'To anyone who identifies as a girl, don't let anyone intimidate you - you belong in music’

Haim called for changes in the music industry at the 2018 NME awards…

Last night saw the VO5 NME Awards take place in Brixton, proving itself to be an empowering ceremony from start to finish.

Ariana Grande won big - crowned Hero of the Year (which she dedicated to the people of Manchester) and having her One Love Manchester concert voted Music Moment of the year.

Proving girl power was alive and well however, was three sister band Haim, who took their time on stage to accept the award for Best International Band, to call for change.

Beating The National, Foo Fighters, The Killers, Paramore and Migos to take home the award, the three sisters addressed those who identified as women directly to tell them that they belong in music.

’To anyone that identifies as a girl,’ announced Este Haim at the podium. ‘Whenever you walk into a guitar shop or a soundcheck or a recording studio, do not let anyone that’s there intimidate you, or make you feel like you don’t belong there, because you do belong there. Thank you.’

And they weren’t the only ones who used their time on the NME stage to call for change, with musician Shirley Manson taking a stand while picking up the first ever NME Icon Award.

‘This has been an incredibly sad roll-out in some regards in the last 18 months. I think we’re all shocked,’ she announced to the crowd. 'Any decent person is shocked by the statistics surrounding not only the harassment that women face, not only the violence that we face, but the lack of representation that we enjoy in an industry.'

She continued: ‘The fact that women at my level enjoy under seven per cent representation is unacceptable. I call upon any musician in this room to stand up and really call out festivals for not representing women, in particular women of colour, our black sisters. We need to make a change. It’s vital.’

Time is officially up.