UNIVERSAL MUSIC CANADA UPGRADES A&R TEAM
(L-R) Phil Hotz, Lisa Lorenz, Ivan Evidente, Don Kitchen, Morgan “MJ” James, Shawn Marino, Amanda Kingsland, Widney Bonfils, Shirley Ichkhanian, Kwaku Agyemang, Natassha Cuachon-Cruz. Seated is Julie Adam and Shannen Serrano.
Universal Music Canada (UMC) has promoted Amanda Kingsland to VP, A&R. She’ll co-lead the company’s A&R efforts alongside VP, A&R Operations Shawn Marino. The duo will report directly to UMC President/CEO Julie Adam with a renewed mandate to sign, develop and break the next generation of Canadian artists. Anchored by UMC’s multi-room recording space, 80A Studios, the A&R team’s recent signings showcase a wide variety of genres.
“Music—and the artists who create it—are our driving force," Adam said. "We focus our hustle, passion, care, creativity and abundance of forward-thinking ideas on helping the artists we work with achieve personal, artistic and commercial success. And at the center of our mission to sign, develop and break artists is our industry-leading A&R team. They are tastemakers and genre experts who scout, sign and cultivate talent, bringing deep international connections, musicality, skills and insights to a range of musical projects.”
Kingsland joined UMC in 2021 and has helped rebuild UMC’s award-winning country music roster and reinvigorated A&R across multiple projects. Marino, a 30-year industry veteran, will continue overseeing 80A Studios, The Academy (UMC’s performance and event space), A&R operations and technology and lead A&R for artists like The Tragically Hip and Anne Murray. They'll work alongside UMC’s A&R team members Kwaku Agyemang, Widney Bonfils, Natassha Cuachon-Cruz, Ivan Evidente, Morgan “MJ” James, Shirley Ichkhanian and Shannen Serrano. The team is supported by UMC’s venue and studio team Don Kitchen, Lisa Lorenz and sound engineer Phil Hotz.
UMC’s domestically signed artists include country breakout star Josh Ross, pop star Sofia Camara, comedian-turned-singer-songwriter Mae Martin, rising country act Owen Riegling, Punjabi super-producer thiarajxtt and R&B pop singer Preston Pablo. Recent signings include rapper AP Dhillon (in partnership with Republic) and songwriter Lindsay Ell.
An escape to Canada for approximately four years sounds good right about now.