The Harvey Weinstein scandal not only exposed the dirty, sexist underbelly of Hollywood, but it also reminded women and men across the world to address the problems of sexism and sexual harassment. Country singer Keith Urban’s new single Female (above) pushes back against Weinstein and others like him.

Songwriters Ross Copperman, Nicolle Galyon and Shane McAnally crafted Female just days after the scandal surfaced and women actors started to speak against the Hollywood mogul, and recorded the track with Urban on Halloween. It was a quick release, hastened to get attention while the world was still buzzing about Weinstein’s – and now many other celebrities’ – sexually predatory behaviour.

Advertisement

The lyrics, according to Urban, “reach down to places of the soul and heart and humanity, even deeper to that sense of oneness and connectedness”.

“When you hear a song that they play saying you run the world
Do you believe it?
Will you live to see it?
When somebody laughs and implies that she asked for it
Just ’cause she was wearing a skirt
Now is that how it works?
When somebody talks about how it was Adam first
Does that make you second best?
Or did he save the best for last?”

Urban, who is married to actress Nicole Kidman, told Billboard, “As a husband and a father of two young girls, it affects me in a lot of ways. And as a son – my mother is alive. It just speaks to all of the females in my life, particularly.”