Gone are the days of pitting high-achieving women in the music industry against each other — today’s icons are all about uplifting one another.
From Charli XCX’s Brat Summer to Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet Tour and the rise of the Midwest Princess herself, Chappell Roan, women in pop are dominating the airwaves and the culture in a way we haven’t seen since the early aughts. Yet unlike their predecessors in the noughties, these pop gals can stand in solidarity with one another as the toxic, competitive culture of the music industry has relaxed somewhat.
In the late ’90s and early 2000s, it was nearly impossible to be a successful female pop act without being compared to your peers or accused of having a rivalry with someone. From Britney Spears vs. Christina Aguilera to Lady Gaga vs. Katy Perry, the predominant narrative was that you had to fight your way to the top, where there was only room for one.
At a certain point, the tide began to turn, reaching a peak last summer when some of the top-selling albums — Charli XCX’s Brat, Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter — were all by women. Most importantly, women who actively support one another’s work. (Those albums, by the way, led this year’s Grammy nominations, including an all-female Best Pop Vocal Album category for the first time in history.)
“What’s so reassuring and so f—ing sick is, like, the pop girls that you and I have loved our whole lives or, like, have been f—ing stans the past two or three years … a lot of them have reached out and are, like, so supportive and girl’s girls,” Roan, who has been open about her mental health struggles in the midst of her sudden rise to superstardom, shared in a 2024 TikTok video.
Perhaps the most poignant example of all came during this year’s Grammys ceremony, during which one of the most celebrated and decorated female musicians of all time, Swift, presented another one of the most celebrated and decorated female musicians of all time, Beyoncé, with a coveted award: Country Album of the Year. With both superstars often competing for the same awards — and even having massive tours and concert films at the same time — one would think there might be some “Bad Blood” between them. But the icons demonstrated only love and support.
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Making history as the first Black woman to win that prize, Beyoncé also walked home with her first Album of the Year award and the Best Country Duo/Group Performance trophy for her duet with yet another woman in music, Miley Cyrus. (“We won, Beyoncé! … Even if it’s not you I might just say it is,” Cyrus joked from the Grammys stage while announcing the award for Record of the Year.)
Other instances of ladies spreading the love: Swift has sung Carpenter’s praises on many occasions, calling her the “pop princess of our dreams,” and last August saw Charli XCX ask Eilish to collab on a remix of her song “Guess,” which quickly broke the record for the biggest remix debut for female artists on Spotify.
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In June, Charli XCX also “worked it out on the remix” with Lorde on “Girl, So Confusing,” putting the rumors of supposed beef between the two dark-haired pop icons to bed. The song sent the internet into a frenzy thanks to its clever lyrics, which encapsulate the theme of solidarity among female artists who were once pitted against each other for clicks and profit. As the ladies sing: “People say we’re alike / They say we’ve got the same hair / It’s you and me on the coin / The industry loves to spend.”
But in today’s age, girlhood is about coming together rather than tearing each other down. So whether you’re a Grammy-nominated singer or a woman navigating friendships in the modern day, there’s so much more power (and fun!) in sticking together.
