Meet the Woman Empowering Young Female Music Artists in Canada

A music industry that barely heeded the #MeToo movement until just recently is very much on the mind of Honey Jam founder and executive director Ebonnie Rowe.

Launched in 1995, Honey Jam has mentored emerging Canadian female artists with workshops, vocal coaching and opportunities to perform and network in a safe space. The non-profit also puts on songwriting camps, industry panels, artist talks and talent showcases beyond its annual concert. Honey Jam alumni include Nelly Furtado, Jully Black, Lu Kala, Savannah Re, Joy Lapps and Anjulie Jenna Walker, among others.

Rowe is busy putting the finishing touches on the Honey Jam 30th anniversary concert this Wednesday night at Massey Hall in Toronto to celebrate three decades of empowering emerging female artists. “The show must go on,” Rowe tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Honey Jam’s initial mission was to address misogynist lyrics in rap music and their impact on young women looking to break into the music industry. Rowe recalls early on how young female artists she mentored would complain about “even their little 5-year-old brothers were calling them the b-word and the h-word because they heard it on college radio.” So Rowe sponsored her first Honey Jam concert 30 years ago to provide a safe space for aspiring female artists to grow their careers.

But fast forward to 2025 and Honey Jam’s female artist development programs are still looking to give young women the knowledge and tools “so that they wouldn’t be swayed by the shiny thing.” That includes not believing anyone who insists young women will never get an opportunity to advance their careers if they turn down offers from bad actors. “They always say, ‘all the girls do it. And if you don’t do it, then no one’s going to work with you.’ Don’t ever, ever believe them. There’s always more opportunity around the corner,” Rowe insists.

She says that her work at Honey Jam has been made easier by social media, but after the trials of Harvey Weinstein, R. Kelly and, more recently, Sean “Diddy” Combs — men who seemingly long believed they were untouchable — Rowe says the need for mentoring young women in the music industry is as vital as ever.

“It’s definitely better. There are men who have been sensitized to the effects of this on women, who may have a little more emotional intelligence,” Rowe observes, arguing however that U.S. President Donald Trump has thrown a big wrench into the wheels at Honey Jam.

“You watch what’s happening with the Trump administration and it’s, oh my God, just taking away so many gains. And the treatment of people, and the people who have just capitulated and rolled over, that’s really set things back. It’s really shocking to see that happen,” says Rowe.

All of which makes this week’s milestone concert that much more poignant, as Honey Jam alums like Leah Holtom, Blue Will, Haliey Smith, Annabel Oreste, Fridaee and many others across a range of music genres get set to perform.

Rowe’s last milestone Honey Jam concert was in 2020, meaning the pandemic undercut plans to hold a other major event. So getting the historic Massey Hall venue for her 30th anniversary concert feels like a coup for Rowe, as it’s a bigger Toronto venue than her events have ever filled. Receiving the keys to historic space was made possible by Honey Jam in 2020 earning the Roy Thomson Award of Merit, which is part of a non-profit that operates major Toronto concert venues.

“Let’s go big, or go home,” says Rowe. “We have to make up in 2025 for what’s happened with COVID. So it’s the biggest show we’ve ever done.”

And while she’s down to the wire in preparations for the concert, Rowe later this week may be able to come up for air and contemplate receiving in the near future the Order of Canada, the country’s top civil honor, and to look back on 30 years of advocacy for young women artists.

“I’ve got my head down. I’m not in the ivory tower, looking out onto the horizon, contemplating the last 30 years. There’s just no time,” Rowe says. She adds that the significance of receiving the Order of Canada (a date hasn’t been set yet) won’t hit her until she boards a flight to Ottawa where it will be handed out.

Until then, the job of mentoring young female music artists goes on.

Says Rowe: “What is important to me is that the people that I do work for, the community that I’m serving through the work, is finding it impactful.”