The 2018 She Rocks Awards Honors Women Trailblazers In Music

ANAHEIM, CA-

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”

This famous quote by Hunter S. Thompson was spoken Shirley Manson (Garbage) as she started her speech at the 2018n She Rocks Awards, and it couldn’t have been more appropriate.

Needless to say, the past year has been a turning point for women, especially in the entertainment industry. The #MeToo moment, really shone a light on that which has been silent for so long, and it’s hard- painful even-to imagine or relive all of the stories women across the spectrum have had to endure.

The She Rocks Awards was an opportunity to honor and acknowledge a handful of amazingly hard working women who have had to power through all of the discrimination and sexism in order to thrive in a male-dominated industry and find success in doing what they love: playing, and/or making a difference in, music.

The She Rocks Awards provides a much needed, and much deserved, platform for those women, to come together, support and celebrate each other. In a world where we still struggle with gender equality, it’s important to stop comparing ourselves to other women, to sincerely toss competition aside and awake from unhealthy envy, to finally embrace each other’s achievement. On this night, it was a night to celebrate and admire our fellow colleagues success. That’s what She Rocks Awards is all about.

Hosted by co-founder Laura Whitmore and KROQ LA radio personality Kat Corbett, the event- which is organized by the Women’s International Music Network that was founded by Whitmore- has grown from it’s small breakfast conference at NAMM, and is now a full fledged event at a venerable performance venue and that not only includes musical performance by established and up and coming recording artists, but also its own silent auction with goods provided by sponsors like Daisy Rock, Paul Mitchell, MAC, Martin & Co and many many more.

But the highlights of the evening were the awards themselves. I was in awe as I watched both women who’s music I’ve admired for so long, and who’ve had a significant impact in the music industry be recognized for their respective contributions. Neil Portnow may think we women haven’t done enough, but tonight was proof that we’ve been doing it all along … we’ve just never been recognized like we should have been … until now.

Here are the women honored at the 6^th Annual She Rocks Awards:

Legend Award: Pat Benatar
Icon Award: Melissa Eitherisge.
Vanguard Award: Katie Pierson and Cindy Wilson (B-52s)
Mad Skills Award: Dawn Birr (a part of Sennheiser family and an advisory board member for the Women’s International Music Network and Soundgirls.org)
Excellence Award: Amberley Crouse-Know (Senior Director of Creative and Business Development, BMG Music Production)
Dreaming Out Loud Award: Exene Cervenka (X)
Powerhouse Award: Kristy Porter (Director of the Guitar Center, Westlake Village)
Champion Award: Karla Redding-Andrews.
Vision Award: Fabi Reyna (Founder and Editor-in-chief of She Shreds Magazine – the worlds first and only print publication dedicated to women guitarist and bassists which is distributed in 28 countries)
Achiever Award: Vanessa Mering (Marketing strangest at HARMAN Professional)
Spirit Award: Candace Stewart (Studio Manager at EastWest Studios)
Inspirer Award: FANNY (60s band, which was the first all-girl band who got signed and recorded a full length LP with a major record label. FANNY is now Fanny Walked the Earth and they are still rocking)