Taking place over four days and serving as a forum for international talent to discuss current developments in the global music industry, Reeperbahn is the biggest club festival in Europe. Since 2006, artists, fans, and industry players from around the world have gathered in Hamburg for the event.
For this year's Reeperbahn Festival, Spotify celebrated its EQUAL Global Music Program. EQUAL aims to combat gender disparity in the music industry by amplifying and celebrating the work of women creators around the world.
At the festival, Spotify hosted a series of concerts to showcase the talents of German EQUAL artist LEEPA (who is also the EQUAL artist of the month for September), Sofia Portanet, and Ebow. It was exciting to have three great artists perform at the internationally renowned event, shared Conny Zhang, Spotify's Head of Music for the German region. At the same time, this showcase demonstrates, once more, the importance we place on promoting diversity in the audio industry at Spotify.
Ahead of their performances, we caught up with two of the artists, LEEPA and Sofia, to learn more about their careers and experiences.
LEEPA What has your experience in the Spotify EQUAL program been like up to now? LEEPA: It's been great, but a bit surreal. It's also been a lot of work, so I think I'm in super tunnel mode and will have to wait for the most intense part to be over to really realize it happened.
How does it feel to be part of the Reeperbahn showcase? LEEPA: My reaction is disbelief, a great deal of perfectionism kicking in, and gratefulness. Other people's reactions have been great too. It's interesting because I've also gotten a lot of international reactions that were super positive, which was both super interesting and nice.
What's been the most pivotal moment of your music career so far? LEEPA: I think this week has been super defining. Having two shows as big as Reeperbahn Festival and Lollapalooza in combination with the EQUAL campaign in one week is the ultimate test, and I think this whole year has led up to this point. And successfully getting through it will be very defining for my career, and also essential to my confidence as an artist.
What's next for you? LEEPA: A little break and lots of music making.
How would you like to see greater gender representation in the music industry? LEEPA: More female technicians and more female producers!
Sofia Portanet How does it feel to be part of the EQUAL Reeperbahn showcase? Sofia: I'm really excited about this showcase! I think it's great and really important that Spotify is setting a sign for gender equality in the music industry. The fact that the EQUAL playlist and showcase have been brought to life is an indicator of a big issue in the music industry, and it's good that this topic is getting more attention though this. Being a powerful streaming platform, it's great Spotify is assuming their part of the responsibility in this matter by creating more visibility for female artists and helping to widen female artists' audience. Having the opportunity to play live and be part of Spotify EQUAL myself is therefore extra exciting and makes me really proud! On top of this, I love playing at the Reeperbahn Festival. It's a very dynamic and diverse festival, and I love to meet people and discover new artists here.
What's been the most pivotal moment of your music career so far? Sofia: Winning the Best Newcomer Award at the VIA VUT Indie Awards at Reeperbahn Festival last year (2021). In my opinion, recognition shouldn't ever be the goal, but it does encourage and give a lot of strength to keep on working hard! It was a really joyful moment and I feel really, really grateful for it.
What's next for you? Sofia: Quite a few things actually. I'm preparing my upcoming single release for the beginning of November. The song is called UNSTOPPABLE and it's about empowering people to keep believing in themselves no matter what! There will be a music video for it, too. Also, I'm preparing for my upcoming tour that starts mid-November until the 8th of December. It's the headline tour of my latest album Freier Geist, which we had to postpone three times already. But this time, it's finally going to happen! I'd recommend getting your tickets now. And last but not least, I'm working on my new album. I can't wait to tell you everything about it very soon!
How would you like to see greater gender representation in the music industry? Sofia: Despite all efforts in the past years, the music industry continues to be a super male-dominated industry with big gender inequality. First of all, it would be really important for everyone to understand that women don't want to have special treatment; we just want to be treated no differently than men. That means we need to have just as many opportunities to prove ourselves, to get experience, to be respected, and to be treated equally. And equal treatment means equal representation in any sector of the music industry! May it be as an artist, songwriter, producer, or executive. In the long run, for me, equal treatment will no longer mean having women panels or female music festivals. It will just mean that women will equally be represented in any festival, any panel, any company. And don't get me wrong, it's great to have women only events or organizations as it raises the attention on the issue, but it's important that women don't feel stigmatized with this topic either, but integrated into the system instead.
Want to hear more from these powerful women artists? Check out the Spotify EQUAL GSA playlist.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
14/06/2026
Library captures 1960s R&B/pop drum sound
Following on from their recent wave of plug-in effects, Iconic Instruments have just launched an all-new virtual d...
14/06/2026
HBO Comedy Rooster Shot with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton June 14, 2026
0 Comments
Large format brings viewers intimately close to characters.
Black...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
Taking place over four days and serving as a forum for international talent to discuss current developments in the global music industry, Reeperbahn is the biggest club festival in Europe. Since 2006, artists, fans, and industry players from around the world have gathered in Hamburg for the event.
