A Lineup for the 2022 Lilith Fair of Our Dreams

In honor of the music festival's 25th anniversary, here are some of the artists Jezebel staffers would like to see at a Lilith Fair reboot.

EntertainmentMusic
Photo: Matthew Baker/Redferns (Getty Images)

Twenty-five years ago, singer-songwriter and storied ASPCA spokeswoman, Sarah MacLaughlin convened the first-ever Lilith Fair, a legendary event that became synonymous with alternative women musicians of the late 1990s.

Frustrated by the misogynistic music and concert industry executives convinced that music by—and for—women didn’t sell, MacLaughlin proved them all wrong. From 1997 to 1999, Lilith Fair cemented itself as the stuff of musical mythology, featuring everyone from Fiona Apple to Lisa Loeb to Tracy Chapman. Prince showed up to see Sheryl Crow. Young Missy Elliot, Christina Aguilera, Dido, Nelly Furtado and Eryka Badu all appeared on its stage. As recently remembered by Marissa R. Moss in the book Her Country, The Chicks’ Martie Maguire played the fiddle as no man had ever done before: wearing a crop top.

It was the top-grossing music festival of the late 1990s and, as music writer Jessica Hopper told NPR on Tuesday, “It showed people models of possibility.”

The artists who played Lilith Fair were unabashed when it came to speaking out about injustice, and the space they created allowed for attendees to sing, dance and simply exist, largely sans the fear of being groped by male concert-goers as they might’ve at other venues.

Reflecting on its 25th anniversary, Jezebel staffers brainstormed who would be in our dream Lilith Fair lineup: a compilation of women, femme and non-binary musicians who have refused to simply “shut up and sing,” featured here alongside some of their progressive and liberatory proclamations.

Megan Thee Stallion

Megan Thee Stallion
Photo: Matthew Baker/Redferns (Getty Images)

At Glastonbury in June, shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, she said: “Y’all know it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t take a second to call out these stupid ass men. I mean goddamn. What else you want? Texas really embarrassing me now y’all, that’s my home state. I want to have it on the record that the motherfucking hot girls and hot boys do not support this bullshit that y’all are campaigning for. My body, my mothafucking choice.”

The Chicks

The Chicks
Photo: Kevin Kane (Getty Images)

At a concert in London in 2002, the quote that prompted much of the music industry to ostracize them: “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”

Phoebe Bridgers

Phoebe Bridgers
Photo: Dave J. Hogan (Getty Images)

At Glastonbury in June: “Fuck America and all these irrelevant old motherfuckers trying to tell us what to do with our fucking bodies. Fuck it.”

Olivia Rodrigo

Olivia Rodrigo
Photo: Harry Durrant (Getty Images)

At a concert in Washington, D.C., in May, shortly after the draft opinion overturning Roe was leaked: “Our bodies should never be in the hands of politicians. I hope we can raise our voices to protect our right to have a safe abortion, which is a right that so many people before us have worked so hard to get.”

Mickey Guyton

Mickey Guyton
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris (Getty Images)

In the 2021 song, Black Like Me: “It’s a hard life on easy street / Just white painted picket fences far as you can see / If you think we live in the land of the free / You should try to be black like me.”

MUNA

MUNA
Photo: Sarah Morris (Getty Images)

Guitarist Josette Maskin told PinkNews in 2020: “I think we would be a different band if we weren’t out. Based on the fact we wouldn’t be honest with who we were. I think so much of our queer brand is to be honest and to be just exactly who we are.”

Japanese Breakfast

Japanese Breakfast
Photo: Rich Fury (Getty Images)

On Twitter in June: “Truly fuck the scotus. Please donate to abortion funds to help protect the most vulnerable. Please keep raising your voice and staying in this fight.”

Robyn

Robyn
Photo: Erika Goldring (Getty Images)

In “Who’s That Girl?” in 2004: “Good girls are sexy, like every day / I’m only sexy when I say it’s okay.”

Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams
Photo: Steven Ferdman (Getty Images)

In “You Can’t Rule Me” in 2020: “Yeah, you might expect me to follow / But I ain’t gonna fall in line / I tell you what, this much I know / The dotted line ain’t been signed.”

Kim Petras

Kim Petras
Photo: Scott Dudelson (Getty Images)

In a 2019 Insider interview: “I feel like I’ve really proven myself as a songwriter. Now, I’m down to be transgender however I want and talk about it as much as I want. Because I’ve always been open about it, but now I don’t care anymore, ‘cause I know I’m here because of my music.”

King Princess

King Princess
Photo: Astrida Valigorsky (Getty Images)

In a profile in The Cut in 2018: “I’ve seen so many beautiful, strong, talented women stifled by male ego in rooms, and I want every young woman who feels that their music is being taken from them to know that they have a voice, and they have the tools, and that it’s possible.”

Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton
Photo: Rick Kern (Getty Images)

To Billboard in 2020: “I understand people having to make themselves known and felt and seen. And of course Black lives matter. Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter? No!”

Yola

Yola
Photo: Scott Dudelson (Getty Images)

In a 2019 Rolling Stone interview: “It’s important for women of color to be other, to be not blending in with an aesthetic that is ubiquitous. To be doing something that sets itself apart, and that is derived from musicians of color, but maybe from a different era, from sounds that are less common, or that feel like they’ve been disappearing.”

Charlie XCX

Charlie XCX
Photo: Matthew Baker (Getty Images)

On Twitter in June: “Just because you’re not an American citizen does not mean the overturning of Roe V Wade is none of your business. if you support womens rights and human rights you NEED to be vocal about how drastic and appalling the overturning of the constitutional right to an abortion is.”

Cardi B

Cardi B
Photo: Phillip Faraone (Getty Images)

In an interview with then-candidate Joe Biden in 2020: “What I want is free Medicare. It’s important to have free [healthcare] because look what is happening right now. Of course, I think we need free college.”

Our Native Daughters

Our Native Daughters
Photo: Mickey Bernal (Getty Images)

In the 2019 song “Black Myself”: “I don’t creep around, I stand proud and free / ‘Cause I’m Black myself / I go anywhere that I wanna go / ‘Cause I’m Black myself / I’m surrounded many lovin’ arms / ‘Cause I’m Black myself / And I’ll stand my ground and smile in your face / ‘Cause I’m Black myself.”

Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks
Photo: Josh Brasted (Getty Images)

In a 2021 Guardian interview: “If I had not had that abortion, I’m pretty sure there would have been no Fleetwood Mac.”

Maggie Rogers

Maggie Rogers
Photo: Cindy Ord (Getty Images)

On Twitter in June: “abortion is healthcare. bodily autonomy is a human right.”

The Highwomen

The Highwomen
Photo: John Shearer (Getty Images)

In the 2019 song “My Name Can’t Be Mama”: “I drive my mother crazy out here traveling the world / Free-wheelin’ in the city, I’m a solitary girl / I’m livin’ in the moment, knowin’ there might come a day/ But my name can’t be Mama today.”

Mitski

Mitski
Photo: HELLE ARENSBAK/Ritzau Scanpix (Getty Images)

In the 2022 song “Working for the Knife”: “I always thought the choice was mine / And I was right, but I just chose wrong / I start the day lying and end with the truth / That I’m dying for the knife.”

 
Join the discussion...