Who We Are

Indiegrrl was founded by Holly Figueroa in May of 1998 as a forum for information, networking, and conversation about independent music from a female perspective. It started with about 10 women talking about what it was like to be a woman in the industry. It continued on that way for about 6 months, gaining a few people here, and a few there.

In November of ’98, Holly decided to go to the East Coast for her first tour away from Seattle. She told the list members (there were about 30 at that time), and someone suggested that a bunch of people get together and do a mini tour. They laughingly called it the “indiegrrl tour” and announced it to three mailing lists: Folk DJ-L, folkvenu, and folkbiz. Within 24 hours, Holly had 300 messages in her mailbox, from women clamoring to be on this little upstart of a tour. That was when we all realized that there was a need for this type of network between women.

Currently Indiegrrl has over 1500 members internationally on the networking list, making Indiegrrl the largest organization of its kind in the world. The Indiegrrl list welcomes women performers, DJs, managers, and booking agents, as well as men interested in women’s role in the independent music industry.

In 2005 Holly took a much needed rest as the head of the group and passed the reigns to singer songwriter Vicki Blankenship who was a member and helped with event orgainzing and marketing. Vicki is the Founder/President of Indie Music For Life a non profit that raises money for cancer research and for educational awareness of the benefits of music as therapy to cancer patients. Vicki carried the networking organization into the next level by bringing on Indiegrrl as an entity to Indie Music For Life. The goal set forth is to continue the support the organization gives to women, juniots, and teens in the independent music arena and to donate monies from some of the events and fund raising efforts to the charitable cause of cancer research. Membership to join the non profit is $30 yearly.

Indiegrrl welcomes, with open arms, all genres of music and has representatives from just about every genre including solo artists, duos, trio, and full bands. Indiegrrl’s network caters to touring musicians. Indiegrrl does not affiliate itself with major labels. Independent Record Label female artists are welcome to join the group. To become a sponsor/advertiser with our organization please contact Vicki Blankenship at vicki@indiegrrl.com. Your donations are tax deductible through the 501(c)3.