Spotlight On: SAY SHE SHE

ABOUT THIS WEEK’S SHERO IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

The history of massively successful girl groups runs through the decades, from the late thirties and forties, with The Andrews Sisters, to the fifties and sixties with The Shirelles and The Supremes, into the seventies with The Pointer Sisters, the eighties with The Go-Go’s and The Bangles, the nineties with En Vogue and TLC, 2000s with Destiny’s Child, and the 2010s with Fifth Harmony and Little Mix. Some of these groups were formed by the members themselves, especially in the cases of sister groups, but many of them were manufactured from the imaginations of male producers and record label executives, and all of them, to one degree or another, navigated a male-dominated music industry as best they could. Enter Say She She, named with a wink and a nod to Nile Rodgers and CHIC. Piya Malik, Sabrina Mileo Cunningham, and Nya Gazelle Brown are the feminist trio from Brooklyn, New York, leading an eight piece band, formed out of a sisterhood of former backup singers who found with each other solidarity, inspiration, and courage to start their own self-described disco-delic band, with the help and support of a tight knit community of musicians out of New York and beyond, including the Daptone and Antibalas families. Their debut album Prism has just been released, along with a handful of singles, and word is spreading like wildfire about this girl group for the modern age. I'm so happy to welcome Say She She as this week’s SHEROES In The Spotlight.

SHERO BIRTHDAYS: We celebrate the SHERO birthdays of En Vogue’s Maxine Jones on 1/16, Eartha Kitt on 1/17, and both Dolly Parton and the late great Janis Joplin on 1/19.

This week’s Radio SHERO: Cindy Howes of WUNC Music joins us this week, sharing the track “Giant Palm” from Naima Bock.