Tag Archives: Kevin Liles

Mariah Carey Leaves Roc Nation for Management Representation with Range Media Partners

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Mariah Carey is expanding her range…

The 52-year-old half-Venezuelan Grammy-winning singer/songwriter has departed Roc Nation and partnered with Range Media Partners for management.

Mariah Carey

Carey will work with Melissa Ruderman, her former rep at Roc Nation who joined Range Media in January.

Carey’s move to Range Media follows a report in U.K. tabloid The Sun that the singer and Roc Nation founder Jay-Z fell out following an “explosive meeting.”

Carey, who signed with Roc Nation in November 2017, subsequently set out to quell the rumor by tweeting, “The only ‘explosive’ situation I’d ever ‘get into’ with Hov is a creative tangent, such as our #1 song ‘Heartbreaker.’”

Ruderman and Carey’s relationship goes back over 15 years, when Ruderman worked for manager Benny Medina and handled day-to-day management for Carey during the release cycle for her 2005 album The Emancipation of Mimi.

During her five-year stint at Roc Nation, Ruderman helped execute several major deals for Carey, including two consecutive residencies at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, a TV deal with Apple and a publishing contract that led to the publication of the New York Times-bestselling memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey.

Carey has had a long list of managers over the years. Before signing with Roc Nation, she was with Stella Bulochnikov and, before that, Kevin Liles, with whom she signed in 2014 following the dissolution of her management relationship with longtime collaborator Jermaine Dupri. At various points earlier in her career, Carey was managed by ex-husband Tommy Mottola, Randy Jackson and Red Light Management.

Range Media Partners was launched in Sept. 2020 by former Entertainment One chief strategy officer Peter Micelli and a coalition of former CAA, WME and UTA agents.

Christina Aguilera Among Celebrities Urging U.S. Senators to Stop Gun Violence Now

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Christina Aguilera is calling for politicians to take action on the issue of gun reform…

The 40-year-old half-Ecuadorian American Grammy-winning singer has joined a roster of celebrities who’ve signed an open letter to U.S. Senators urging them stop gun violence now.

Christina Aguilera

Five years ago, amidst a string of deadly attacks at live music venues including the horrific mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on June 12, 2016, the cover of Billboard‘s July 2016 issue featured an open letter to U.S. Congress signed by 200 artists and music industry executives calling for gun reform.

Unfortunately, the need for reform has only grown stronger as shootings have continued around the country at a terrifying rate.

So now, five years later, as venues prepare to reopen after their pandemic shutdown and music fans ready to return to concerts and festivals, we stand again with the music community to ask lawmakers to take swift action to stop the violence. — Hannah Karp, Billboard editorial director

An Open Letter to Senators: Stop Gun Violence Now

As leading artists and executives in the music industry, we are adding our voices to the chorus of Americans demanding change.

Music always has been celebrated communally, on dance floors and at concert halls. But this life-affirming ritual, like so many other daily experiences — going to school or church or work — continues to be threatened, because of gun violence in this country.

The one thing that connects the tragedies like the shootings in Boulder, El Paso, Las Vegas, Parkland and so many other places in America, to the one that happened in Orlando five years ago this June, is that it is far too easy for dangerous people to get their hands on guns.

We call on the Senate to do more to prevent the gun violence that kills more than 100 Americans every day and injures hundreds more: Take action on background checks.

Billboard and the undersigned implore you — the people who are elected to represent us — to close the deadly loopholes that put the lives of so many music fans, and all of us, at risk.

Sincerely,

Christina Aguilera, Tori Amos, Sara Barielles, Aaron Bay-Schuck, Tony Bennett, Selim Bouab, Rob Bourdon, Scooter Braun, Cortez Bryant, Michael Bublé, Vanessa Carlton, Joseph Carozza, Steve Cooper, Tom Corson, Lee Daniels, Ellen DeGeneres, Brad Delson, Diplo, Mike Easterlin, John Esposito, Melissa Etheridge, Fletcher, Luis Fonsi, Becky G, Kevin Gore, Julie Greenwald, Josh Groban, Horacio Gutierrez, Joe Hahn, Halsey, Billy Joel, Craig Kallman, Alicia Keys, Kid Cudi, Carole King, Elle King, Adam Lambert, Cyndi Lauper, Kevin Liles, Dre London, Jennifer Lopez, Macklemore, Zayn Malik, Carianne Marshall, Ricky Martin, Paul McCartney, Julia Michaels, Guy Moot, Jason Mraz, Gregg Nadel, Yoko Ono, Mark Pinkus, Gregory Porter, Prince Royce, Bonnie Raitt, Dawn Richard, RMR, Paul Robinson, Maggie Rogers, Kelly Rowland, Mike Shinoda, Sia, Matt Signore, Britney Spears, Rob Stevenson, Sting, Barbra Streisand, Justin Tranter, Sir Trilli, Sharon Van Etten, Aimie Vaughn-Fruehe, Eddie Vedder, Andrew Watt.

If you’re interested in signing the letter, you can email guncontrol@billboard.com.

Carey Hires New PR Representation & Management Team

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Mariah Carey has new representation…

A day after the 45-year-old half Venezuelan singer and her longtime publicist Cindi Berger parted ways, Carey announced her new PR and management team.

Mariah Carey

Chris Chambers of the Chambers Group, who’s worked with Lil Wayne, Drake and many other artists over his long career, will her as her PR agent. Her fifth set of managers since 2013: TV producers Brian Sher and Stella Bulochnikov.

Carey’s new managers have worked together on several projects, most recently E!’s Christian Milian Turned Up and VH1’s T.I.’s Family Hustle and Tiny & Shekinah’s Weave Trip. Sher, who has worked as T.I.’s agent since 2004 and his co-manager since 2009, has been credited with helping to rebrand the rapper’s image via the television shows.

Sher began his career as a production assistant before beginning his career in ICM’s mailroom. He rose to the role of agent in 2000 and left in 2008 to form Category 5 Entertainment, where he begin working with T.I., Michael Vick (executive producing The Michael Vick Project for BET) and partnered with Kelsey Grammer in Grammnet NH.

Bulochnikov is a producer and writer who’s worked with Sher on Boss, T.I. & Tiny and Larry the Cable Guy’s Star-Studded Christmas Extravaganza.  She has a long history as a producer with Viacom shows dating back to 2001, including VH1 Divas, I Love the ‘80s and ‘90s, and several Paris Hilton Specials.

The moves come ahead of several big projects for the singer, who has stumbled in recent months with the poor sales of Me. I Am Mariah … The Elusive Chanteuse, the lowest-selling non-holiday studio album of her career and several wobbly live performances. On May 6, she begins a Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace, the same venue where Celine Dion will return on Aug. 27 after a year-long hiatus. Also expected later this year is a newly repackaged greatest-hits set called #1’s, the first release in her new deal with Epic Records, to accompany her Vegas show. She also has a Christmas movie on the horizon, according to Deadline.

Among other chart feats, Carey holds the record for total time spent at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, 79 weeks total, and also holds the record for longest-running Hot 100 No. 1 single (for 1995’s “One Sweet Day” with Boyz II Men, 16 weeks at No. 1), although she hasn’t had a Top 10 single since 2009’s “Obsessed.”

Carey had three management teams in 2013 alone, beginning with a Randy Jackson/Irving Azoff partnership, then Bruce Eskowitz of Red Light Management and then Jermaine Dupri, who produced some of her biggest hits including “We Belong Together.” Dupri gradually gave way to Kevin Liles, who semi-officially took the reins in August of 2014 but recently dropped out.

The news was first reported by Page Six and confirmed to Billboard by Chambers Group.