State Champ Radio Women in Music
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SZA capped off an astonishing run of critical acclaim and commercial success by accepting the Woman of the Year award at the 2023 Billboard Women In Music ceremony, taking the stage to accept the trophy from Coi Leray on Wednesday night (Mar. 1).
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After Leray called SZA an “amazing soul” and then introduced a pre-recorded congrats from SZA’s “Special” remix pal Lizzo (“You are the real deal! Such a genuine human being,” Lizzo said), SZA took the stage to rapturous applause, and was beaming as she accepted her trophy. After thanking God, her parents, her team and label, SZA revealed that she wanted to keep her acceptance speech as natural as possible.
“I didn’t write anything, but that’s also not who I am,” SZA said. “I’m a very off-the-dome kind of person, and I guess what I wanted to say is like, there’s so many women in this room right now that I respect so deeply. This could have been any of us in this room.”
SZA proceeded to shout out several of the 2023 Women In Music honorees, from Doechii to Lana Del Rey to Latto, and then talked about how appearing ultra-confident is often a misconception projected upon artists. “I used to feel like I didn’t belong,” SZA admitted, “but I realized that the key is to stay open and available for whatever the universe or God wants to do with your life.
“I really just want my life to be more than music,” she continued, “to be more than an artist. I want to serve others, I want to serve people, I want to be open and available for whatever God wants for me, and saying yes to everything that’s scary, to everything that feels like it’s not for you or where you don’t belong, is really the only way where we walk through those doors.”
SZA concluded with a powerful affirmation: “You just have to say yes to the possibility,” she said. “And thank y’all for saying yes to me.”
The Woman of the Year honor arrives during a week in which SZA’s sophomore album, SOS, spends a 10th nonconsecutive week atop the Billboard 200, becoming just the eighth album since 2010 to notch double-digit weeks at No. 1 on the chart. The blockbuster full-length has also spawned SZA’s biggest solo hit to date — “Kill Bill,” which has peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart — and has turned the R&B star into an arena headliner, with her tour in support of SOS kicking off last month.
“It really scares me,” SZA told Billboard during her Woman of the Year interview, when asked what the award means to her. “But I really want to do something with my time in the sun right now. There’s so much I want to do for other people. I need to do something to deserve that in a way that has nothing to do with me, something that’s selfless and uplifts other women, people, period. It makes me feel more responsible than I was before. I feel like I owe everyone so much more than just smiling and getting onstage and waving. Part of it I know is just letting God use me and be myself and letting that be part of the work. But I know that there’s something more that I have to do.”
SZA was previously given the Rulebreaker Award at Billboard Women In Music in 2018. She now joins recent Woman of the Year recipients like Olivia Rodrigo, Cardi B, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande.
Twenty years after entering the Billboard charts for the first time with “Quiero Bailar” (2003), Ivy Queen was honored with the Women In Music Icon award at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music on Wednesday (March 1).
The 50-year-old Puerto Rican rapper — who to date has 20 entries on Latin Rhythm Airplay chart, among other accolades — was presented with the coveted award by Bad Bunny, who during his presentation said he is the artist he is today because he has a part of Ivy Queen in his musical DNA. “She gave me the strength to be myself and to work double,” he said.
“As a fan of reggaetón, I’ve waited a long time for this moment,” he continued, “and I think that in 2023 is the time where more female reggaeton exponents exist, and I’m sure it’s because of the root that Ivy planted a long time ago.”
Dazzling in an all-silver, body-hugging gown, Queen accepted the award, giving an empowering speech.
“When I fell in love with music I found myself constanly battling to earn my spot, to earn my own lane, and to find my own identity between the guys,” she said. “The movement was underground, then turned reggaeton. I traveled around the island of Puerto Rico measuring my skills against male MCs. Bars became my self-defense mechanism. Through lyrics, I encouraged other Latinas that stand around me to stand for themself and also to not stay quiet when something hurts. I call upon all the Latin and industry women to not allow others to split us and divide us no more. … Let’s stay authentic, let’s stay healthy, let’s walk with grace, let’s laugh more but also remember that beauty is a mental attitude, and with that said, please, ladies, do not go to bed with makeup tonight, OK?”
In addition to Ivy, this year’s honorees included SZA (Billboard’s Woman of the Year); Becky G (Impact Award); Lana Del Rey (Visionary Award); Kim Petras (Chartbreaker Award); Latto (Powerhouse Award); Honda’s Rising Star Doechii; Lainey Wilson (Rulebreaker); Rosalia (Bose’s Producer of the Year Award); and K-pop group TWICE (Breakthrough Award).
Billboard’s annual Women in Music awards returned Wednesday (March 1) for the 2023 edition to honor the most influential powerhouses – including artists, creators, producers and executives — in music today who are contributing to the industry and community. The ceremony took place at the YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles, and was hosted by award-winning writer-actress Quinta Brunson.
Billboard Women in Music honors executives, artists and power players who have worked against the odds to succeed in a male-dominated business (and any way you crunch the numbers, that’s just a fact). But few of the 2023 honorees have had a path like Ivy Queen. With tenacity and talent, the Puerto Rican singer not only made a name for herself in the predominantly male world of reggaetón in the ‘90s but established herself as one of the genre’s all-time icons.
So it’s only fitting that at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music event, Ivy Queen is honored with the Icon Award. After a surprise introduction from Bad Bunny – Billboard’s Top Artist of 2022 – at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday (March 1), Ivy Queen took the stage.
“When I fell in love with music, I found myself constantly battling to find my own lane, spot and identity between the guys,” she told the Los Angeles crowd. “Bars became my self-defense mechanism.”
The diva also urged the crowd “not to stay quiet when something hurts.”
“In a world that tell us women we’re always being measured by looks, by body type and sometimes by beauty — and that we are getting not equally paid for having ovaries — I call upon all the Latin and American industry women to not allow others to split us and divide us.”
Ivy Queen ended her speech with a meaningful, philosophical and extremely useful piece of advice. “Beauty is a mental attitude; with that said, please, ladies, do not go to bed with your makeup on.”
Lainey Wilson took the 2023 Billboard Women in Music stage Wednesday night (March 1) to perform her hit song “Heart Like a Truck” before accepting this year’s Rulebreaker Award.
Looking stunning in gold bell-bottoms and a wide-brimmed hat — her signature look — the 30-year-old singer-songwriter sang a gorgeous, stripped-down version of her May 2022 single, which just this week reached a new Billboard Hot 100 peak at No. 29. She was accompanied simply by an acoustic guitarist and keyboardist.
The country crooner is fresh off her best new artist and female vocalist of the year victories at November’s CMA Awards, and is readying herself to join Luke Combs on his stadium tour this spring and summer. Last year, she made her acting debut on season five of western drama Yellowstone.
Wilson’s Yellowstone costar Piper Perabo presented her “determined and confident” friend with the Rulebreaker Award, which the “Wait in the Truck” musician accepted with a hug after her performance.
“This is absolutely insane,” Wilson said in her speech. “This award right here is for all the women who do things their way. The ones who are not afraid to go against the grain and paint outside of the lines. The ones who take ‘no’ on the nose and somehow turn it into a ‘yes.’”
“This s–t is not for the faint of heart,” she continued. “All the women who are coming on this stage and in this room here tonight being honored can testify.”
It’s not difficult to see why Wilson is the perfect recipient for this year’s Rulebreaker award, considering how she first got noticed by her record label: by singing a song about sticking up her middle finger. “I just got to a certain point where I’d been in Nashville for so long [and] my give-a-damn was a little busted,” she recalled in her Women in Music interview with Billboard. “I felt like, ‘Why not just say what I want to say how I want to say it?’ That’s one of the thoughts that really set me free.”
Doechii was honored as Billboard’s 2023 Women in Music Rising Star on Wednesday night (March 1) at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles.
During the awards show, the rapper performed a mash-up of two of her hits — delivering a sultry rendition of “Persuasive” and a rapid-fire, ferocious take on”Crazy” — before being presented with her award by her mother, Celesia Moore.
“Girl, I done danced my shoe off,” the rapper quipped while accepting her award with a broken shoe before marveling that she’s joined the ranks of Billboard Women in Music Rising Star awardees who have come before her, including Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga and Janelle Monáe.
In an interview with Billboard ahead of the show, the boundary-breaking Top Dawg Entertainment signee dished on her five-year plan for her career in the wake of “Persuasive” garnering 30 million on-demand streams in the U.S., per Luminate.
“By year five I want to be at my peak. I want to be in my Sasha Fierce era, the top of my game with still a long way to go — but I want to reach my prime and never leave it,” she said.
Doechii also promised that fans can expect a pivot in her sound when she releases her debut full-length project later this year. “It’s my pop era,” she said. “Usually I’m alone [in the studio], but these days I’ve been inviting people in. Usually I like people to send me beats and I’ll just listen through, but recently I’ve been working with producers like J White in person, which is cool. So my vibe is kind of changing; it’s a lot of energy. It feels like a party.”
Dressed in knee-high boots and an edgy two-piece ensemble, Rosalía arrived at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music Awards held at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday (March 1), where she was honored with the first ever Women in Music Producer of the Year award presented by Bose.
After receiving the award from Canadian recording producer WondaGurl — who expressed her admiration for the artist — the Spanish singer-songwriter delivered a heartfelt speech in which she thanked God, her family and team (in that precise order).
“This is the first time I get a chain as an award,” she said of the diamond necklace presented to the honorees. “When I started in music, I had no idea what producing was. It was with time that I learned, and now I cannot imagine another way to make my music that’s not producing. A producer’s job is a job in the shadow, it’s not very fun … it’s 15 hours a day working on a sound. It comes from love and obsession and that’s why you stay in that small room with no windows while everyone else is living life and doing regular human s–t.”
She continued, “To me, it feels special tonight because this is not usual. I make my own music, I produce my own songs, and I write my own songs. I want to dedicate this award to all the women who are going to be producers.”
Rosalía ended her speech with an impromptu shout-out: “Lana Del Rey, te amo!”
Inspired by female artist-producers such as Björk and Missy Elliott, the 30-year-old artist tries “to not have a specific idea of how a song must sound,” she previously said to Billboard. “Instead, I go in with concepts, or ilusiones, of how I would like it to sound. But never a rigid idea. That’s not organic, nor is it productive. Producing also requires humility because you’re constantly testing out ideas. I remember Pharrell [Williams] once told me that we’re just testing ideas from the universe because no one really owns an idea. I love that concept.”
On her latest set MOTOMAMI, which won best Latin rock or alternative album at the 2023 Grammys and album of the year at the 2022 Latin Grammys, Rosalía genre-hopped from dembow to bachata to reggaeton to bolero. She produced tracks including “Saoko,” boldly fusing jazz and reggaetón, and in “Delirio de Grandeza,” she sampled Soulja Boy in an otherwise traditional bolero.
“My homework as a producer is to follow my intuition. It’s to make decisions and take risks,” she noted.
The 16-track LP peaked at No. 3 on Billboard‘s Top Latin Albums chart and follows her 2018 breakthrough set El Mal Querer (which also won a Grammy for best Latin rock or alternative album) and her debut album, Los Ángeles. In 2019, she was honored with the Rising Star Award at the Billboard Women in Music Awards, becoming the first Spanish artist to receive that honor.
Billboard’s annual Women in Music awards returns Wednesday (March 1) for the 2023 edition to honor the most influential powerhouses – including artists, creators, producers and executives — in music today who are contributing to the industry and community. The ceremony this year takes place at the YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles, and is hosted by award-winning writer-actress Quinta Brunson.
Stars including Heidi Klum, Erika Jayne and Victoria Monet stunned on the red carpet before the event began.
This year’s honorees are SZA, who is Billboard’s Woman of the Year; Becky G, who is receiving the Impact Award, and will also be performing; Lana Del Rey with the Visionary Award; Kim Petras, who is performing and honored with the Chartbreaker Award; Latto, who is receiving the Powerhouse Award; Honda’s Rising Star Doechii, who will deliver a performance; Ivy Queen with the Icon Award; performer Lainey Wilson, who is named Rulebreaker; Rosalia, who is being honored with Bose’s Producer of the Year Award; and K-pop group TWICE, who will perform and be honored with the Breakthrough Award.
Billboard’s 2023 Executive of the Year honoree is Sylvia Rhone, the chairwoman and CEO of Epic Records. She is the first woman and Black industry executive to hold that dual title at a major record label.
Previously announced presenters include Dove Cameron, Sabrina Carpenter, Chloe Bailey, Coi Leray and Wondagurl.
The show begins at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, and can be livestreamed right here on Billboard.com, as well as Billboard’s YouTube channel.
Jody Gerson & Rosalía
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Jody Gerson and Rosalía at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Becky G
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Becky G at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Sabrina Carpenter
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Sabrina Carpenter at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Sylvia Rhone
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Sylvia Rhone at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Heidi Klum
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Heidi Klum waved at the cameras at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023, in Los Angeles.
Ivy Queen
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Ivy Queen at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Kim Petras
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Kim Petras at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Quinta Brunson
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Quinta Brunson, who is hosting the 2023 Billboard Women In Music, arrived in a leopard-print spaghetti-strapped dress.
Erika Jayne
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Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star and singer Erika Jayne on the Billboard Women In Music red carpet.
Dina LaPolt
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Dina LaPolt posed on the carpet at Billboard Women In Music.
Victoria Monet
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Singer-songwriter Victoria Monet showed off her sleek white outfit at Billboard Women In Music.
Laura Marrano
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Laura Marrano at Billboard Women In Music.
Queen Naija
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Queen Naija at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Helen Yu
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Helen Yu at Billboard Women In Music.
Ashlee Keating
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Songwriter and singer Ashlee Keating at Billboard Women In Music.
Coco Jones
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Singer Coco Jones at Billboard Women In Music.
Rachel McCord
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Rachel McCord at Billboard Women In Music.
Dezi Saenz
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Dezi Saenz at Billboard Women In Music.
SJ
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SJ at Billboard Women In Music.
Malibu Babie
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Artist Malibu Babie at Billboard Women In Music.
Larsen Thompson
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Actress Larsen Thompson at Billboard Women In Music.
Lainey Wilson
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Lainey Wilson at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
The Aces
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The Aces at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Shenseea
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Shenseea at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Laya
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Laya at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Chica
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Chica at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Alexandra Kay
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Alexandra Kay at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Doechii
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Doechii at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Ambre
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Ambre at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Chxrry22
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Chxrry22 at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Alaina Castillo
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Alaina Castillo at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Rania Aniftos
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Rania Aniftos at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Lyndsey Havens
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Lyndsey Havens at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Kristin Robinson
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Kristin Robinson at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Neena Rouhani
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Neena Rouhani at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Mckenna Grace
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Mckenna Grace at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Bryana Salaz
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Bryana Salaz at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Maggie Lindemann
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Maggie Lindemann at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Dove Cameron
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Dove Cameron at Billboard Women In Music held at YouTube Theater on March 1, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Women in Music honoree Doreen Schimk has one of the more interesting backstories in the music business: She escaped from the former East Germany as a teenager.
In the late 1980s, she and her sister Susann, both promising athletes, went to an East German training camp where she met a teenage boy she liked. Schimk took a bigger step than most girls her age, though, sneaking across the border in his car and moving to Hamburg in what was then West Germany. In 2011, this journey became the subject of the fictionalized German film Westwind.
In 1990, not long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Schimk moved to London, and later New York, where she says she “picked up English on the street.” “But I was obsessed with music – I was a DJ for a few years – and I thought this was the place I could get into the business, but I didn’t know the difference between an agent and a manager and a label.”
Then a friend from back home called about an opening for an internship at the German indie label Edel Records. Schimk moved back within 48 hours and then spent six years learning about promotions before taking a job at Sony Music Germany – and then, eventually, at Warner Music.
In August 2021, she and Fabian Drebes were named co-presidents of Warner Music Central Europe, which oversees operations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. One priority is “cultural change,” she says. “There’s a huge opportunity to create a new way of working in terms of changing the mindset and breaking these barriers in terms of hierarchies.” Another is focusing more on dance music and German language hip-hop.
“With dance and EDM we have a huge opportunity to grow globally,” she says. For hip-hop, she and Drebes founded Atlantic Records Germany “to be a new door for German rap artists,” she says. “It’s based in Berlin” – Warner Music’s German headquarters is in Hamburg – “and it’s growing out of the culture there.” Change takes time, she says, but Warner Germany has shown strength this year on the singles chart.
As for the movie, she recalls, “I was in my 30s, sitting with my twin sister Susann on a balcony in Berlin, having a drink, and one of the guys we were with said, ‘Why don’t you make a movie about it?’ — [Her sister is a movie producer] — “From such a young age when I made that decision,” she says, “being fearless has always been a driver for me.”
The 2023 Billboard Women in Music Awards take place tonight (March 1) at the YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles. The event will livestream here on Billboard.com and via Billboard’s YouTube account.
The 2023 Billboard Women in Music Awards are almost here. The show will take place Wednesday, March 1 at the YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles, beginning at 7 p.m. PT.
Tickets are available to the public, and can be purchased via Ticketmaster here, with more information at billboardwomeninmusic.com. Prices range from $85 to $275. Sponsors for the 2023 Women in Music Awards include American Express, Honda, Mugler, Nationwide, Bose and Smirnoff ICE.
Even if you’re not attending in person, you can still be a part of the annual event. The 2023 Billboard Women in Music Awards will livestream right here on Billboard.com and Billboard’s YouTube account. More information about how to watch the event will be available here.
Billboard 200 chart-dominating artist SZA is the 2023 Billboard Woman of the Year. Epic Records’ Sylvia Rhone, the first Black woman both to run a record label and hold the dual title of chairman/CEO at a major, leads this year’s list of high-achieving women from every sector of the industry. You can see the full list of executives honored in 2023 here.
The event, hosted by Quinta Brunson, will recognize music’s top artists, producers and executives for their contributions to the music industry, their communities and beyond. Becky G will be honored with the Impact Award presented by American Express, Doechii with the Rising Star Award presented by Honda, Ivy Queen with the Icon Award, Kim Petras with the Chartbreaker Award, Latto with the Powerhouse Award, Lainey Wilson with the Rulebreaker Award, Lana Del Rey with the Visionary Award, Rosalía with the Producer of the Year Award and TWICE with the Breakthrough Award.
Rushing from elementary school with handwritten raps in her pocket, 10-year-old Alyssa Michelle Stephens would hop in her father’s “old-school cars with [24-inch] rims” and head straight to the recording studio — first in his friends’ homes, but soon enough, in professional spaces. “When we started paying for sessions, he’d say, ‘You ain’t gon’ be in here all day,’ ” the artist now known as Latto recalls. “ ‘You better have that song ready, top to bottom, one take, in and out!’ ” Even then, the Atlanta-raised aspiring MC — today a chart-topping, Grammy-nominated rapper with more than 1 billion on-demand streams in the United States, according to Luminate — was preparing for her destiny, winning high school writing competitions as a fifth grader.
Nurtured by her accountant mother and “hustler” father — both of whom she recalls living off ramen noodles during her early years — the self-proclaimed “daddy’s girl” stayed ahead of the curve, accompanying him to video shoots where rising acts like Dem Franchize Boyz and Ciara used his cars. “I just remember being so mesmerized by the whole process,” she says. “I loved the fast-paced hustle and bustle.” At 16, Latto competed on (and won) the first season of Lifetime’s hip-hop reality show, The Rap Game, under the moniker Miss Mulatto. Already, she had the foresight to recognize a bad career move when she saw one and, citing a less-than-adequate payout, turned down the show’s grand prize — a record deal with Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def Recordings — and remained independent until she signed to RCA Records in 2020, following the success of her breakthrough single, “B–ch From Da Souf.”
Read Latto’s Billboard Women in Music profile here.
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Christian Cowan dress, Sterling King jewelry.
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ACT N°1 gown, Hardot shoes.
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Brandon Blackwood coat, Jessica Rich shoes, Versace eyewear courtesy of Tab Vintage, Sara Shala necklace.
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Christian Cowan dress and shoes, Sterling King jewelry.
Image Credit: Ssam Kim
Styling by Todd White. Hair by Keshaun Williamson. Makeup by Melissa Ocasio.
