Shirley Manson named Inspirational Artist at 2026 Women In Music Awards
Shirley Manson was named Inspirational Artist at the Women In Music Awards in London on 9 October 2026, as speakers raised barriers facing women.
The 2026 Women In Music Awards took place on 9 October 2026 at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House in London. Garbage’s Shirley Manson was named Inspirational Artist, according to Music Week’s post-event report of the ceremony.
Music Week said the ceremony is staged in association with UK Music and AIM, and that the event sold out weeks in advance. The awards’ own website confirms the date and venue. The ceremony, co-founded in 2014 by Alison Wenham and Lara Baker, was hosted by Clara Amfo, and Music Week calls the 2026 edition its 12th year. As of 11 October 2026, the winners appear only in Music Week’s report among the sources reviewed.
Who won at the 2026 ceremony
Jade received the Artist Impact award, a category added for 2026 and sponsored by TikTok. Miranda Cooper, part of the Xenomania hitmakers, won Spirit of the Studio. Mica Sefia, project manager at Black Lives In Music, took Rising Star, and Mary Anne Hobbs won Music Champion.
Eve Horne, chief executive of We Are The Unheard, received DE&I Initiative of the Year. Colleen Theis, president and chief operating officer of The Orchard, was named International Woman. Sonia Diwan of Sound Advice won Businesswoman of the Year, and Jo Charrington, president of Capitol UK, received Outstanding Contribution.
The Roll of Honour inducted 16 people, including Mel Rudder posthumously. The ceremony also paid tribute to Alexi Cory-Smith. Live Nation Women sponsored the Roll of Honour strand.
Rostered creators
Women were 29.7% of rostered creators in the Music’s Gender Parity Index, and 26.7% of managers and 25.9% of agents, according to the index as reported by New Industry Focus and InterSpace Daily.
What speakers said about women’s progress
Music Week reported that Miranda Cooper spoke about too little support for mothers in what she called essentially a male-designed world. Eve Horne said she was creating her own opportunities.
According to the same report, Jade said she had “seen my fair share of misogyny and abuse of power” and did not know one female artist who had not had a similar version of this. Shirley Manson said that seeing so many women under one roof was something she could never have imagined when she was born in the 1960s.
The statistics that frame the story come from a separate report, the Music’s Gender Parity Index.
What the Music’s Gender Parity Index measures
The Music’s Gender Parity Index, a She Is The Music report, puts women at 29.7% of rostered creators. Women were 26.7% of managers and 25.9% of agents.
New Industry Focus reports two further figures. Women’s share of new label signings fell from 38.4% in 2023 to 34.3% in 2026 year to date, and women’s share of new publishing deals was 27.8%. The same report counts 63 companies and professionals with rosters at least half women.
The index covers signed or represented creators on ROSTR rosters across management, agency, label and publishing. It excludes session players, engineers, touring professionals and employees unless they are also signed to a qualifying creator roster. New Industry Focus says gender is recorded for 99.3% of artists, and unrecorded individuals are left out of every denominator. The rankings measure roster composition, not compensation equity, promotion or commercial outcomes.
Rankings measure roster composition, not company culture, compensation equity, promotion, investment levels, ownership terms, or commercial outcomes.
Where the sources differ, and what remains open
Both saved versions are dated 26 August 2026. InterSpace Daily’s article is by Patrick Ofe, and the New Industry Focus page is by The NIF Team.
They also differ on who produced the data. New Industry Focus credits ROSTR with the analysis, while InterSpace Daily names She Is The Music and an unnamed data partner. The 10 July 2026 data snapshot appears only in the New Industry Focus version, and InterSpace Daily gives no cut-off date.
The winners rest on Music Week’s post-event report. The organiser’s separate 2026 winners page is not among the saved sources, so the list has not been checked against it. The pages reviewed give no date for next year’s awards. The index says repeating its analysis annually can turn it into a benchmark, but gives no date for the next edition.
Photo: Anthony O’Neil · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
