Keychange, the European-born initiative for gender equality in the music industry, has announced that 500 music organisations have now committed themselves to achieving parity between men and women by signing its pledge.

The Keychange pledge requires signatories to achieve at least 50% representation of women and gender minorities in an area of their work. Started in 2017, Keychange initially focused on festivals – with signatory festivals pledging to book at least 50% of women for their line-ups – and now also includes record labels, broadcasters, venues, publishers, collection societies and orchestras in six continents among its supporters.

The 500th signatory is EBU Music, part of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), whose members broadcast around 3,000 concerts a year. “The European Broadcasting Union is working hard to ensure our organisation and activities properly reflect the diverse communities we serve and the world they live in,” comments EBU director of communications Vanessa O’Connor. “It takes time but making this commitment visible is an important step.

“I’m delighted that we will be partnering with Keychange once more after our joint initiatives earlier this year to highlight the stark disparity in gender representation in the music industry. Signing this pledge cements our commitment to increase visibility of these issues and amplify the voices of the many music bodies who are also signing in support of urgent and necessary change.”

“I’m delighted that we will be partnering with Keychange … to highlight the stark disparity in gender representation in the music industry”

“Keychange has been instrumental in highlighting the explosive nature of gender inequality in music for the past four years. With a strong and ever-growing network, we have managed to raise awareness of the problem while implementing concrete actions,” says Keychange project lead Merle Bremer. “We are very proud that more than 500 organisations have joined the Keychange movement and we are particularly pleased that EBU Music have joined Keychange as a signatory.”

Keychange had around 350 signatories last September, when agency ATC Live and a host of trade bodies signed the pledge.

EBU Music joins existing Keychange signatories including the Barbican Centre (UK), BBC Proms (UK) Bella Union (WW), C/O Pop Festival and Convention (DE), Canadian Music Week (CA), Centre National de la Musique (FR), Eurosonic Noorderslag (NL), EFG London Jazz Festival (UK), European Music Council (EU), Icelandic Opera (IS), Mama Festival (FR) Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (AU), Melt! Festival (DE), Royal Opera House (UK), Southbank Centre (UK), Spot Festival (DK) and Musicians’ Union (UK). The full list of supporters can be viewed here.

Funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, Keychange is led by Reeperbahn Festival, PRS Foundation and Musikcentrum Öst, in partnership with Tallinn Music Week, Iceland Airwaves, BIME, Oslo World, Linecheck/Music Innovation Hub, Ireland Music Week, Sacem, Sound City, Way Out West, Mama Festival, Mutek and Breakout West.

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Twenty-one senior members of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2017 organising committee, including two executive producers, the commercial director, the event manager and the head of security, have resigned en masse.

In an open letter, published on Ukrainian website Strana, the former staff say they were shut out of the organisation of the contest following the appointment of a “new head of the competition” – presumably Pavlo Grytsak, although he is not named – last December, whereupon “the work of our team was completely blocked”.

Following Grystak’s appointment, says the letter, work on the contest “stopped for two months”, while an alternative “proposal on the distribution of powers and responsibilities” by the future resignees was rejected. “Therefore, we regret to inform you that our team can not accept such an appointment, and do not see the possibility of continuing their work on Eurovision in Ukraine,” it concludes.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organisation behind Eurovision, announced last week ticket sales had been postponed amid a dispute over the Ukrainian authorities’ choice of ticket agency. Tickets eventually went on sale yesterday, with the original winner of the contract, Concert.ua, restored to its role as the event’s ticketing partner.

It was reported in December, meanwhile – prior to Gystsak’s appointment – that the EBU had made threats to strip Ukraine of ESC 2017 over concerns about ticketing, travel arrangements and infrastructure, although executive supervisor Jon Ola Sand said had “full confidence in [host broadcaster NTU] to overcome the challenges that remain”.

“We have reiterated the importance of a speedy and efficient implementation of plans already agreed, despite staff changes”

A statement from the EBU says the contest will go ahead in May as planned.

“Victoria Romanova, Oleksandr Kharebin, Iryna Asman, Denys Bloshchynski and his team and Oleksii Karaban informed the EBU on 10 February that they were resigning from their roles for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest,” it reads. “The group felt they were not able to continue work on the project owing to staffing matters at [Ukrainian public broadcaster] UA:PBC, which the EBU cannot fully comment on.

“The team have been instrumental in the planning for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, and we thank them for their hard work. We have reiterated to UA:PBC the importance of a speedy and efficient implementation of plans already agreed, despite staff changes, and that we stick to the timeline and milestones that have been established and approved by the reference group to ensure a successful contest in May.”

ESC 2017 will take place from 9 to 13 May at the International Exhibition Centre in Kiev. The winner of last year’s contest, which introduced a new scoring system, was Ukrainian singer Jamala, with ‘1944’.

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The sale of tickets for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) has been postponed indefinitely amid controversy over the choice of ticket agency.

The decision, taken by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, was announced today by Jon Ola Sand of the contest’s organiser, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). He comments: “We are disappointed with the delay to the start of ticket sales for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, but are working closely with host broadcaster UA:PBC to resolve this situation. The EBU recognises that any tender process needs to be transparent and fair, and hope[s] that tickets can go on sale at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Kiev-based Concert.ua was previously announced as the winner of the contract to supply tickets, but a last-minute decision by the Antimonopoly Committee, reportedly under pressure from rival bidders, means the event is left without a ticketing partner with just three months left until kick-off.

“The EBU recognises that any tender process needs to be transparent and fair and hopes tickets can go on sale at the earliest possible opportunity”

Sales were due to begin on Monday (6 February).

It was reported in December that the EBU had made threats to strip Ukraine of the 2017 event over concerns about ticketing, travel arrangements and infrastructure, although Sand said shortly after he had “full confidence in the [host broadcaster] to overcome the challenges that remain”.

ESC 2017 will take place from 9 to 13 May at the International Exhibition Centre in Kiev. The winner of last year’s contest, which introduced a new scoring system, was Ukrainian singer Jamala, with ‘1944’.

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Justin Timberlake will perform at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, organiser the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has revealed.

It is the first time an artist of Timberlake’s stature has performed at the annual contest in a non-competing capacity, and can be seen as a concerted effort by the EBU to appeal to new American viewers as it prepares the show for broadcast in the US for the first time.

Timberlake will perform his new single, ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’, at the final in Stockholm this Saturday (14 May).

“This is a fantastic opportunity,” says Eurovision show producer Sven Stojanovic. “We are very happy and excited that Justin Timberlake will perform his new song together with his band in our show. It makes it extra special that the Swedish songwriters Max Martin and Shellback have co-written and co-produced the song together with Justin Timberlake.”

IQ previously reported that voting will be totally overhauled for Eurovision 2016 in the biggest change to its format for 40 years. For the final, viewers’ votes will be recorded separately to judges’ for the first time (in previous years they were combined, each accounting for 50 per cent of the final score), effectively offering every act the chance for double points.

Måns Zelmerlöw of Sweden won Eurovision 2015.