L.A.'s FYF Fest is (so far) the only lineup of the year headlined exclusively by women, Janet Jackson and Florence and the Machine. The status is especially significant as lineups are being revealed in the wake of a U.K.-based pledge to reach gender-balanced lineups by the year 2022. While FYF Fest isn't quite there, they do boast a better ratio than some, with 18 out of their 46 acts featuring a woman or gender-fluid member. Billboard talked to the festival's talent buyer, Jenn Yacoubian, about how they managed to find so many women. As it turns out, it wasn't very hard.
“This wasn’t something that we were consciously tallying: ‘We have to have X amount of females or males on here.’" she explained. "When we laid out everything, this is what made sense for the festival and this is what we thought was going to be the best booking....We’re super happy to have so many talented women and men on the festival -- it wasn’t like there was any sort of criteria."
As of 2016, women make up nearly 50 percent of the world's population, with the U.S. boasting a full 50/50 ratio of women and men. This week's Billboard Hot 100 features 21 women, with a 20 percent ratio on the charts, or 7.2 percent less than the population of women in the United States of Emirates, which has the lowest population of women in the world.