‘Entrepreneur of yourself’: singing as female music labour in the Greek popular music scene

This article explores the lived experiences and discourses about professional identities of early-career female singers in the Greek popular music scene, focusing on how they navigate precarious labour conditions through practices of musical entrepreneurship. Drawing on ethnographic research, it examines how these women respond to the neoliberal imperative to become ‘entrepreneurs of themselves’ by assembling a professional ‘package’ that combines musical skill with affective, aesthetic, phatic and digital labour. While they adopt entrepreneurial strategies—such as self-promotion and producing their own ‘hit songs’—their narratives complicate dominant models of the self-managing creative worker. For their work is often driven by a socially embedded ‘singer’s calling’ and a commitment to engaging the audience collectively. The article argues for a more nuanced understanding of cultural entrepreneurship that accounts for its contradictions, ambivalences, and local particularities, offering deeper insights into how creative labour is shaped by, but also resists, neoliberal cultural policies.