Near Truths

THE WATER’S FINE: Six months into their tenure, with the dark cloud of the previous Atlantic regime now in the rearview, Elliot Grainge and his young team (cultivated during his 10K era) have rejuvenated the company, and the senior execs who made the cut are savoring the new energy and enjoying winning again.

Grainge ticked all the appropriate leadership boxes and quickly put points on the board, ushering Coldplay to a #1 chart bow and breaking Charli xcx wide open. But perhaps the most important achievement of this early chapter has been his cultivation of a relationship with Atlantic’s most crucial creative asset, Bruno Mars.

It’s almost impossible to overstate the versatile artist-songwriter-producer’s importance on the landscape at present—the marketplace simply can’t get enough of him, and whether his collaborators are newcomers or established stars, he always seems to raise their game.