Countdown to #MeToo moment for music execs
MUSIC bosses are braced for the industry’s #MeToo moment as they grapple with a growing list of allegations about bullying and abuse of women.
Both artists and staff have spoken out about a problem that one respected senior female in the business has described as ‘endemic’.
Rebecca Ferguson, who found fame on the X Factor in 2010, went to the Metropolitan Police earlier this month to report allegations of harassment and coercive control against a senior male industry figure.
She has met culture secretary Oliver Dowden to discuss misconduct in the industry, the Mail On Sunday reported.
Lily Allen has reportedly used the first names of men in the industry, who she claims mistreated her, as the titles of each track on her next album.
Friends say it is a way for the singer, 36 – who has said she was sexually assaulted by an industry insider on a work trip to the Caribbean in 2016 – to deal with her trauma and send a message to the men involved.
Meanwhile, a married exec is alleged to have molested a junior staff member after the Brit Awards in 2015, forcing her to flee in tears. One insider said: ‘This is very, very scary stuff.
‘Someone I know talks about a very violent male rapist who is in the industry and working around women.’ Three years ago, the #MeToo movement brought down top Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
And a music industry source said: ‘This is a ticking timebomb. It is all showbiz glamour to the general public but the way powerful men are treating women is abhorrent.’ Another senior figure in the business is said to have intervened to protect women who were being bullied and harassed at work by a male colleague. Naomi Pohl, of the Musicians’ Union, has received 100 reports ranging from sexism to sexual assault.
‘I think we’ve only scratched the surface,’ she has told BBC Radio 4.
Naming names: