Rike van Kleef

Rike van Kleef is a cultural worker, journalist and author. She writes about the various intersections of social policy and culture, and has contributed to publications such as the Tagesspiegel, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Musikexpress, and the taz. In 2022, her academic study “Who Sets the Tone Here? On the representation of gender on German popular music festival stages” was published. Her thesis is one of the first studies on this topic in the German-speaking world and was nominated for the FHP Gender Prize. In 2023, she was awarded the International Music Journalism Award in the category “Best Work of Music Journalism, Under 30.” In 2025, her debut nonfiction book, “Billige Plätze. Gender, Macht und Diskriminierung in der Musikbranche“ (in English: Cheap seats. Gender, Power, and Discrimination in the Music Industry) was published in 2025. Since then, she has contributed to three additional books.