Irish women are killing it in the music scene, despite not receiving a fraction of the Irish radio airplay they should be getting.
How often do you hear Irish women played on your favourite radio station?
Of the top 100 songs played on Irish Radio in 2025, only three female Irish artists featured. Irish music made up just eleven percent of the top 100 most played songs on Irish radio last year and within that three Irish women, CMAT, Jazzy and Ali Sherlock reached near parity with Irish male artists within that category.
While this might sound like progress on paper, the issue still persists – Irish female artists make up an extremely small percentage of the top 100 most-played songs on Irish radio. Instead, the list is heavily dominated by international acts and Irish male artists.
The overall landscape still shows a major under-representation of women in Irish music broadcasting and mainstream festival lineups.
Sharing stats from Why Not Her? A Manifesto for Culture Change, the 2025 book by Why Not Her? founder Linda Coogan Byrne. The book is a ‘data-driven call to dismantle systemic gender and racial inequalities in the music industry’. From a 20-year analysis of the Irish Singles Chart, Linda and the team at Why Not Her found:
- For every female act that reaches the chart, 4.6 male acts do the same.
- Male acts have seven entries for every single entry by a female act.
- For each week a female act spends on the chart, a male act spends 11.5 weeks.
- 71.1% of Top 10 singles over the past two decades were released by Irish male artists and bands.
To do our part to help balance the scales, we’re sharing some of our favourite Irish female artists that you should add to your playlist immediately.
CMAT
It’s fair to say that 2025 was Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson’s, known professionally as CMAT, year. Taking the Irish music world by storm since 2020. CMAT’s 2025 album Euro-Country became a global sensation, with viral success including the creation of the ‘woke macarena’ – a dance that coincided with her song, Take A Sexy Picture Of Me. We can’t wait to see her star continue to rise.
Pillow Queens
Formed in 2016, the Pillow Queens are an Irish indie rock band composed of co-lead vocalists Pamela Connolly and Sarah Corcoran, lead guitarist/backing vocalist Cathy McGuinness, and drummer/backing vocalist Rachel Lyons.
Biig Piig
Biig Piig, the stage name of Jessica Smyth, is an Irish singer and rapper who is currently based in London. The name was inspired by a pizza from a place near her home. She describes the decision as ‘a drunken mistake that kinda stuck.’
Jazzy
Jazzy, otherwise known as Yasmin Byrne is a Dublin-born dance-pop singer-songwriter and DJ. You’ll know her best for her house-influenced vocals and top-charting hits. She’s also leading the way of making changes to the Irish music industry, becoming the first Irish female artist in 14 years to hit No. 1 on the Irish singles chart with Giving Me.
Soda Blonde
This alternative pop band started is made up of former members of the band, Little Green Cars. They have gained a loyal fanbase in recent years following the release of two albums in 2021 and 2023 to critical acclaim.
Lyra
Lyra aka. Laura MacNamara, has been a very busy woman in recent years. Currently working on a “new era” of music following the success of her self-titled debut album, which reached #1 in Ireland in 2024. Teasing her latest album on Instagram, we’re still awaiting the exact release details. We can’t wait to see what she does next.
Tomike
Born and raised in Dublin, Tomike is a singer-songwriter, producer and DJ now living in London. If you’re into electronic music, you’ll want to add Tomike to your playlists.
Holly Macve
Described as having ‘vocal notes of Chris Isaak and Patsy Cline’ the 29-year-old has three albums under her belt with Wonderland her most recent release in 2024.
Tolü Makay
If soulful sound and beautiful lyrics are your thing, Tolü is your girl. Emerging as one of Ireland’s most compelling musical voices, Tolü is proving she’s more than just a beautiful voice as she’s taking part in the 2026 Dancing With The Stars Ireland.
Orla Gartland
Orla Gartland is an Irish singer songwriter who first came to public recognition following the release of her debut album, Woman on the Internet in 2021 to critical and commercial success. She is also one quarter of the band FIZZ which she started with several musical friends.
Florence Road
Praised by NME, Rolling Stone, Clash, and The Line of Best Fit, Florence Road, the four-piece band from Wicklow have already built a devoted audience of nearly 1 million followers. After selling out Dublin’s Academy in 2025, they’re currently gearing up for their highly anticipated 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin show on Wednesday 27th May 2026.
Mary Black
Celebrating 40 years in music in 2023, Mary Black is the undisputed queen of the Irish folk music scene. After four successful decades in the music industry, Mary is hitting the road one last time in 2026 with The Slán Tour, marking the final time she’ll tour live before retiring from life on tour.
