To mark International Women's Day, we're celebrating some of the most groundbreaking, genre-defining and culturally significant female artists ever to come out of the United Kingdom, from the 1950s to right now.
British music has always punched above its weight, from the skiffle clubs of post-war London to the streaming-era dominance of a new generation of artists rewriting what pop, rap and R&B can be; the UK has produced some of the most extraordinary musical talent in the world. And at the heart of that story, decade after decade, are women.
This International Women's Day, we're looking back across the decades at the female artists who changed British music, and, in many cases, music everywhere. These aren't just great singers. They are writers, producers, cultural forces and trailblazers who refused to be defined by anyone else's expectations of what they should sound like or who they should be.
The 1950s & 60s
Dusty Springfield
Born Mary O'Brien in West Hampstead in 1939, Dusty Springfield became one of the most soulfully expressive singers Britain has ever produced. Her landmark 1969 album ‘Dusty in Memphis’ is widely regarded as one of the greatest vocal records ever made, a radical act of artistic ambition at a time when female artists were expected to be decorative rather than powerful. She championed Black artists on British television when their music was being systematically ignored, was open about her sexuality long before the culture caught up, and changed what British music thought it was allowed to be.
Shirley Bassey
Born in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, in 1937, Shirley Bassey grew up in poverty and became one of the most celebrated live performers in the world. The only artist to have recorded three James Bond themes, Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, and Moonraker, she built a career on nothing but talent, determination, and a refusal to be overlooked, travelling from the docklands of Cardiff to the stages of Las Vegas on the sheer force of one of the most commanding voices British music has ever heard.
The 1970s & 80s
Olivia Newton-John
Born in Cambridge in 1948, Olivia Newton-John began her career performing in British clubs before going on to sell over 100 million records worldwide, star in Grease and even represent the UK in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. Beyond the commercial success, she became one of the most prominent advocates for cancer research in the world following her own breast cancer diagnosis in 1992. Awarded a damehood in 2020, Dame Olivia Newton-John passed away in 2022, but her warmth, her extraordinary voice and her courage leave a lasting legacy.
Kate Bush
When ‘Wuthering Heights’ reached number one in 1978, making Kate Bush the first female artist to top the UK charts with a self-written debut single, she was just nineteen years old. When ‘Running Up That Hill’ became a global phenomenon again via Stranger Things in 2022, a new generation discovered what the rest of us already knew. There is no one like Kate Bush, and there never will be.
Annie Lennox
As one half of Eurythmics and as a solo artist, the Aberdeen-born Annie Lennox created music that was bold, politically charged and sonically adventurous in ways most of her contemporaries simply weren't. She has spent as much of her adult life campaigning for HIV/AIDS awareness and gender equality as she has performing. Annie Lennox is proof that a great artist and a great activist don't have to be two different people.
Sade
Sade Adu grew up in Essex and has been operating on her own terms since her debut ‘Diamond Life’ arrived in 1984, releasing just six albums across four decades, each one arriving on her schedule and nobody else's. Her music has never really dated because it was never really of its time: it was sophisticated and emotionally precise in a way that has influenced generations of artists without any of them quite managing to replicate it.
The 1990s
The Spice Girls
Launched upon the world with Wannabe in 1996, the Spice Girls became the best-selling female group in history and made "girl power" a phrase that felt genuinely radical in a mainstream context. Victoria Beckham, Mel B, Emma Bunton, Mel C and Geri Halliwell each brought a distinct identity that allowed millions of fans to see themselves reflected in the group, and the individual careers that followed, from Mel C's acclaimed solo albums to Mel B's advocacy work for domestic abuse survivors, only deepened a legacy that went far beyond record sales.
Atomic Kitten
Formed in Liverpool in 1998, Atomic Kitten's 2001 single ‘Whole Again’ spent nine consecutive weeks at number one in the UK and became one of the most enduring pop songs of its era. Beyond the chart statistics, the group represented a generation of working-class northern women building something lasting in an industry that didn't always make space for them, and ‘Whole Again’, revived repeatedly by new generations ever since, is proof that they did exactly that.
Beth Gibbons
As the voice of Portishead, Beth Gibbons helped define one of the most distinctive sounds in British music history. Her contribution to ‘Dummy’, which won the Mercury Prize in 1994, remains one of the most singular vocal performances in British recording history: aching, raw and honest in a way that felt almost uncomfortable. Decades later, Portishead's music still sounds like nothing else, and Gibbons' 2024 solo debut ‘Lives of the Saints’ confirmed she has lost none of that extraordinary power.
The 2000s
M.I.A
Born Mathangi Arulpragasam in Hounslow to Sri Lankan Tamil parents, M.I.A. grew up between London, Sri Lanka and India, and the experience of displacement, conflict and survival shaped everything she made. Her 2005 debut, ‘Arular’, announced an artist who would refuse every box the industry tried to put her in, combining global sounds with confrontational political content in ways that were years ahead of their time. ‘Paper Planes’ became one of the most recognisable songs of the late 2000s, and her career remains a reminder that art can be uncomfortable and important at the same time.
Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse had one of the most extraordinary voices of her generation, a deep, husky, jazz-inflected instrument that sounded like it belonged to a different era, and she used it to write some of the most honest, nakedly personal songs of the 2000s. ‘Back to Black’, produced by Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, drew from classic American soul whilst being entirely, defiantly British in its perspective and personality, and won five Grammy Awards in 2008. She died in 2011, aged 27. Her influence on the generation of British artists who followed her is everywhere you look.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Sophie Ellis-Bextor first broke through with Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) in 2000 and built a solo career defined by artistic instinct over commercial calculation. When her kitchen disco videos went viral during the Covid lockdowns of 2020, an entirely new audience discovered what her long-standing fans already knew. Sophie Ellis-Bextor is one of British pop's most enduring and genuinely beloved figures.
Lily Allen
Lily Allen uploaded her demos to Myspace in 2005, and the music industry came to her. Her debut ‘Alright, Still’ was funny, sharp, politically astute and completely uninterested in being polite about it. She was one of the first artists to build a meaningful fanbase through social media, and her willingness to skewer class, consumerism and the tabloid press with equal wit changed what British pop was allowed to talk about.
The 2010s
Adele
Adele grew up in Tottenham and has become one of the best-selling music artists in history, doing it with an essentially traditional approach to songwriting and singing, at a moment when the industry was pulling hard in the opposite direction. Her albums 19, 21 and 25 each broke records and each felt like a document of a real person living through real things. 16 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and all of it achieved whilst remaining unmistakably, stubbornly herself.
Florence Welch
As the front person of Florence and the Machine, Florence Welch arrived fully formed with Lungs in 2009 and has never really stopped building. Her music draws from gothic literature, Romantic poetry and the physicality of dance, giving it an unusual density for pop, and her voice, raw and physically committed, is what makes songs like ‘Dog Days Are Over’ and ‘Shake It Out’ genuinely epic.
Susan Boyle
Susan Boyle's appearance on Britain's Got Talent, walking onto a stage to visible scepticism before delivering a breathtaking performance of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, became one of the first truly global viral moments in music. Her debut album became one of the fastest-selling in UK chart history, but what mattered most was what her moment demonstrated: that popular culture had decided who was and wasn't allowed to be remarkable, and she proved it wrong in about two minutes flat.
Jorja Smith
Jorja Smith was 19 when she released Blue Lights in 2016, a quiet, devastating response to police violence, and her debut album ‘Lost & Found’ won the Critics' Choice BRIT Award in 2018. Her music draws from classic soul, neo-soul, reggae and UK garage and combines them into something that sounds entirely contemporary and entirely her own.
Now
Little Simz
Little Simz, born Simbiatu Ajikawo in Islington, is, by most measures, the finest rapper working in the United Kingdom right now. Her 2021 album ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ won the Mercury Prize and announced her as a genuine all-time talent: lyrically dense, emotionally intelligent and operating on a different level from almost everyone else. Her 2023 follow-up 'No Thank You', recorded and released with almost no warning in a period of personal difficulty, only reinforced that.
PinkPantheress
PinkPantheress arrived in 2021, posting short, perfectly constructed songs to TikTok from her bedroom, drawing from UK garage, drum and bass and 2000s pop, and within months was one of the most talked-about new artists in the world. Her songs are often under two minutes long and contain no wasted moments, each one feeling like a distillation of an entire era of British music filtered through an entirely contemporary sensibility. She represents something genuinely new about how music can be made and shared.
Charli XCX
Charli XCX, born Charlotte Aitchison in Cambridge, spent years writing hits for other artists, including ‘I Love It; for Icona Pop and ‘Fancy’ for Iggy Azalea, whilst building an underground body of work in hyperpop and experimental club music that was years ahead of where the mainstream eventually arrived. Her 2024 album BRAT changed everything: abrasive, emotionally unguarded and culturally inescapable, it became the record that proved the world had finally caught up with what she had been doing all along.
RAYE
Rachel Keen, known professionally as RAYE, spent years collecting credits on records by Beyoncé, Charli XCX and Ellie Goulding whilst fighting to be taken seriously as a solo artist. In 2021, she publicly parted ways with her record label and took matters into her own hands. Her debut album My 21st Century Blues, self-released in 2023, addressed addiction, sexual assault and the music industry's treatment of Black women with extraordinary directness, and won six BRIT Awards in a single night, the most ever by one artist.
Olivia Dean
Olivia Dean grew up in Hackney and has been quietly building one of the most distinctive voices in British soul and pop since her debut Messy arrived in 2023. Warm, witty and emotionally direct, her music draws from classic soul, jazz and gospel whilst sounding entirely contemporary, and her live performances, full of personality and genuine connection with her audience, have made her one of the most compelling artists of her generation. Her BRIT Award nomination for Best New Artist in 2024 was well deserved, and she recently secured four trophies at the BRIT Awards 2026.
Studying music at dBs Institute of Music
These female artists changed British music because they were serious about their craft. They developed their skills, found their voices, took risks and kept going.
At dBs Institute of Music, we train the next generation of music artists, producers, composers and industry professionals through industry-standard, degree-level courses taught by working professionals. Whether you're a vocalist, a producer, a songwriter or an artist looking to develop across all three, we have a course for you.
Come and meet us at an Open Day, or book a campus tour to see what studying at dBs is really like.
