Established in September 2021, ESEA Music is a community led by and for UK-based East & Southeast Asian and music industry professionals from XL Recordings, Giant Artist Management, Sony, AWAL, Platoon and more. As individuals we have all felt the need for kinship as visible representation of ESEA (East & Southeast Asian) people across the arts, media, politics and certainly the music business is lacking. As well as providing a supportive network and a sense of belonging, it is our aim to create better representation and raise awareness of ESEA professionals and artists within the UK music industry. With the rise of underground and mainstream artists of ESEA descent in the UK breaking through, it feels timely to build a network to not only support the existing professionals and the new talent coming through but to pass down our wisdom to the next generation of ESEA professionals and artists.

ESEA is a diverse community, and we respect the differences between our regional culture and are here to foster better understanding of different forms of experience and discriminations that have been faced. Whilst creating space for ourselves we also stand alongside other POC communities in solidarity.

There is a nuance to the British Asian experience; in the UK, the word ‘Asian’ has traditionally stood for South Asian, while the opposite is true of the Asian American identity, where there is much more visibility of ESEA people. In the last couple of years, the acronym, which stands for East & Southeast Asian, has gained popularity in the UK, galvanized by the Stop Asian Hate and Black Lives Matter movements, through the organising of community groups.

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