Naomi Sijmons, Janne Blommaert, Kristiaan 'Kristo' Deruytter & Gianni Marzo

Music, a man's business? Forget it. As early as the 7th century BC, the Greek poetess Sappho wrote love lyrics that still capture the imagination today, and in the 11th century AD, the Duitse Hildegard Van Bingen proved to be one of the most productive composers of the Middle Ages. Since then, the Pantheon of pop culture has been densely populated with women who have made our contemporary music what it is today: from Aretha Franklin to Janis Joplin, Van Blondie to Madonna, from Patti Smith to PJ Harvey, from Adele to Angèle. From blues goddess to soul sensation, from post-punk princess to pop queen, from grand dame of big-city rock to enigmatic electro sensation. All women who held their own in a music world often ruled by men. Even more: they definitively shaped it and pushed that music in directions we still walk today. And if the man had indeed held the pen in certain cases when writing the song in question, it was often a woman who, with her interpretation, cast the song into a definitive and immortal mold. ‘That’s What She Sang’ is a musical journey in which powerhouse singers celebrate their admiration for iconic female performers and authors and put us in the groove of all the beauty they added to our music history. Backed by a tasteful backing band, they pick the highlights from the rich repertoire that has been put on paper by women, pressed onto record, and sung into eternity. Or, to put it in the words of Annie Lennox van The Eurythmics: Sisters are doin' it for themselves Standin' on their own two feet And ringin' on their own bells Sisters are doin' it for themselves Noord is programming this concert in the context of Internationale Vrouwendag 2027.