f74 The Gender Divide


In the 2018 Folk Awards nominations, it appears that women aren’t musicians and men aren’t singers. Tim Chipping raises an eyebrow…


W


hen I agreed to write this prelude to the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards For Folk I did so with the cer- tainty of someone who


has never won a bet that this year's nom- inees would be uncannily similar to the shortlist for the 2008 awards and I could then smugly conclude that it was signifi- cant of something or other in a way that would give you pause for thought. “Ah…” you would say to the dog. “That's significant of something or other.” And my work here would be done.


Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band


As you'll know if you listened to the present folk laureate Anneka Rice reciting the names of the anointed on the news, only two of this year’s nominees are the same as they were a decade ago. And that’s not enough to squeeze two pages out of, even if I use a really big font. Annie Lennox has been nominated for a Brit Award every year since 1962 so it's hardly a scandal that Julie Fowlis is up for Folk Singer Of The Year, an honour she took home and put on the shelf back when we still had a Labour government. Producers of the event’s TV coverage are perhaps


hoping Julie loses to the likes of Cara Dil- lon, Karine Polwart or Siobhan Miller, whereupon their camera will zoom in close to her presenting face in the hope of capturing a dagger stare as she congratu- lates a bitter rival in Gaelic. But Julie is a professional and they’ll not catch so much as a flared nostril, no matter how murder- ously angry she’ll undoubtedly be.


Of course, back in 2008 men were allowed to be considered for the title of Folk Singer Of The Year. That’s no longer the case but they’ve been given their own


Photo: © Judith Burrows


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