For years, the debate around gender representation in Irish and British music has been marked by a familiar frustration.

Artists raised concerns. Campaigners published reports. Broadcasters defended their decisions. Industry bodies launched initiatives. Yet despite the conversations, progress often felt difficult to quantify.

Even when representation reached parliamentary agendas and policy discussions, a fundamental question remained: was anything actually changing?

Then in the UK, 2024 became a watershed moment. For the first time, radio airplay reached gender parity, with women overtaking men across monitored playlists. It was a landmark achievement that demonstrated what accountability, transparency and sustained pressure can deliver.

For Linda Coogan Byrne, founder of Why Not Her?, the lesson was straightforward.
“That is why data matters. They cannot ignore the data. It’s only for so long that they can try, but in time and with persistence change becomes inevitable.”

The latest Irish Radio Report from Why Not Her? offers one of the clearest snapshots yet of what Irish audiences are hearing on their airwaves. And for the first time in a long time, the findings suggest a genuinely encouraging story.

Analysing annual Top 20 Irish Artist Charts across RTÉ 2FM, RTÉ Radio 1, Today FM, 98FM, FM104, Spin 103.8, Beat 102-103 and iRadio between June 2025 and June 2026, the findings reveal the strongest level of female representation documented by Why Not Her? since the organisation began tracking Irish radio airplay.

Women, female-fronted acts and female-led collaborations accounted for approximately 35.6% of all entries across the annual Top 20 Irish Artist Charts of the broadcasters analysed.
That figure alone tells an important story.

For much of the last decade, reports examining Irish radio regularly highlighted the absence of women from playlists, charts and daytime programming. Female artists often appeared as isolated exceptions rather than as part of a sustained ecosystem of success. The 2025-2026 findings suggest that picture is changing.

The Wicklow band emerged as the most-played female act in Ireland’s national all-radio chart. At a time when discussions around representation often focus on percentages and policy, Florence Road’s success provides tangible evidence that women are increasingly achieving sustained national visibility across Irish radio.

Their breakthrough is significant not simply because they topped the female rankings but because it reflects a broader shift taking place across the industry.

For years, female artists frequently appeared as isolated success stories. The latest data suggests something different is happening. Florence Road is part of a growing cohort that includes CMAT, Jazzy, Cliffords, Aimée, Erica-Cody, LYRA, Allie Sherlock and Winnie Ama, all of whom appeared across station charts during the reporting period.

The result is a radio landscape that is beginning to look more reflective of the country it serves.

The findings also point to growing visibility for Black Irish artists and artists from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Artists appearing across station charts included Jazzy, Erica-Cody, Winnie Ama, Jordan Adetunji, F3miii, ELZZZ and MOIO, alongside artists such as KhakiKid, who has publicly spoken about his Irish-Libyan, Arab and Amazigh heritage.

For Winnie Ama, who contributed to the report, the findings represent both a milestone and a reminder of the work still ahead.

“It’s so encouraging to see an increase in Irish female artists represented on the radio in Ireland. Just a few years ago it seemed that Irish radio didn’t care about their own female artists at all, and a lot of the radio producers were either dismissive or defensive about their male-dominated selections.

“Now there’s a shift in the right direction. Although the numbers are an improvement, there is still a lot of room for more progress.

“I hope that this progress will inspire more female artists to create new music with the knowledge that it is possible to be played on the radio in Ireland. I hope that music labels will be encouraged to invest more in Irish female artists and nurture their talent and unique creative perspectives.”

Perhaps most strikingly, 98FM emerged as the strongest-performing broadcaster in the analysis, leading on both female representation and ethnic diversity. Women accounted for 65% of chart entries, while artists from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds accounted for 35%. No other broadcaster topped both measures.

The findings point to an Irish radio landscape that is becoming increasingly reflective of contemporary Ireland. While no single station can solve structural inequality alone, the results demonstrate that meaningful representation is achievable when broadcasters actively engage with the breadth of talent available to them.

Yet the report is careful not to confuse progress with parity.

When airplay from radio stations across Ireland is combined into a single national chart, a different picture emerges.

Women accounted for 25% of entries in the national Top 20 chart and just 17% of total plays. Male artists continued to dominate the highest-volume radio successes, with acts including Kingfishr, Dermot Kennedy, Niall Horan and Amble occupying many of the chart’s leading positions.

The contrast is revealing.

While Florence Road led all female acts nationally with 6,433 plays, Kingfishr accumulated more than 22,000 plays across the same period. Women are increasingly breaking through across individual stations and playlists, but the highest levels of radio success remain concentrated among a relatively small group of predominantly male artists.

In other words, the door is opening wider, but the room at the very top remains crowded.

That nuance is what makes these findings important.

As Coogan Byrne notes, the findings are significant not because the work is finished, but because the direction of travel is finally visible.

“For the first time in years, young women listening to Irish radio are hearing a broader range of women succeeding across multiple genres, formats and broadcasters.

“The next generation of Irish women artists will not tolerate the exclusion previous generations experienced. They are here, they are unapologetically loud, and they are not backing down.”

For the first time since Why Not Her? began analysing Irish radio, the dominant story is not simply inequality. Nor is it victory. It is measurable progress.

The data suggests that women and artists from diverse backgrounds are no longer appearing as occasional exceptions. They are becoming part of the fabric of Irish radio itself.

The challenge now is ensuring that progress becomes permanent because while representation is improving, parity remains unfinished.

Images: Winie Ama and Linda Coogan Byrne, used with permission.

Data: Why Not Her?