Celebrating International Women’s Day with Olive F, Anaïs, Charisse C

For our latest live panel session, we celebrated the 113th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Hosting the panel was Farah Nanji – DJ, producer, podcaster and curator at IMS Ibiza, joined by all-female lineup Olive F, Anaïs, and Charisse C, all of whom were selected for this year’s Beatport Next program.

Olive F celebrated the start of the year with new residencies at both Elrow and Defected, Anaïs just released a single out last month with Toddla T and Nadia Rose, and Charisse launched her label and debut as a singer songwriter with a new single and headline show at Village Underground.

Representing a range of different genre spaces, the panel guests shared some well deserved career highlights as well as advice and insights into the still male-dominated industry.

“This year’s theme of ‘Inspire inclusion’ resonates as a global call to action, reminding us that when we champion the understanding, and appreciation of women’s inclusion, we collectively propel humanity towards a brighter future. But it’s also really important to remember that the rise of women does not equate to the fall of men. Instead, true equity empowers the fabric of our entire society as a whole.” – Farah Nanji

As a woman of color Charisse C spoke about the importance of mentorship which has been invaluable on her journey in the industry, as well as the power of rejecting normative narratives around otherness and female. For Charisse it’s about being unapologetically you, and not being afraid to express that. Anaïs echoed that, but also admitted she wished she had more role models when first getting into music.

When discussing the challenges of being a woman in the industry, the impression was that things are slowly changing but that women should be more uncompromising. Olive F cited social media as a powerful tool that now enables artists to access their audience with much more immediacy and actively get feedback on what they’re doing – a way they can take more control and autonomy which traditionally wasn’t possible.

“One thing I’ve never been afraid to do is to say no, just because very early when I came into this industry, I was like, any success that I have can’t be a success that comes at the expense of me or the expense of my integrity. And if I have to sacrifice myself in that way for an opportunity, then I don’t want it.” – Charisse C

All three panelists offered sound advice for going about bookings, navigating social media, and mind set. Charisse also highlighted the unconscious biases that people might tend to have, encouraging those who are actively working in the industry to ask questions such as: “Why am I doing this? What’s the best way to approach this decision or booking? Is the way I’m talking about this person inclusive?”

“Don’t be pushy. Just tell them your name, what you do, ask them questions, how their day’s been… And if you’re doing good enough, then they’ll know about you in a couple months or a couple of years, if you’re doing the right things. It’s just good to leave a first impression.” – Anaïs

“I think there’s a lot that we can also leverage and really make use of when we understand what our power is, I think women move music and we always have, and we are at the center of a lot of spaces, we define culture in a lot of ways we create culture.” – Charisse C