Pakistani singers call out Lux Style Awards for ignoring female musicians

The internet has noticed that Pakistani singers have been missed out on the Lux Style Awards list of nominees.

Excluding female musicians from their list of nominees, singers like Meesha Shafi, Zeb Bangash, Maria Unera, Rachel Viccaji and others have called out the Lux Style Awards for not giving the artist due representation.

In her Instagram story, the Waar actress had written, “Not a single woman nominated in the LSA music nominations. Erasure at this scale (there is an exceptionally high number of nominations this time) of the entire female population occupying the Pakistani music industry is unjustifiable and highly problematic.”

Bangash shared Shafi’s post on Tuesday and wrote that awards and nominations in our industry haven’t necessarily been a measure of an artist’s caliber, contribution or perhaps even their popularity. 

“To completely ignore women on a platform fueled by a woman-centric brand that has always been run by women is surprising and gives cause for concern. I’m wondering why NO woman artist made the cut this year?” the ‘Bibi Sanam Janem’ singer questioned.

Maria Unera also acknowledged Shafi’s criticism and wrote, “You’ll have women sell you soaps and products but y’all don’t have the decency to nominate women in music? Should be ashamed of yourselves. I’m not even surprised anymore at this point, just straight up disappointed.” 

Singer Rachel Viccaji also re-shared a post about Shafi, Bangash and Risham Faiz Bhutta’s criticism of Lux Style Awards nominations and wrote, “where is the appreciation for our female artists? Women have been SLAYING in the music industry! Come on Lux Style PK! Do better.” 

The music section of the Lux Style Awards has four categories — song of the year, singer of the year, most streamed artist and best live performance of the year and each category only features male artists this year. The website where fans can vote is currently under maintenance, as announced on social media.