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Women in music have always been associated with pop - with prettiness, theatricality, melodic hooks and dance beats.

I've always had mostly women come out to see me perform. That's the reason the guys show up; they know R. Kelly is going to draw the women. Most of the songs I'm singing are catering to women anyway.

There's still not as many women in music as men, and I don't really know why. I don't have the answers. I do wish there were more women that played music.

We throw at female artists this expectation that their work has to speak to the female experience. And if it doesn't, you're letting the side down. Throwing this stumbling block in the way of female artists is counterintuitive.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen some very excellent women musicians.

Music is art, art is life, and we are who we are, and all of these aforementioned women, unless they should choose not to, will be performing well into the next many decades because they are great artists.

Music is a male-dominated field.

There are some artists that don't like working with other females, which is fine. They have their own thing. I personally love being surrounded by other females.

With pop music and pop musicians, you know everything about everyone all the time, particularly their physical appearance. With female musicians, that's made a big thing of, and I think people, certainly with me, have appreciated a bit of mystery.

There are some strong female performers out there. But the industry's pre-occupation with the packaging of how a woman looks has gone completely the other way, back to almost the 60s, early 70s.