Anna Lunoe: Pregnancy and Shattering Glass Ceilings for Women in EDM

Let’s play a game. I want you to name five male DJs. It’s hard to pick just five, isn’t it? Now let’s try again. Name five female DJs. Hard to even think of five, isn't it? The problem here is that it shouldn’t be so difficult to name five female producers. But it is.

The EDM industry is highly homologous in nature, and in more ways than one. But, for the purpose of brevity, we want to focus on gender. The vast majority of successful producers are male. For example, look at Ultra’s Saturday lineup for the main stage. Axwell ^ Ingrosso, Afrojack, Above and Beyond, Tiesto, Steve Aoki, Dash Berlin, Martin Solveig, Sam Feldt, Frank Walker, Tommie Sunshine. You see my point?

It is because of this homogeny that what Anna Lunoe did at Coachella this past weekend (and what she will do next weekend) all the more inspiring. On Saturday, Lunoe took to Instagram to shock her followers with some extraordinary news: she’s pregnant.

Lunoe posted a photo showing a prominent baby bump with the caption “good news! ur gonna get 2 lunoes for the price of 1 all summer long. C u tomorrow Coachella!”

The very next day, Anna Lunoe took to stage and played her entire Coachella set. And she’s set to perform again the following weekend, for the second round of Coachella performances.

Lunoe already made history last year at EDC when she became the first solo female artist to perform on the main stage at the Las Vegas mega-festival. Lunoe is one of the female artists who is slowly but surely paving the way for more up and coming female producers.

In the EDM world, chart-topping tracks are churned out on an almost daily basis and while they differ in genre and style, most of these tracks have one thing in common. Men tend to be the DJs and women are the featured vocalists. Men are called "DJs" and women are called "Female DJs". There should be no differentiation. A DJ is a DJ. 

The gender inequality in EDM needs to be changed and in the past few years, that balance has been slowly shifting. Artists like Mija, Alison Wonderland, Rezz and Ducky have been appearing more and more frequently next to their male counterparts on major festival lineups.

We here at iEDM offer our sincere congratulations to Anna Lunoe and we applaud her for her strength, spirit and persistence. As Lunoe continues to shatter glass ceilings throughout the EDM industry, she continues to prove that talent does not discriminate based on gender. It is artists like Lunoe that inspire other female DJs to keep producing their music and to keep trying to break into the industry.

Hoping to see some badass female DJs at upcoming events? Check out our specially curated festival collection for general inspiration. Planning on Electric Forest and/or EDC? We’re ready too and our festival specific collections are sure to amaze.