FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Carla Marie Williams

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

 

Carla Marie Williams

_________

A definite queen and leader…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Carla Marie Williams alongside some unsung music industry professionals at the #girlsirate #mentorme dinner at #londonkindred last month/PHOTO CREDIT: Carla Marie Williams

of the music scene, I wanted to spotlight the remarkable and super talented Carla Marie Williams. She is someone everyone should follow.  A hugely beloved and influential songwriter and champion of women’s voices, she founded the essential Girls I Rate. You can see what they are about here. As it says on the website: “Experiencing first hand the imbalance and inequality within a very male dominated music industry, Carla was compelled to create a movement that provides females with a voice and platform. Her mission is to unite females though GIR and create opportunities for females within the music & creative industries”. This Harrow-born queen is someone who is representing women (and highlighting phenomenal women of colour too) and trying to strike against the imbalance and ingrained sexism that afflicts the music industry – at a time when women are ruling and creating the best and most compelling music around (and there are some wonderful female producers not being nodded to).

I am going to come to some interviews and features Carla Marie Williams was involved with a few years or so back. As a songwriter, she has written or co-written include Beyoncé's Freedom, and Britney Spears's Private Show. In 2016, Williams was nominated for two Grammy Awards for her work on Beyoncé's Lemonade album. She is the vital and hugely adored founder of Girls I Rate. As I am thinking about the recent Women in Music Awards 2023, I was also thinking of Williams. Someone who garners an enormous amount of respect right throughout the industry, the Future Hitmakers Masterclass that took place at London’s Southbank Centre earlier this month joined together Carla Marie Williams with sisters and influential/multitalented contemporaries Jin Jin and Kamille. Her curated Created by Women playlist (see below) shows that she champions and salutes vital and extraordinary women through music!

Before moving onto a couple of points and observations., I want to properly ‘introduce’ the hugely inspiring Carla Marie Williams. Her journey and path to here and now is extraordinary. Here is someone, as Founder of Girls I Rate, who is affecting change through the music industry – in addition to holding conversations with important women and also asking for recognition and more progress. We are still a long way from there being equality and parity in music though, with people like Williams getting their voices heard, that will come soon enough:

“It was incredible. One minute I was doing talent shows in Harlesden, the next I was taking boat trips on the Hudson River, visiting Madison Square Gardens and performing at the Apollo. It ignited a fierce desire to make music my life.”

Carla Marie Williams is an inspiring figure of achievement: Starting her music career at the age of 14 years old where she sang in local talent shows in North West London, whilst writing poetry well beyond her years she strived and fine-tuned her talents, becoming a songwriter to a roll-call of stars including Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Craig David, Girls Aloud and Kylie Minougue.

Her career began in girl band Schino managed by Elliot Davis (Ex-Manager of Wet, Wet, Wet) and co writing edgy rock soul songs alongside a guitar at the age of 17.

In Carla’s early career she worked as a youth worker for the Peabody Trust and was later singing backing vocals for artists including Ms Dynamite, Estelle, Corrine Baily Rae, Westlife, Bryan Ferry and Spiritualised.

Carla later went on to join the UK hit factory Xenomania where she worked as an integral part of the team co writing a plethora of top ten hits for artists such as Girls Aloud, The Saturday’s, Alesha Dixon and many more. In less than 2 years Carla had achieved 6 UK tops 10’s an Ivor Novello nomination and BRIT Award for her contribution to the single ‘The Promise’.

In more recent times Carla is best known for writing Naughty Boy featuring Beyoncé’s BRIT smash hit “Runnin”, “Freedom” featuring Kendrick Lemar on Beyoncé’s critically acclaimed billboard album ‘Lemonade’ and Private Show & What You Need on Britney Spears album Glory.

In 2014 Carla was inspired to form own entertainment company NewCrowd where she now houses and develops raw talent.

Carla and NewCrowd have collaborated with a host of artists and producers including Rudimental, MNEK, Beyoncé, DJ Mustard, Pia Mia, Wilkinson, Naughty Boy and Paloma Faith. Becky G, Shae Taylor, Warryn Campbell, Artful Dodger, Reggie & Bollie, Kyla, Rodney Jerkins, DR Luke & Circuit, Preditah, ill Blu, Sticky, DJ Q, Donaeo and many more.

“First and foremost my passion is music and writing great songs that resonate with the masses. But I also want to make a difference for women in the creative industries and help create new platforms for creatives and the future generation of women”.

As I am a (proud) member of The Trouble Club, it seems like Carla Marie Williams is a future speaker. Someone who would be a perfect role model and source of inspiration for those who go to hear her speak. Maybe once better (or exclusively) known as a songwriter to the stars, Williams is now using her experience and platform to look at the wider industry and talk about things that need to change. Also saluting queens like herself who are doing wonderful and important things in music. I cannot see any recent interviews with her – though I am keen to interview her myself! -, so I will include a few from a few years ago. In 2021, Carla Marie Williams was interviewed by Music Week. This was the year Williams was named as Campaigner award recipient at the Music Week Awards:

“The Music Week Women In Music Awards returned for the first in-person event in two years to honour 12 incredible executives and artists, alongside the Roll Of Honour inductees.

Staged in partnership with AIM and UK Music, with YouTube Music as headline sponsor, the ceremony took place at the London Hilton, Park Lane on Friday, October 22.

One of the standout moments of the ceremony came from the recipient of this year's Campaigner honour, the award-winning songwriter and Girls I Rate founder Carla Marie Williams.

"The people at the top of organisations don't look like me," she said onstage. "You need to support organisations that look like me. We're the real girls who represent real people."

Williams has told Music Week about the inspiration behind the speech.

"Since Blackout Tuesday so many corporate organisations have set up subsidiary companies and charities aimed at supporting women and black people which means it has become increasingly harder for black owned independent organisation like GIR to gain funding & support," Williams said. "We're often told, we are already doing something similar', or 'no budget left', or, 'We can’t facilitate those types of activities'. So again, this further pushes the systemic issues as the money and power stays within the system, decreasing the level of support that can be given to small black owned companies and organisations. Being of Jamaican heritage and with Jamaica and the UK historically having strong ties in music, food, sports, and culture, not to mention the Windrush contributions, I’ve been keen to branch out to Jamaica and the Carribean to push for cultural exchanges. However, since doing so I’m realising how increasingly difficult it is as the Carribean is somehow being overlooked."

 Williams went on to details her experiences of trying to get funding.

"I landed an email a few weeks ago about an organisation announcing £3.5 [million in funds] for international projects, and I was so excited," Williams continued. "However, when I looked deeper I found there was nothing in Jamaica – despite being the most long-standing influential island in music, food and sports in the world – or the entire Carribean at all. I pushed for a reason and again was told, 'We do not have the capacity to facilitate projects in this territory'. I could do what’s easy, but I want to do what’s real to me and women like me, so I'm hoping soon they will recognise this and open up these opportunities. We have the young people but we simply don’t have the resources or funds. So we decided to launch #GIRACADEMYFUND GoFundMe in hope of raising some money to support and sustain our projects. Donations will go towards the first safe space studio for women in Jamaica, Mentor Me online Masterclasses, GIR Radio [a platform dedicated to promoting women's music] and core running costs. Please support the #GIRACADEMYFUND."

Here, Music Week Women In Music Awards 2021 Campaigner Carla Marie Williams, founder of Girls I Rate, reflects on her win, her career so far and her hopes for the future...

You’ve just been named Music Week’s Women in Music Award’s Campaigner for 2021, how did you feel when you heard the news?

“I was so ecstatic. I was in Jamaica the week before I heard and I just didn't feel like I had been recognised, especially by some of the establishment involved in the award. I felt like, you know, there would have been other women in particular, white women, that would have got the award. So, I was ecstatic that the work that myself and the girls at Girls I Rate had been doing has been recognised in this way.”

What was the motivation behind Girls I Rate (GIR)?

“Girls I Rate started in 2016, the year before my mum passed away and it came about when I started going to America and being in different rooms. I had already experienced certain challenges in the music industry in the UK, and I quickly realised America was even a bigger place of a lot of red tape and compromise. So basically, I was working with some managers from the States, and I found myself always at loggerheads with them over the things that I wanted to do. I think the last thing that really resonated with me was when one said: ‘Why don't you just shut up and write songs?’ And that's what motivated me to start Girls I Rate and do it with purpose and do it relentlessly.”

What are some of your big wins in terms of GIR so far?

“Our songwriting weekenders were amazing. The first one was at Metropolis, and it was sponsored by MOBOs. And I then ended up doing a UK tour a couple of years later. We went to Liverpool, Dublin, Manchester and Birmingham, where hundreds of girls came out just to hear me talk and work with me.”

Who are some of the organisations you have partnered with?

“A partnership I've had since 2017 includes working with PRS for Music on an initiative called #GetHeard. This is basically where we get A&Rs to come and listen to the girl’s music and give feedback. We also launched the Future Hitmaker competition with the PRS Foundation where we offer our girls bursaries to enter the competition. In addition, we’ve just been awarded financial support from the Spotify Equal Board. And, I also love the partnership we have with Music Week where we highlight amazing women in the industry, black women in particular.”

What is the biggest concern you hear from women when it comes to the music industry?

“A lot of women don't feel like they're taken seriously, that they are undermined, and sometimes it's not just men who are guilty of that - women are also guilty of that in different environments, because we have defence mechanisms to get to the top. I feel like a lot of things we learn as people we need to get rid of, such as the crabs in the barrel mentality. I also know that the Me Too movement is starting to dissect the music industry and we too are getting involved by trying to ensure women feel safe in studios. We are partnering with organisations such as The Cube and Pirate Studios to provide these safe spaces for women”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: via The Arts Desk

I am going to go back even further. I am interested in this Stylist interview from six years ago. Intrigued and excited by the fact that Carla Marie Williams was trying to get more women into the music industry, it is clear we have seen progress since then. It is because of women like her that we have seen these conversations open up:

“Woman of the Week is Stylist’s weekly celebration of women making a difference to society. Grammy-nominated songwriter Carla Marie Williams has written for everyone from Girls Aloud to Beyoncé. Now, she wants to get more women into songwriting.

Adele. Beyoncé. Rihanna. Taylor Swift. Nicki Minaj. Some of the world’s biggest pop stars are women, but don’t be fooled into thinking that the music industry isn’t dominated by men. In the US, less than a quarter of the 600 most popular songs of the last five years were performed by women, according to recent research by the University of Southern California, and just 12% were penned by female songwriters. The same study found that men make up more than 90% – 90%! – of all Grammy nominees since 2012.

Things aren’t much better in the UK, where more than three-quarters of mainstream music festivals taking place in 2018 don’t have a single female-fronted act on their line-up. The average gender pay gap at the country’s major labels is over 30%, while women make up just 6% of members of the Music Producers Guild (MPG). And according to PRS for Music – the UK body that looks after copyright for songwriters, composers and music publishers – just 17% of professional songwriters are women.

It’s against this rather disheartening backdrop that Carla Marie Williams is striving to get more women into the music industry – specifically, to nurture the talents and boost the profiles of female songwriters. The London-born, Grammy-nominated lyricist and composer recently helped launch the #GetHeard campaign, an initiative with PRS for Music to address the gender gap in songwriting. In late June, over 200 aspiring women songwriters gathered at a #GetHeard event in London to share their music with some of the music industry’s most influential figures, and to hear Williams and other prominent women share their insights into the business.

Williams describes #GetHeard as “a way to bring the industry to the girls and to the movement” – the movement, of course, being the rising sense that gender inequality in the music industry needs to be addressed. It’s important to Williams that the campaign doesn’t just pay lip service to the idea of female empowerment, but actually serves a practical purpose, connecting songwriters with people they need to know.

“We want to create producers or writers or artists,” she says. Now the campaign has been launched, she hopes to “gain more support from industry people and sponsors; people that actually believe this can be done and who want to support women. And I mean genuinely support women – not just do ad campaigns that look great.”

When it comes to the music industry, Williams knows what she’s talking about. She spent the first chapter of her career at Xenomania, the music production and songwriting team once described by the BBC as “Britain’s top hit factory”. Partly as a result of her time there, her catalogue of songwriting credits reads like the track list for a 21st century pop compilation album: she’s written for everyone from Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue to The Saturdays and Craig David, and is responsible for some of Girls Aloud’s biggest bangers. (If you ever got drunk and sang Can’t Speak French at a karaoke bar in the late Noughties, you’ve got Williams to thank.)

Although she’d been writing poetry since she was at school, and spent some time in a short-lived girl band in her teens, it was getting her foot in the door at Xenomania that Williams classes as her big break. During her time there, she achieved 6 UK top 10s, an Ivor Novello nomination, and a Brit Award nod for her contribution to the Girls Aloud track The Promise. But in 2014, she decided to strike out on her own.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she admits. “I didn’t have a team, I didn’t have management; I was just by myself. I had to sit down and really think about what I was going to do next”.

Apologies for screwing with the chronology! After Girls I Rate was launched in 2016, Carla Marie Williams has worked tirelessly affecting change and creating dialogues. As someone who has experienced racism, misogyny and sexism throughout her career, Williams knows all too well the challenges and discrimination that so many women face. In 2021, PRS for Music spoke with the iconic Williams. She talked about the Girls I Rate platform. She was also spotlighting the Girls I Rate team hunting for talented songwriters and producers as part of their 2021 #GETHEARD Future Hitmaker competition. That was launched in partnership with PRS for Music and PRS Foundation:

“Grammy-award-winning songwriter Carla Marie Williams is accustomed to shaking up the music industry.

Williams has collaborated with some of the world's biggest artists, including Britney Spears, Sean Paul and Beyoncé, and is one of a handful of Black British female writers to reach superstar status.

But the road to the top was far from smooth. Carla Marie has spoken openly about the racism and sexism she has endured throughout her 20-year music career.

When a certain management company warned her that it was a man’s world, and would always be so, Carla Marie decided to take matters into her own hands.

In 2016, she launched Girls I Rate, a movement designed to help nurture, inspire and champion young women creatives. GIR today provides educational, mentoring and networking opportunities to over 5,000 members looking to build their dream careers in the creative sector.

IN THIS PHOTO: Carla Marie Williams on stage in 2023 with Manny Norté, Kamille and Jin Jin

 The GIR team are currently on the hunt for talented songwriters and producers as part of their 2021 #GETHEARD Future Hitmaker competition.

Launched in partnership with PRS for Music and PRS Foundation, the competition gives young women creatives the chance to have their songs played on the radio and in front of industry experts. Three winners will also receive funding for upcoming music projects alongside other prizes.

We had a chat with Carla Marie via Zoom to find out why she launched the competition, what she looks for in a Future Hitmaker and her 2021 plans for Girls I Rate.

The competition sounds exciting, Carla Marie – what made you launch it?

GIR members have always benefited from getting their music heard by A&R through our #GETHEARD A&R Weekender – but nothing really came out of it. All they got was feedback, which was great because we get some amazing people for our panels, but I knew we could do more.

The competition gives them tangible stuff including a cash bursary of up to £3,000, high-spec equipment, a spot on a six-week production course. This package is based on what our girls told us they needed, so it’s more beneficial for them.

We know gender diversity is a major challenge for UK music – women make up only 18 percent of PRS for Music’s membership. Why do you think the industry still struggles to attract and retain talent women?

I think it’s down to misconceptions about where women fit in the studio. We all need to change our mindsets – that includes me. There’s also a lack of safe spaces for women to learn production and songwriting so they don’t feel self-conscious or give up. These learning experiences sometimes don’t lead to proper employment opportunities – this needs to change too.

What has the industry response been like?

It’s been really good. What I love is there are a lot of men who want to participate and get involved. That to me, in 2021, is one of the most exciting things. I’m all about uplifting and recognising women in the industry but I’ve learnt that it’s also vital that men understand and support what we’re doing. Over the years I’ve tried to involve men where I can and educate them on the importance of supporting women.

We’ve also got some great people and companies like Spotify and Mixcloud on board to support us. A big music artist has offered to co-host the judging panel event with me. I can’t name them now but I’m very excited”.

Someone who is influential to me. Someone I respect gigantically; I hope I have done Carla Marie Williams justice in this feature! With her incredible and passionate work affecting so many women in music and spreading far and wide, I am so fascinated how her career started and how it has changed. Alongside peers such as Kamille, this is a phenomenal queen who I always keep an eye and ear out for. If you have the resources and time, contribute to the GIR Academy Fund, as they are a non-profit organisation who has this #GIRArmy: a strong community of over five-thousand wonderful female creatives. I wanted to properly salute and show my huge affection and admiration for someone who will continue to make change and support women in music through 2024. A queen, leader, campaigner and pioneer, the brilliant and sublime Carla Marie Williams is someone that I wanted to highlight. If you are not familiar with her work and illustrious songwriting background, then check out this…

SENSATIONAL human being.

Sam Liddicott