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Creativity Quote by Sarah McLachlan

"We showed the industry that female artists could attract the same audiences as the big male stars"

About this Quote

McLachlan’s line carries the quiet swagger of someone who had to turn proof into policy. The phrasing matters: “showed the industry” frames sexism not as an abstract bias but as a market gatekeeping mechanism that only respects evidence when it’s profitable. She’s not asking for belief in women’s talent; she’s recounting the moment the ledger finally had to admit it.

The subtext is a rebuke to an old, convenient myth in popular music: that women are “niche,” their fans smaller or less loyal, their tours riskier. By invoking “the same audiences,” she targets the industry’s favorite excuse - scale. It’s not about artistry alone, but about crowd size, ticket sales, headline viability. That’s why the sentence lands with a businesslike punch: equality arrives via numbers, not goodwill.

Contextually, this reads as a Lilith Fair-era victory lap without the nostalgia glaze. McLachlan helped build a touring ecosystem where female artists weren’t isolated openers on male-led bills; they were the draw. The line also acknowledges the uphill logic women faced: male stardom was treated as the default, female success as an exception requiring constant revalidation.

There’s a second edge here, too: “could” suggests capability the industry refused to recognize until forced. McLachlan isn’t just celebrating women’s audiences; she’s naming the structural skepticism that made such a demonstration necessary in the first place.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
McLachlan, Sarah. (2026, January 16). We showed the industry that female artists could attract the same audiences as the big male stars. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-showed-the-industry-that-female-artists-could-93589/

Chicago Style
McLachlan, Sarah. "We showed the industry that female artists could attract the same audiences as the big male stars." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-showed-the-industry-that-female-artists-could-93589/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We showed the industry that female artists could attract the same audiences as the big male stars." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-showed-the-industry-that-female-artists-could-93589/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Sarah McLachlan

Sarah McLachlan (born January 28, 1968) is a Musician from Canada.

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