The hosts of radio show Harmageddon are under fire this week after one of the hosts suggested that singer Hildur won Best Pop Song of The Year at Iceland’s annual Music Awards because the industry is being run by the PC-Choir and because she has a vagina.
“It just reeks of Hildur getting this prize just because she’s a woman,” Frosti said on the show after admitting that though Hildur’s song was decent, she probably had help from a male producer. “It doesn’t help women’s cause to win awards or recognition just because they are women. If you look at the number of plays on Spotify, Aron Can’s song Enginn Mórall has like, 8 times more plays.”
When his co-host pointed out that a panel of judges decided who won Best Song, Frosti said the panel was under the influence of the “PC-Choir” who believed women were victims. “I refuse to participate in the victimisation of all women in Iceland. I respect the women in my life more than to assume they are victims all the time.”
He then went on to say that although Iceland’s most famous musician (Björk) was a woman, the facts were that men were just better at taking the initiative to make music and better at it.
It may be worth noting that just this past year, in an interview with Pitchfork, Björk spoke openly about the challenges of being a female musician in the Icelandic music industry, that for every one thing a man says a woman needs to say five times.
Suffice to say, the backlash to this rant has been plentiful.
Hildur herself has demanded an apology: “This openly belittling, sexist and old fashioned thinking makes absolutely no sense in 2017 and I won’t let it lie when my name, gender and work is concerned. We need to eliminate this kind of thinking and the first step is to talk it through openly. Frosti Logason, I think it’s appropriate for you to send me an apology for the disparaging remarks about me and other female musicians on this public platform, I hope you see your error and learn from this mistake.”
A number of musicians and institutions have spoken openly in support of Hildur following Frosti’s remarks, including Iceland’s Drumming Association, classical musician Fjóla Kristín Nikulásdóttir who included in her note of support a number of examples of sexism she’s had to endure in her music career and, last but not least the organisation Stelpur Rokka (Girls Rock).
Stelpur Rokka is an Icelandic summer music camp for girls, trans and genderqueer kids who released a statement suggesting Frosti, “not speak on the behalf of female musicians and presume to know about their personal experience of the Icelandic music scene and instead listen to the experiences of female musicians and attempt to empathise.”
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