Pop-Princess Power

We are very fortunate in this day and age to have so many sensational artists showing us what it means to be a girl boss, to inspire a generation of women, and to loudly and proudly claim your womanhood, regardless of haters and critics. We have Taylor Swift, selling out Wembley more times than any other artist by a landslide, and putting on a whopping three and a half-hour performance every single time. We have Beyonce – still thriving and giving us hits after hits. Adele – the most beautiful voice, the deepest of lyrics, and doing it all whilst being an incredible mother and an inspiration to us all.

The ways that woman can be inspiring is limitless –they can dominate in different ways. Using Taylor, a mastermind, a sensational businesswoman and the biggest heart donating thousands to homeless shelters in every single city she played. We have Beyonce, who looks just as good as she did 20 years ago and can seamlessly move through genres meaning that no matter your music taste, everyone can love her. Selena Gomez inspires anyone that has fought a battle with long-term illness as she openly shared her struggle with Lupus and how it has affected her confidence, but also has built an amazing and extremely successful makeup brand, regardless of her haters. Or not just A-list celebs, but Northern Irelands own Tik-Toker Shannon Mitchell, who has just won a Vava award and through sharing her struggles with weight and weight loss and has helped many women overcome their own struggles with body confidence. B the Label is another Northern Irish celebration of women, a sensational female run clothing brand that’s made it onto the bodies of some of our favourite love islanders.

No matter where we look, we find females that we can look up to, that can inspire us, help us understand our own struggles and that can only be described as dominating boss-ladies. Though there are a few rising stars that deserve a deeper look.

Chappell Roan is a sensational artist who is quickly rising into the mainstream. Her catchy songs with an almost story-telling aspect are the perfect blend of ethereal, electric and pop. While she may have seemed to pop up out of nowhere, she has actually been producing music for quite some time, signing a record label in Los Angeles at the young age of 17. However, while she has released a few singles, ‘The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess’ is actually her debut album, throwing us back to her original roots of Missouri, USA, with a little bit of the LA culture she picked up thrown in.

She has taken to some massive stages – such as Coachella and FemFest with tthemes of gender, empowerment for LGBTQIA+ and empowerment for female sexuality – but more than this, it has become abundantly clear that she is not using these issues to boost her own fame. When performing at the Gov Ball Music Festival in New York, she told fans that she had rejected an invitation to perform at the White House, based on the fact that she believes the leaders of the USA have failed the LGBTQIA+ community by not following through with their promise to guarantee freedom of human rights across the community.

Roan is a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community and she has made it clear that she identifies as a lesbian, has no interest in dating men and is currently in a relationship with a woman. Her sexuality is easily picked up on throughout her discography through the exploration of themes that lesbians and sapphics can relate to, such as hiding sexuality, being with someone who is afraid to be ‘out’ and the societal pressure to conform to heteronormativity in songs such as ‘Casual’ and ‘Good Luck Babe’. Growing up in Missouri with Christian parents, Roan understands the struggle of many members of the community to be their authentic selves. Her 2022 single ‘Pink Pony Club’ highlights this through its story of a drag queen confronting her conservative mother and stepping into the spotlight in her drag persona.

Whilst, similarly to many popstars, she can be often seen in short skirt and tight tops, usually leather – she often times does not use sex to sell. In her VMA performance barely an inch of skin was shown as she wore a full knight costume. Her song writing has come under some scrutiny for its sexually explicit nature – as she often does not hide behind innuendos and metaphors and can be quite graphic in her descriptions. But is this not complete hypocrisy? Many male singers, or straight singers are allowed or actively encouraged to be very sexually expletive in their songwriting – so what exactly is the problem with Roan doing the same thing? Or is it only okay if it is heterosexual. Roan empowers females, especially those in the LGBTQ+ community by completely unapologetically showcasing same sex love and the struggles to come to terms with this.

Another serious girl crush that is crushing it is Sabrina Carpenter. She started off her career in a way we have all seen before – Disney Channel. She was featured on the show ‘Girl Meets World’, alongside some pretty big roles in various movies, before being signed to a Disney-owned record label. Shortly after getting signed, she released her debut single ‘Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying’ and has steadily grown her success from there. With a handful of albums and many chart topping hits she continued to grow in success and into herself as an artist – although not that much, she is only 5 feet to be exact.

She moved away from Disney in 2021 after signing to Island records, where we can see a shift in the content of her songs, dance moves, costumes, and pretty much everything else. Truly a tale as old as time when it comes to young Disney stars. However, Sabrina didn’t go off the rails nor did she get involved in unsavoury scandals (we know there was a bit of boy drama, but it wasn’t rehab so take the win). She did progress as an artist and get, let’s say, a bit more provocative. Okay, a lot more provocative.

Her first album with Island records titled ‘Emails I Can’t Send’ was the beginning of her more risqué side, and her rise to the top. Off the back of this album, she opened the sensational Era’s Tour for Taylor Swift, during which, she sang her hit singles ‘Feather’ and ‘Nonsense’. Now if you are caught-up on your Sabrina Carpenter lore, you will know she has different closing hook everytime she sings it, often referencing the city she is singing in and well, sex. A good example if you aren’t caught up is her outro when she performed in Sydney.

‘When you go down under do you miss me?/He’s so big I felt it in my kidney/Screamed so loud they heard me here in Sydney!’

Sabrina has never been afraid to claim her femineity or sexuality, which can be really empowering for a lot of females. We think that we have progressed, we have had several waves of feminism, but a lot of females still feel a bit taboo when talking about their own pleasure. Sure, more and more females are singing about sex – but really think about it. Cardi B’s ‘WAP’ for example only focused on the pleasure she could give a man, the only thing she received was material wealth – not sexual pleasure. Sabrina sings openly about what she likes to receive, and owns her sexuality in a bold, brave and like-it-or-lump it way.

Far off from her Disney channel days, she shows no signs of slowing down or becoming more suitable for work in her new album ‘Short and Sweet’. Her new album itself is arguably even more risqué than her previous one, with songs such as ‘Juno’ – but she does also throw in some super sweet and catchy bops – and honestly, who hasn’t heard and immediately loved ‘Please Please Please’ or ‘Espresso’? The Short and Sweet tour is well underway, with Sabrina being seen in outfits that mainly consist of a sparkly bodysuit, garters, and a transparent slip. She continually dances on the line of soft and sweet, whilst being also being dangerously sexual. This hyper-femininity contrasts with the more gothic leather we see often see Roan dressed in – but does her hyper femininity just add fuel to her hyper sexualisation, or does it just show that being sexy, and owning your own pleasure is feminine in and of itself. Sabrina shows women that femininity and sexuality go hand in hand, and that female pleasure is a complete non-negotiable.

Another woman that is dominating music, and has done for quite some time, is a woman that needs no introduction, but we will give her one anyway - The Princess of Pop Miss Kylie Minogue. Unlike Carpenter and Roan, Miss Kylie is no rising star –she has been producing music for nearly 4 decades, and still continually and consistently releases bop after bop. She has been well recognised for her discography as over the years she has bagged herself Four Brit Awards, Two Grammy Awards and a whopping 18 ARIA Music Awards. Not only that, but she has been named by Time as one of the most influential people in world – and honestly, who wouldn’t agree with that statement!

Boasting seven number ones, eleven number twos, thirty-five top tens and a crazy fifty-two top forty hits in the UK she is the 12th best-selling singles artist and the 3rd best-selling female artist of all time! So, it would be rude to not take a whistlestop tour through her sensational career and reminisce about her past bangers (whilst adding the ones we may have forgotten to our playlists). After signing to Mushroom Records in 1987 she released her debut single ‘Locomotion’, where she swang her hips, and we all fell completely in love with her. Shortly after, we got ‘I should be so lucky’, topping the UK charts for a beautiful 5 weeks. She released banger after banger in the 80s, but her next UK number one didn’t come until the late 90s with ‘Spinning Around’, followed closely with ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ in the early 00s. And yet she keeps going – 2010 with ‘All the Lovers’, and most recently for us, the absolute smash-hit, we’ve talked about it before, of course it was the 2023 release of ‘Padam Padam’. From the 1980s to today she has released an incredible 16 studio albums – so it would be impossible to discuss every single one of her well-known and very well-loved songs, but you have gotten the gist by now.

It’s safe to say, Kylie dominates – she is one of the only artists to achieve a top ten in the Charts from the 1980s to the 2020s. And it must be said, have you seen her? She has done it looking absolutely sensational. How she does it us mere mortals may never know. However, more than that, she has achieved these amazing feats whilst going through some terrible and turbulent times. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, for which she had to receive chemotherapy and undergo surgery. She bounced back quickly, and whilst she had to modify it a bit, she still went on her previously booked tour in November 2006. She has also created her own line of wine, an underwear brand, and dabbled in quite a few acting opportunities –notably her debut film ‘The Delinquents’, a cameo in ‘Moulin Rouge’ and featuring as a guest star in ‘The Vicar of Dibley’. The woman does not stop!

Now, some naysayers would complain ‘She is too old to be a pop-star’ because the rich old white men at the top think a woman only has value under the age of 25 – we are looking at you Leo. Kylie proves them wrong over and over again by smashing through the glass ceilings telling celebrities who they can be and when they have to stop. All we can do is hope and pray she keeps smashing those ceilings and bringing us smash hits. Kylie inspires women to do the same, to keep pushing higher in their careers, to keep pushing for their dreams even when society complains they are past their best before dates.

The women that dominate music and pop culture teach us that we are never too old, teach us what it means to be feminine and sexually empowering, teach us to stand up for what is right, regardless of the opportunities we may have to miss because of it. They show us how to be bold, how to be brave and how to have the time of our lives every time their voices grace our ears.

Credit - Megane Herrick