ONE LOVE TEAM HONORED IN LONDON

Ariana Grande, Scooter Braun and promoters Melvin Benn (Festival Republic) and Simon Moran (SJM) were amongst winners at last night’s Artist and Manager Awards in London for their work on the One Love Manchester concert, while Lana Del Rey appeared to pay tribute to Managers of the Year, Ben Mawson and Ed Millett of Tap Management.

The One Love team were recognised for producing the concert in June that helped raise more than £17m for the We Love Manchester fund, set up to support victims and families impacted by the Manchester Arena bomb attack on 5/22.

Said Braun of the honor: “Although this is incredible, I want us to remember that the city of Manchester and all those families are the real heroes…60,000 people of Manchester came forward and filled that stadium. It was the greatest act of defiance in the face of evil that I’ve ever witnessed, and I will never ever forget it. On behalf of myself, Ariana and the rest of the team, I want to say to the city of Manchester ‘thank you' - this is your award tonight, and you have taught us all a valuable lesson. Evil will never win.”

Alongside Rey, Mawson and Millett also look after breakthrough act Dua Lipa. They were “the first people who could see the big picture. They loved my music as much as I loved making it,” said Rey. “Which I think is the most important thing for a manager: to truly love the projects that they are working on and to want to make the personal and professional commitment it takes to make an artist successful.”

Island Records' President Darcus Beese gave the Pioneer Award to Giggs and his management team, Michael ‘Buck’ Maris and Trenton Harrison-Lewis. Giggs was signed to Island under a JV and secured a publishing deal with BMG ahead of the release of his mixtape earlier this year.

“Trenton was one of the first managers that I did one of my earlier deals with and ever since then, he has had my back and I’ve had his,” said Beese. “What Michael has done as a manager is incredible and I’m pretty proud to have formed a relationship with him as well.”

Maris thanked Harrison-Lewis, who added: “When we met with Darcus and Alexi Cory-Smith at BMG, they didn’t want to take or own what we did, they wanted to get into partnership with us. We didn’t give up our independence but we joined them in a JV to work together and strive. Giggs is a fantastic artist, a great person, he’s very loyal to Buck and I’m really proud to be part of the team.”

Melvin Benn and Simon Moran with artist Imogen Heap (Credit: John Marshall, JM Enternational)

Other winners on the night included Depeche Mode’s longtime manager Jonathan Kessler, who picked up the Peter Grant Award for Lifetime Achievement, and Tracey Thorn was crowned Artists’ Artist.

Rag’n’Bone Man was declared Artist of the Year and Eleven Management’s Niamh Byrne and Regine Moylett received the Entrepreneur Award for their work on Gorillaz multifaceted album campaign for Humanz.

Echo Beach Management’s Jill Hollywood was crowned Writer/Producer Manager and Breakthrough Artist went to singer, songwriter and DJ Tom Misch. Breakthrough Manager was awarded to 2K Management’s Kilo Jalloh & Moe Bah for their work with J Hus.

A special tribute was paid to former MMF President, Jon Webster, who stepped down earlier this year to write a book about his experiences at Virgin Records in the '80s.