Joanna Charrington is a music industry executive, widely regarded as one of the most influential and successful female A&R executives in British Music history. She is currently Co-President of
EMI Records and President of
Capitol Records in the UK. Her industry career began at
London Records in 1992 as a marketing assistant before moving to
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...
in the International Department, then
BMG working for the President Jeremy Marsh.
Career
Charrington left her job at BMG in 1996 to put together and manage the RnB boyband
Another Level, alongside
John Reid (Elton John/Queen). She later signed them to
Nick Raphael
Nick may refer to:
* Nick (given name)
* A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat
* British slang for being arrested
* British slang for a police station
* British slang for stealing
* Short for nickname
Place ...
and
Christian Tattersfield at
Northwestside Records, a newly formed subsidiary of
BMG. The band enjoyed multiple top 10 singles including the Number 1 ‘Freak Me’, as well as a platinum debut album in the UK.
After Reid left the management business, Charrington joined up with
Simon Fuller
Simon Fuller (born 17 May 1960) is a British entrepreneur, artist manager, and film and television producer renowned for nurturing and inspiring world class entertainment talent. He is the creator of the ''Idols'' TV format, including the UK s ...
. After 5 years in management she was approached by her old London Records colleague and Northwestside Records founder Nick Raphael to join him at
Epic Records, a division of
Sony Music
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainme ...
.
The duo worked together for 14 years, 10 of which at Sony, before moving to Universal to restart
London Records, now Capitol UK.
Artists discovered or signed by Jo Charrington
Charrington, alongside Raphael, has signed and launched a diverse number of platinum and multi-platinum selling artists, including;
*
5 Seconds of Summer at Capitol.
*
Sam Smith
Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. After rising to prominence in October 2012 by featuring on Disclosure's breakthrough single " Latch", which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, they ...
at Capitol
*
Aloe Blacc
Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III (born January 7, 1979), known professionally by his stage name Aloe Blacc (), is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. He is best known for his singles " I Need a Dollar", " The Man", which topped the charts in t ...
at Epic.
*
Big Brovaz at Epic
*
Charlotte Church at Epic.
*
G4 at Epic.
*
Imogen Heap
Imogen Jennifer Heap (born 9 December 1977) is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Her work has been considered pioneering in pop and electropop music.
Heap classically trained in piano, cello and clarinet starting at a ...
at Epic.
*
JLS
JLS (an initialism of Jack the Lad Swing) are an English boyband, which consists of members Aston Merrygold, Oritsé Williams, Marvin Humes, and JB Gill, originally formed by Williams. They initially signed to Tracklacers production company ...
at Epic.
*
Lemar
Lemar Obika (born 4 April 1978), known as Lemar, is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. Initially rising to fame after finishing third on the first series of British talent show ''Fame Academy'', he was later signed to Sony BMG ...
at Epic.
* Mylo at Epic
*
Olly Murs
Oliver Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and television presenter. He was runner-up on the sixth series of '' The X Factor'' in 2009 and was subsequently signed to RCA Records and Sony Music in the United Kingdom ...
at Epic.
*
Paloma Faith
Paloma Faith Blomfield (born 21 July 1981) is an English singer and actress. Her debut studio album, '' Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?,'' was released in 2009 and was certified double platinum in the UK. The album spawned the sin ...
at Epic.
*
The Priests at Epic.
*
Russell Watson
Russell Watson is an English tenor who has released singles and albums of both operatic-style and pop songs. He began singing as a child, and became known after performing at a working men's club. He came to attention in 1999 when he sang "God ...
at Epic.
*
Scouting For Girls
Scouting for Girls are an English pop rock band. Their name is a play on the title of the 1908 Scouting handbook ''Scouting for Boys''. The band was formed in 2005 by three childhood friends from London, Roy Stride on piano and lead guitar/voca ...
at Epic.
Awards and nominations
Charrington's artists and writers have won multiple
Grammys
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
,
BRITs,
American Music Award
The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show, generally held in the fall, created by Dick Clark in 1973 for ABC when the network's contract to air the Grammy Awards expired, and currently produced by Dick Clark Produ ...
s,
Ivor Novellos and
MOBOs.
Charrington, along with Raphael, was awarded the
Music Week
''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future.
History
Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...
A&R Award in both 2010 and 2015.
Charrington has been invited to take part in a mentoring scheme set up by
Marie Claire magazine
''Marie Claire'' is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937, followed by the United Kingdom in 1941. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on wo ...
to inspire and educate the future generation of the music industry.
In 2015, she was named Business Woman of the Year at the 2015 Music Week’s Women in Music awards.
Charrington was appointed a Governor of the Brit School on 1 January 2016
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charrington, Jo
British music industry executives
Living people
1970 births