Belinda Carlisle didn’t mince words regarding the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and their lack of women inductees.
In a new interview with Vulture, Carlisle notes, “I think there was a lot of misogyny within the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a long, long time. Just by the ratio of men to women in it, that really says it all.” (NOTE: Women currently account for just under eight percent of all of the artists inducted into the Rock Hall.)
Carlisle received her first Rock Hall nomination this year with The Go-Go’s appearing on the 2021 induction class ballot. Regarding being nominated, Carlisle said, “There’s part of me that’s indifferent, for sure. It was always really annoying not to even be recognized, because I get ballots to vote on every year and I would just stare at them and go, ‘Are you kidding me?’ Some of the names, I’m sorry, do not belong in there.”
Carlisle said she would even write in her band on past ballots and send her ballot back. To her surprise, she still continued to receive voting ballots year after year.
The singer does admit, “But it’s great to be recognized, and I think if it wasn’t for the [Showtime] documentary [that premiered in July 2020] that never would have happened because people never knew our full story. But also there were some internal changes within the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame itself, which I think is a big part of it; John Sykes is the chairman now, and I know he’s a fan of the band.”
Besides there being suspected issues with misogyny within the Rock Hall, Carlisle does have a theory as to why it took so look for The Go-Go’s to be nominated.
“I think that we’re smart-asses by nature, and that somebody said something to somebody,” she said. “That was always my theory: Who got drunk and said something really offensive to somebody in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? [Laughs.] Because that’s very possible. When people find out what the story of the Go-Go’s is and how we started and put ourselves together, it’s kind of obvious that we do belong in there. So if it happens, that would be amazing.”
The 2021 Rock Hall induction class will be announced in May. As previously reported, the Rock Hall is planning on an in-person induction ceremony with fans taking place on October 30 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse arena in Cleveland. Tickets are expected to go on sale in July.
As with previous years, the public will have the opportunity to voice their choice via the Fan Vote at RockHall.com. The Fan Vote runs through April 30. Fans are allowed to vote once per day during the Fan Vote period. Visitors of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland will also have the opportunity to vote in person. The “Fans’ Ballot” will be comprised of the top five artists from the fan vote. That ballot will be counted among the other ballots filled out by various artists, historians, and music industry professionals.
