Wavemakers Awards coming up
Wavemakers has announced an open call for original music to be licensed for the 11th Annual Woman’s Way Business Awards, presented by Austin Woman Magazine, with awards set for May 6, 2026, at the Austin Marriott Downtown.
You don’t know Wavemakers? If you are a musician, a woman, or neither of the above but just a music fan of any age, you should. Wavemakers is an unusual incubator that gives women over 40 a chance to move ahead in their careers, especially in music. In an industry still tilted against women (especially in Mexico) it is an important creative force that makes all of our music experience much richer.
Why? Because there are a lot of great women over forty making music. Think Lauryn Hill, Sheryl Crow, Janet Jackson, Linda Perry, Sylvia Massy,Lurleen Ladd, and Sara Hickman, among many others. In fact, sixty-seven-year-old Madonna just electrified Coachella audiences with a surprise appearance with 26-year-old Sabrina Carpenter, and looked hot doing it.
Women in the U.S. music industry have made real gains in visibility and power, but it is still structurally tough for them to “make it”. The glass ceiling has cracked more than it has disappeared. This is doubly true in Mexico, where many bookers just ignore women completely. Taylor Swift has opened doors symbolically and economically, but her success is more the exception that proves the rule than evidence that the industry is now equal. In Mexico, Thalía, Gloria Trevi, Ana Gabriel, Yuridia, Natalia Lafourcade, and Kenia OS can and do fill major stadiums and boast millions of followers, but their coattails have yet to reach women in the local music scene.
American women were about 37–38% of artists on the Billboard Hot 100 year‑end chart in 2024, up from about 23% in 2012, so representation has improved, but men still dominate the majority of slots. Behind the scenes, it is worse: women made up only about 19% of credited songwriters and roughly 6% of producers in recent studies, so creative control and royalties still skew heavily male. Women received only about 23% of Grammys in 2026, down sharply from the previous year, which shows how fragile gains can be.
This is where Wavemakers comes in. The organization operates as both a movement and a platform focused on creating economic opportunities and visibility for women musicians 40+. In 2025, Wavemakers awarded $35,000 in grants to 11 Austin-area artists to help complete music projects, including EPs, albums, and videos. Wavemakers hosts concerts and showcases at Austin venues, operating out of Found Sound ATX, a woman-owned rehearsal studio and creative space in Austin.
While Wavemaker’s programs and awards are confined mostly to its home base in Austin (not a bad place to be musically!), its recipients tour, build fan communities nationally and even internationally, and sell and stream music far beyond Austin. As any rising musician, male or female, will tell you, money to underwrite a recording session and the prestige and support of a label is gold wherever it comes from.
So, if you are a woman over 40 who makes or produces or writes music, or a fan who wants to get in on rising stars, check out Wavemakers’ Woman’s Way Business Awards, May 6 https://atxwoman.com/womans-way/ .
Patrick O’Heffernan
Banner: 2024 Wavemakers’ Woman’s Way Music Award winners. L to r, top: Qi Dada, Alison Tucker , Alice Spencer, Leslie Sisson; bottom: Chantel Deniese, and Estani Frizzell
