this is me in all.my glory take it or stick it where the sun doesn't shine", she would have earned a lot more admiration and respect, rather than the ridicule I have read about. Instead of staying true to herself and earning the respect of women of all ages everywhere, she has just become like a lot of other overly vain women, those who feel that they have to maintain a role, which certainly isn't girl power in my book.
I don't think that anyone would say that she has to start wearing fluffy slippers, blue rinses and rwin sets, but there are many older women who are still so naturally beautiful and stylish, without feeling the need to behave in a vulgar way in order to appeal to men, and as a result are more appealing. Madonna has quite frankly gone against everything that she supposedly stands for and sadly it smacks of desperation.