Introducing the 2025 women’s history month playlist 

Chloe Rawlinson 

Local Music Journalist 

It’s Women’s History Month, ladies, and I curated a fun little playlist of 32 songs performed by female artists.  Made with some help from the KTSW 89.9 staff and consisting of just over 2 hours of music, there’s something there for everyone to celebrate women in music. 

The playlist starts with “Tell Me Something Good,” by Rufus, led by Chaka Khan. I have been absolutely obsessed with this song lately, listening to it on repeat, which is totally out of character for me. The song’s swinging, funky bass and distorted vocals landed it in the top spot, starting the month off right. 

From there, the tracks bounce around genres; you’ll find local rock in Die Spitz’ “Chug,” nostalgic pop in Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop the Music,” girly country in The Chicks’ “Cowboy Take Me Away,” and some RnB in Summer Walker’s “Karma.” 

Diving deeper, I chose to deliberately add a mix of genres as a way to extend the listener’s base of favorite female artists, exposing your musical palate to a wide variety of female artistry, while still somewhat being based on my taste. 

I wanted to highlight some of my favorite artists, such as Lily Talmers, a New York-based folk singer I was exposed to through a music review bundle. “New York, Early Summer” comes off her newest album, It is Cyclical, Missing You, released earlier this year. Talmers’ voice is incredibly unique, and frankly, I find the song to be super fun to listen to.  

Secondly, to highlight bands made completely of women, it’s vital to touch on The Last Dinner Party and boygenius, both put out queer-friendly alternative rock music. As a huge boygenius fan, I wanted to pull attention back to their self-titled 2018 Ep with “Salt In the Wound.” Bridgers, Dacus, and Baker really shine in this song, both individually and within their beautifully written harmonies, — not to mention the lyricism that they’re so well known for. London-based The Last Dinner Party only began releasing music in 2023, but you would not be able to tell their fresh status to the music industry, especially given their significant listener base and concrete sound.  

While several of the tracks in this playlist are quite recently released, I made sure to add classic hits by Joni Mitchell, Sade, Sinéad O’Connor, Carole King and Ms. Lauryn Hill. I truly think of these artists as groundbreaking and definitely worth listening to, regardless of the time passed since their album’s release date. 

In short, as women ourselves are so fundamentally different, I wanted to cater to our differences while celebrating our virtuosity. Sticking to thirty-one songs was incredibly difficult; there were so many songs and artists I didn’t have room for, but I think just the thought of that is incredibly lovely. I hope the playlist is as fun to listen to as it was to make! Happy Women’s History Month!