diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index f548dbb15..1c58740e5 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -135,9 +135,8 @@ test_api:
   only:
     - branches
   before_script:
-    - apk add make
+    - apk add make git
     - cd api
-    - sed -i '/Pillow/d' requirements/base.txt
     - pip3 install -r requirements/base.txt
     - pip3 install -r requirements/local.txt
     - pip3 install -r requirements/test.txt
diff --git a/api/funkwhale_api/music/metadata.py b/api/funkwhale_api/music/metadata.py
index 4e0558010..481f9a7e2 100644
--- a/api/funkwhale_api/music/metadata.py
+++ b/api/funkwhale_api/music/metadata.py
@@ -648,7 +648,7 @@ class MBIDField(serializers.UUIDField):
 
 
 class ArtistSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
-    name = serializers.CharField(required=False, allow_null=True)
+    name = serializers.CharField(required=False, allow_null=True, allow_blank=True)
     mbid = MBIDField()
 
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
@@ -664,7 +664,9 @@ class ArtistSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
 class AlbumSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
     title = serializers.CharField(required=False, allow_null=True)
     mbid = MBIDField()
-    release_date = PermissiveDateField(required=False, allow_null=True)
+    release_date = PermissiveDateField(
+        required=False, allow_null=True, allow_blank=True
+    )
 
     def validate_title(self, v):
         if self.context.get("strict", True) and not v:
diff --git a/api/tests/music/test_metadata.py b/api/tests/music/test_metadata.py
index 2488ebcc8..d46853ea0 100644
--- a/api/tests/music/test_metadata.py
+++ b/api/tests/music/test_metadata.py
@@ -247,6 +247,7 @@ def test_can_get_metadata_from_flac_file_not_crash_if_empty():
         ("2017-14-01 01:32", datetime.date(2017, 1, 14)),  # deezer format
         ("2017-02", datetime.date(2017, 1, 1)),  # weird format that exists
         ("0000", None),
+        ("", None),
         ("nonsense", None),
     ],
 )
diff --git a/changes/changelog.d/1037.bugfix b/changes/changelog.d/1037.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..38771e171
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/changelog.d/1037.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+More resilient tag parsing with empty release date or album artist (#1037)