2025 Women of Live: Heather Lowery

Heather Lowery
President & CEO | Femme It Forward

FIRST JOB IN THE BIZ | Working as a receptionist at Larry Gold’s The Studio in Philadelphia.
WISE WORDS | “I think life is about evolution and I want to make sure that I’m constantly learning, growing and evolving.”

You can tell what kind of human you’re dealing with by the way they react to success. There’s the type of individual that’ll become very protective of it, maybe even arrogant about it, and develop a sense of superiority.

Then there’s that type of individual, who, once success hits, will want nothing more than to share it with others by passing on the knowledge that led to their success in the first place.

Heather Lowery, if you can’t tell by now, is of the latter persuasion. Ever since becoming one of this industry’s most high-profile Black women, she’s been dedicated to passing on all she’s learned to the next generation.

Lowery’s main outlet for this important work is Femme It Forward, which launched in 2020 and describes itself as “a female-led music and entertainment company that centers its mission in celebrating, educating, and empowering women and giving them a platform to share their voices on and off stage.”

Femme It Forward hosted its third annual Give Her FlowHERS Gala, Nov. 8 at The Beverly Hilton in L.A., which honored GloRilla, Doechii, Jill Scott and more. Scott received the Muse Award, seeing that she’s been a literal muse to so many aspiring and established singers today. The official definition of muse is “a woman, or a force personified as a woman, who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.”

At Femme It Forward, MUSE stands for “Musicians Uplifting Stars Everyday.” It’s a new mentorship program launched about a year ago, specifically created to guide and advise emerging female artists and creatives in the music industry.

MUSE pairs artists, producers, songwriters, engineers, composers and DJs to inspire, empower and mentor one another, uplift their communities, and, of course, generate new music. It’s yet another impactful way to pass the torch to the next generation of women in music, courtesy of Lowery and Femme It Forward. Teyana Taylor, Erykah Badu and Alicia Keys are on board as MUSE advisors, while Rapsody, Trina and Amber Riley are just a few of the confirmed mentors, among many others.