DOWNTOWN: WHERE NAUGHTY NEVER FELT SO NICE

Shahid Khan (aka Naughty Boy)—the award-winning U.K. songwriter/producer who's worked with the likes of Sam Smith, Emeli Sandé, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Leona Lewis and more—has inked a multi-year worldwide publishing agreement with Downtown Music Publishing.

Downtown and the hitmaker's publishing company, Naughty Words, have also established a joint venture.

"We are thrilled and delighted to have signed Naughty Boy and Naughty Words to Downtown. Shah is a world class songwriter/producer of the highest calibre," said Downtown Music U.K. Managing Director Roberto Neri. "He has successfully discovered and nurtured artists with sustainable careers during turbulent times in our industry and continues to identify the creators and artists of the future. Downtown is the natural home to further excel Shah's vision and the extraordinary creative feats and success he has had to date."

You may recall that Naughty Boy was responsible for the smash "La La La," which featured Sam Smith and was released as the second single from Naughty Boy's debut studio album, Hotel Cabana, which dropped in May of 2013. That was almost exactly a year before the release of Smith's gigantic In The Lonely Hour, which propelled Smith into superstardom and went on to be nominated for six Grammy Awards (including Album of the Year) and win four (including Song and Record of the Year). "La La La," which Smith eventually chose to include on the deluxe version of his album as well, was the fifth biggest-selling song of 2013 in the U.K. The track is now 2x platinum in the U.K. and U.S. It went #1 on the U.K.'s Official Singles Chart and broke into the Top 10 of the U.S. Pop radio chart. And its video has amassed approximately 780m views on YouTube.

Not too shabby, eh?

BTW, did we mention that Naughty Boy signed Smith to his aforementioned pubco, Naughty Words?

Seen in the photo above, seeming more than pleased to be on Santa's other list this year, are (L-R) Downtown Music U.K.'s Roberto Neri, Naughty Boy, Sound Advice LLP's Sonia Diwan and Avant Garde Music's Riki Bleau.

NB will be releasing his second album in 2017 on Virgin. Stay tuned.