Female artists are often overlooked in music because we tend to focus on their male counterparts, to be honest, and associate numbers with talent. In doing so, we automatically follow the rise of male artists alone and ignore, either deliberately or because of algorithms, everyone else. And though many male artists, if not all, most certainly deserve to be noticed, they are not the only ones with promising and individualistic talent.

Only a handful of names come to mind when we think of popular female artists in what is a cutthroat industry. Men do get better numbers but there are several reasons for this including gender disparity. Let’s not open that can of worms right now.

However, as I’ve said before, numbers cannot validate talent. Some may view numbers to be the ultimate pulse of pop culture but it could very well be due to name recognition. The consequence is that while we revel in the coming of certain newer artists or celebrate old favorites, we lose sight of the complete picture of the music ecosystem.

To that end, here are some of the artists you might’ve overlooked but shouldn’t since they carry an equal degree of talent including one who can be defined as the underrated anomaly for more than a decade.

There is nothing Haniya Aslam can’t do when it comes to the music stratosphere. I can’t think of anyone else who possesses this distinction, whether they belong to the counterculture movement or mainstream side.

Many of us still think of Haniya as one half of the music duo, Zeb and Haniya and their beautiful debut album, Chup. We also associate her with Coke Studio performances in its early years, again as Zeb and Haniya. And, nothing can take away from that exceptional record or what it meant to us at a time when such a duo simply didn’t exist. As a result, Zeb and Haniya were the anomaly.

But we must not lose sight of what has happened since those early days. A great deal has changed with both artists pursuing solo careers. In Haniya’s case, the anomaly factor remained as we have come to learn that she can do everything in music. From sound design to original soundtrack, composing, singing, producing, writing, engineering and everything that goes........

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