Brandi Carlile gave an impassioned speech at the Billboard Women in Music 2019 event on Thursday night (Dec. 12), calling on country radio to give more equal opportunities to female artists.

Carlile was on hand to receive the Trailblazer Award, and she lauded the organizers of the female-focused event in her acceptance speech, noting how important it is to give women some equal time.

"History's full of accolades and awards for men ... but when we do something like we're doing tonight, repeatedly, habitually, eventually it sticks. People start listening," she stated. "Honoring women becomes the norm, which is what I know we're all looking for in the end, and it becomes history and changes the course of history."

Carlile said that "educating and empowering women" is crucial.

"If we're allowed to speak and lead, we can help alleviate these problems fundamentally ... and that's why women have to have a voice at radio, they have to have a voice that can get to the general public," she said.

Carlile thanked her wife, her business team and her collaborators, Phil and Tim Hanseroth, and she also spoke about her two young daughters, who she says "were put here to challenge everything I believed in or thought I could count on."

Carlile helped lead the charge for country women in 2019, founding a female supergroup called the Highwomen that really helped to bring attention to the high quality of the music women are making in the genre in recent years.

Taylor Swift was also on hand to receive an honor at the Billboard Women in Music event in 2019. Swift was honored as the Woman of the Decade, and she took to the podium to deliver a remarkable 15-minute speech in which she called out the music business for its "toxic male privilege," specifically targeting Big Machine executive Scooter Braun, who now controls the rights to her first six albums after acquiring BMLG in a deal that Swift has said repeatedly she feels was underhanded.

See Brandi Carlile at the 2019 Billboard Women in Music Event

See Taylor Swift at the 2019 Billboard Women in Music Event

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