Singer Fave says talent is not the first test a Nigerian female artiste has to pass. Appearance is. On the Afropolitan podcast, Chidozie Godsfavour Ugochinyere argued that women in the industry are graded by bodies, clothes and other people’s fantasies long before anyone talks about the record.
“It’s harder for female artists to blow. I think female artists are held to very different standards in the industry. I feel like we’re aren’t measured by talent, stage presence or other standard industry metrics, but by what we wear. If your tummy isn’t flat… If your skin is a certain way…,” she said.
Then she named the part that turns a review into a hunger.
“When people —especially Nigerians— talk about female artistes, it’s never really about the music; it’s more about people’s sexual desires or their fantasies about you.”
That, she said, is the trap.
“It becomes more about how decently you are dressed before people listen to you. But when it comes to men, they aren’t held to that same standard.”
Fave did not call it an even fight on stage either.
“When it comes to performances, I think female artists do way more and have better performances than their male counterparts.”
The gap, in her telling, forces women to overwork just to stay in the conversation.
“It’s why I see female artistes try to do ten times more just to be in conversations.”
She stopped short of a tell-all on the rooms behind the music.
“I don’t want to get into the sexual advances made at us to get us into the studio or just to give us a chance in the rooms where the big players are.”
The business side, she said, is colder.
“I have noticed a trend with labels not wanting to sign female artistes. When I was on the rise early on, I met a couple of industry heads that were very adamant about not wanting to sign female artistes. They would tell you it’s hard to manage a female artist or to get her to where she’s supposed to be.”
She even granted the excuse a sliver of logic. Breaking a woman in a market she called misogynistic, she said, takes ten times the work it takes to make a man the topic.
“I just think it’s a little sad because if the playmakers don’t make the decision to break the barriers, how are we going to get to where we’re supposed to.”
The confession turned inward at the end. Fave said she wants to put other women on and sometimes cannot, because she is still fighting for her own mark.
“Most of the times, I want to put female artistes on, but sometimes I’m struggling with the fact that I don’t that much of an audience because I’m still struggling to make a mark and grow.”
The clip did not land unchallenged. Some users pointed to Tems, Teni and Adele as proof that a woman can win without selling skin. Others treated Fave’s argument as an attack on taste rather than a report from inside the machine. The singer did not name the label bosses who refused to sign women. She did not name the men who made the studio a price. She described a standard she says men never sit for, then asked who will break it if the people who run the rooms will not.