As a female music enthusiast, it just feels insane to see the levels women have reached this year, a feeling I hope never perishes. To put it frankly, 2024 has been a year of complete and utter female domination in the music industry. From consistent chart-toppers like Taylor Swift to breakthrough artists like Chappell Roan. We have seen a variety of female artists finally achieve everything they’ve worked for, and for others, this year has revived their careers, leading them to adoration and well-deserved appreciation.
As NPR describes it, “Women hit-makers brought aggression and vulnerability to pop music in 2024…whose music hinged upon assertions of creative ambition and admissions of romantic weakness.”
Taylor Swift
It has been a recurring theme for over a decade, which is a testament to her sheer talent, but it is impossible to talk about women in music this year without mentioning the queen herself, Taylor Swift. Now, Taylor may have started The Eras Tour last year, but the majority took place across 149 dates around the globe in 2024, with her music throughout the years, which Swift has dominated continent to continent.
Before Eras, no tour had passed the billion-dollar mark in ticket sales; Swift shattered that record, raking in $2.2 billion in gross earnings. Its concert film, released to theaters worldwide on October 13, 2023, grossed over $250 million to become the highest-grossing concert film and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement in 2024. Swift's eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, was released on April 19, 2024. Not only did Tortured Poets become Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day in history in less than 12 hours after its release, it also became the first album on the platform to amass more than 300 million streams in a single day ever.
Adam Gustafson, a professor of music at Penn State Harrisburg, spoke on Swift’s influence, explaining: “If she were her own economy, she would be bigger than 50 or so of the poorest nations in the world”. He added, “Her fan base, I think, genuinely feels that she’s authentic, that they’re seeing a real her” and suggested this is why her fans are so in love with Swift because she has authenticity running through her veins. Swift ends the year 2024 with an estimated net worth of 1.6 billion dollars.
Current odds for the 2024 #GRAMMYs Album of the Year per @BovadaOfficial:
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) December 24, 2024
HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: -125
The Tortured Poets Department: +175
COWBOY CARTER: +450
BRAT: +900
Short n’ Sweet: +1200 pic.twitter.com/XDxxO7NkuI
Charli XCX
Prior to this year, many of you would only associate Charli XCX with the song ‘Boom Clap’, but now when you hear the name Charli XCX, one word comes to mind, and that is ‘Brat’. For Charli, 2024 was the year she finally received a payoff for all her hard work and determination over the years. ‘Brat’ is the sixth studio album by Charli XCX, released through Atlantic Records on 7 June 2024. The album received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 95 out of 100 from 24 critics.
Many outlets praised Charli’s vulnerability in this album, with The Guardian branding it as a “masterpiece”. Brat was named the best record of the year by such publications as Billboard, NME, and The Times. It wasn’t just the musical influence of ‘Brat’ which took this year by storm; it was the cultural impact too. On 31 October 2024, "brat" was named the word of the year by Collins English Dictionary, and on 11 December, Forbes named the "Brat summer" as one of the 2024 biggest pop culture moments.
Another one of Charli’s most notable achievements in 2024 was the ‘SWEAT’ tour alongside her friend and co-star Troye Sivan. The tour had 22 dates across America and Canada, earning a whopping $28 million in revenue across the entire tour, and sold 297,000 tickets. Following the SWEAT tour, as if Charli wasn’t exhausted enough, she then embarked on the Brat tour, a solo 4-show tour of the United Kingdom, which has now been extended into 2025 across North America. Charli XCX's net worth is estimated to be at least $1.5–$5 million annually.
Sabrina Carpenter
Sabrina Carpenter has been named the 2nd 'Greatest Pop Star' of 2024 by Billboard. pic.twitter.com/Y8VGYWxpQI
— chart data (@chartdata) December 23, 2024
For the polly-pocket doll of the industry, 2024 has been nothing short of incredible. Whoever is managing her is a master of timing as she hit the ground running this year when she released smash-hit ‘Espresso’ and performed at the 23rd Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival the following day. Despite only being released in April, NME stated "Espresso" quickly became a substantial hit in Carpenter's career and one of her signature songs. The single also went on to win the MTV Video Music Award for Song of the Year. However, that was only the start for Sabrina. Now that she had the world begging for more, she gave us another chart-topper in the form of ‘Please, Please, Please’, which became her first US Hot 100 number-one single.
As if this wasn’t impressive enough for the first half of the year, these two hits meant she became the first female artist to hold the number one and two positions on the UK singles chart for three weeks in a row. Later in the year, Carpenter released her sixth studio album, ‘Short n' Sweet’ on August 23. The album debuted at no.1 on the Billboard 200 with 362,000 equivalent album units sold in its first week.
If this wasn’t enough for the princess of pop, she then took off on a tour of her album ‘‘Short n' Sweet’ which started in September and finishes next April, consisting of 53 shows worldwide. Fans who have visited the tour so far have compared it to a “huge Broadway production”. With us in the thick of the festive season, Carpenter produced a holiday-themed special on Netflix titled ‘A Nonsense Christmas’. As of December 2024, Sabrina Carpenter's net worth is estimated to be $12 million.
Chappell Roan
Saying Chappell Roan kicked off 2024 with a bang is an understatement. In March, the singer performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, which described her as “The utterly commanding artist [who] takes the Tiny Desk stage with a magnetic performance and a towering wig”. With a glowing reference like that, it’s no wonder the video went viral with 10 million views and counting. This performance also sent her monthly Spotify listeners skyrocketing by an astounding 500 percent. For Roan, this was only the start of world denomination, and she hadn’t even started enticing the masses into the Pink Pony Club.
In April, she became arguably the biggest story from Coachella, growing her followers by 45.12%. This set also shook the world of social media with many viral posts using quotes from her set and coincidentally widening her public reach. In June, she was the most prominent story of the Governor’s Ball and has recently just played Lollapalooza, with reports suggesting she attracted the biggest crowd of all time. Roan also recently joined forces with Sabrina Carpenter for her Netflix special, ‘A Nonsense Christmas,’ where they sang a cover of ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham.
Roan has teased two unreleased singles over the past few months, including ‘The Subway’ and ‘The Giver’, both already adored by fans and eagerly awaited for next year. Roan's net worth is estimated to be $6 million.
Billie Eilish
Of course, we all know Billie Eilish has been achieving unprecedented success since she took off in 2019, but this year, Eilish has smashed it out of the park. As DIVA mag puts it, “Billie has been a household name for a number of years. However, more recently, she has cemented her place as a queer icon”.
This year, she announced her third album, ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft’. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and charted all 10 of its songs in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. A track called ‘LUNCH’ described as a “celebration for same-sex attraction,” was the top dog of Billie’s third album. Eilish also announced a tour for this album, which sold out every date across the world almost instantly. If this wasn’t enough for young Billie, she was also featured on ‘Guess,’ a track by Charli XCX. The track charted at number one across the entire world, including Australia and Ireland. As of 2024, Billie Eilish's net worth is estimated to be $53 million, according to Forbes.
Now, I really could go on forever listing the number of female performers who have achieved so much this year, but then this piece would never end.
However, I’d like to shout out a few more artists who I think deserve credit for what they’ve achieved this year and have added to what I would call a year of complete female domination.
- Olivia Rodrigo who embarked on her second headlining tour, the Guts World Tour, which ran from February to October 2024 in North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania, as well as the release of the Guts World Tour concert film on Netflix.
- JADE, the former Little Mix icon, made her mark as a solo artist this year, releasing ‘Angel of My Dreams’ peaking at number 7 on the UK singles chart.
- Stevie Nicks went on tour in the summer of this year at age 76 and was dubbed by The Guardian as “rock’s great survivor”.
- Lady Gaga made a return this year, starring at Harleen "Lee" Quinzel, as well as charting at number 7 with her latest single ‘Disease’.
- Renee Rapp who kicked off 2024 starring in the Mean Girls musical movie, which grossed over $104 million worldwide against a $36 million budget.
- Ariana Grande who starred as ‘Glinda’ in Wicked after striving for the role for years.
There are simply so many others I could list, but to summarise, what a year it has been for women in music! The inspiration it has given to female listeners around the world is something I’ll never forget.
