This quiz spotlights female artists of all eras, from Dusty to Duffy and Lulu to Lily. As in life, so in rock and roll – women are hideously under-represented. After 15 straightforward questions, there are two mix-and-match quizzes, one on girl groups of the nineties and one on singers in edgier outfits (the bands, not the clothes . . .).
Answers: here
1 Who encouraged us to ‘Smile’ as she went to the top of the UK charts with her debut single in 2006? She topped the albums chart with her second album – what’s it called?
2 In 1998, which 52-year-old singer became the oldest female solo artist to reach number one in the UK singles chart? Eight years earlier, a cover of which minor hit for Betty Everett had given this artist her first UK number one for 25 years?
3 Cherie Currie was the provocative lead singer of which prototype all-girl punk band? Who portrayed Currie in a 2010 biopic of the group?
4 Shakespears Sister took their name from a song by which eighties indie band? Who joined founding member Siobhan Fahey when she decided to make her solo project a duo?
5 Whose first album was titled Alf after the nickname by which she was known? Which old Billie Holiday standard gave the singer her highest-charting single in 1985?
6 In 1981, who became the first all-female band to reach the top of the US charts with a self-penned album? Co-written by guitarist Jane Wiedlin and Terry Hall, what was their debut single?
7 It was 1980 before a sole female artist had a number-one album in the UK. Who broke the duck? And with which album?
8 Which female singer had a UK Top 10 hit in every decade from the sixties to the noughties? With which group did she collaborate on her nineties chart-topper ‘Relight My Fire’?
9 Which TLC album from 1994 remains the biggest-selling album by an all-girl group in the US? Which single from it gave the band their first American number one, also reaching the Top 10 in the UK?
10 Natasha Khan is better known by which name? What’s the name of her side project with the band TOY?
11 Who was a Diva in 1992, a Gorgon in 1995 and naked in 2002? Which song, taken from the soundtrack of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula, gave her a number three hit in 1993?
12 Who was The It Girl at the height of Britpop? What does she do now?
13 The Spice Girls released ten singles between 1996 and 2000. Which was the first? And what was the significance, commercially, of ‘Stop’?
14 Who were Equally Cursed and Blessed in 1999? Two years later, which playground game prompted the title of their next and final record?
15 Who wanted us to ‘Push It’ in 1987, then suggested ‘Let’s Talk about Sex’ in 1991? Alongside the members in the group’s name, what’s the name of the DJ who completes the trio?
16 Which 15-year-old from Swindon hit the top of the UK charts with her debut single, ‘Because We Want To’, in 1998? Which DJ, 16 years older than the singer, became her first husband?
17 Which band consists of sisters Este, Danielle and Alana plus drummer Dash Hutton? What’s the title of their 2013 debut album, which topped the UK charts?
18 Which guitarist co-produced Duffy’s bestselling 2009 album Rockferry? What was Duffy’s less successful follow-up?
19 Which four-member girl band were the main rivals to the Spice Girls in the late nineties? What was their first UK number one, which outsold all the Spice Girls’ records except ‘Wannabe’?
20 Which leather-clad rocker topped the UK charts with ‘Can the Can’ in 1973? Released a year later, what was her other British number one?
Match the song to the girl group who recorded it.
21 ‘All Fired Up’. 22 ‘Hole in the Head’. 23 ‘Stickwitu’. 24 ‘Blame It on the Weatherman’. 25 ‘I Quit’. 26 ‘Never Ever’. 27 ‘All the Things She Said’. 28 ‘I’ll Stand by You’. 29 ‘2 Become 1’. 30 ‘Whole Again’.
Groups: All Saints, Atomic Kitten, B*Witched, Girls Aloud, Hepburn, Pussycat Dolls, the Saturdays, Spice Girls, Sugababes, tATu.
Finally, match the band to their lead singer.
31 Big Brother & the Holding Company. 32 Ex Hex. 33 The Breeders. 34 The Go-Go’s. 35 T’Pau. 36 Eurythmics. 37 Halestorm. 38 The Slits. 39 The Heartless Bastards. 40 Cowboy Junkies
Singers: Belinda Carlisle, Kim Deal, Carol Dekker, Lzzy Hale, Janis Joplin, Annie Lennox, Margo Timmins, Mary Timony, Ari Up, Erika Wennerstrom.