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With the 2024 Artist & Manager Awards less than one week away and tickets about to sell out, the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) and Music Managers Forum (MMF) can reveal the identities of our final four awardees, as well as the shortlist for a brand new category to recognise an upcoming individual who is making their mark in music management.  

Those awardees are Paloma Faith (Icon), Riverman Management (Managers’ Manager), Milk & Honey’s Ant Hippsley (Writer / Producer Manager) and Finesse Foreva (Team Achievement). 

Paloma is a true icon of British music, and one of our most celebrated voices. From her debut 2009 album Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?, she has enjoyed incredible success for over a decade – with six Top 10 UK albums (including The Architect, which hit the top spot in 2017) and five Top Ten UK tracks, including one No 1.  

Her most recent album, The Glorification of Sadness, reached No 2 in February 2024 and features a vast array of collaborators, including Chase & Status, Kojey Radical, Maverick Sabre, Lapsley, MJ Cole, Fred Cox, Amy Wadge, Liam Bailey and Jaycen Joshua, while Paloma’s live schedule over the past 12 months has included stand-out performances at Glastonbury, The Royal Variety Performance, Hampton Court Palace and London’s Eventim Apollo. 

Throughout her career, she has also pushed her talents into film and TV, and this year published a Sunday Times bestseller, MILF (“Motherhood, Identity, Love & Fuckery”) a passionate, personal and fierce polemic that pulls no punches in its depiction of the issues faced by women today.

Using her platform to spread the word about various causes she is passionate about, Paloma continues to speak out on women’s rights, equality, the refugee crisis and global warming.  

Alongside Paloma we are delighted to recognise a business that recently celebrated its 35th anniversary: Riverman Management.

Launched by Alex Weston and Dave McLean in 1989, Riverman initially cut its teeth as concert promoters, bringing US artists such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against The Machine, Green Day, Beck, Cypress Hill, Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains (to name a few) across the Atlantic for their first and subsequent UK tours. 

Moving into management in 1995, Alex and Dave have represented Placebo through the release of eight studio albums (they still manage the band today) alongside a diverse roster of talent, including Bryan Ferry, Wild Beasts, Deaf Havana and David Sylvian. 

In 2002, Riverman managed the newly reformed Roxy Music tour which took in 51 arena shows worldwide. In 2006 they promoted Bangkok’s first international rock festival with headliners Oasis, Snow Patrol, Franz Ferdinand and Placebo.

The company has also branched out into film production, with the indie hit Schemers which was an Audience Award winner at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.  A second film is currently in pre-production.

Alongside Placebo, their current roster includes Friedberg, Dea Matrona, Tom Fleming (ex Wild Beasts) and Dougie Poynter. The Riverman team is completed by Angus Blue and Virginia Lee, while the company operates from offices in London and Bangkok. 

We are honoured to recognise the career achievements of Alex and Dave and 35 incredible years of music. Riverman Management are our Managers’ Manager for 2024. 

Our 2024 Writer & Producer Manager of the Year is awarded to Ant Hippsley, Head of UK operations for Milk & Honey.

Milk & Honey are undoubtedly having a moment right now, representing some of the world’s hottest backroom talent – including Finn Keane (aka Easyfun) who co-wrote and produced Speed Drive, Charli XCX’s contribution to the Barbie soundtrack, as well as five tracks on Brat, including global bangers Von Dutch and Sympathy Is A Knife. 

Ant has been pivotal to the company’s successes.  Formerly a touring session musician, he cut his teeth at Big Life Management and Spilt Milk – working with their amazing roster of writers and producers – before starting a management business, and joining Milk & Honey in January 2020 to launch their London office. 

Under his stewardship, the business has greatly expanded its UK roster – now representing 15 writers and producers, while overseeing George Corton to establish a new bespoke electronic division for the likes of Joel Corry and girls of the internet. 

And they have also enjoyed hit after hit after hit. 

Finn Keane aside, Milk & Honey UK clients such as Stuart Price (Cat Burns, Romy, Jessie Ware, Halsey, The Killers, George Ezra), The Elements (J Hus, Mahalia), Billen Ted (Anne-Marie, Tom Grennan), Jordan Riley (Guetta & Becky Hill’s monster hit Crazy What Love Can Do) and Biff Stannard & Duck Blackwell (Kylie Minogue) have contributed to seven BRIT nominations, four Mercury nominations, three Grammy nominations and an Ivor Novello. 

This run of platinum and gold tracks has included six No 1s, 11 Top 5’s, four Top 10’s and three Top 20’s. 

All in just five years. 

The FAC and MMF also look forward to celebrating the work and impact of Croydon’s finest: Finesse Foreva. 

The absolute epitome of Team Achievement, the company was founded in 2017 by childhood friends SK, TK, and producer JB MadeIt –  operating independent record label, production house, and management company. 

On a global and national level, their successes are self-evident – managing artists like Russ Millions & Skengdo x AM, who sold out two tours in 12 months and became the first drill rap act to sell out London’s KOKO. Finesse Foreva also contributed to the iconic chart-topping hits Body, a collaboration between Russ Millions and Tion Wayne, also featuring their production client Gotcha. It became the first drill track to reach number one on the UK Top 40. 

Elsewhere, JB MadeIt co-produced Drake’s Demons which entered the Billboard Hot 100, and also worked alongside Jimmy Lovine on the DJ Spinall & Summer Walker record Power.

However, Finesse Foreva have also shone on a local level – dedicating their energies to community and youth empowerment, and offering free courses in the music business, event management and production for young people aged 16-25. In 2023, they founded the Music NXT Gen CIC and organised the largest music conference in South London Croydon in collaboration with the MMF.

We are delighted to recognise this extraordinary cultural impact beyond their noted commercial successes. 

David Martin, CEO, Featured Artists Coalition and Annabella Coldrick, Chief Executive, MMF said: 

“The Artist & Manager Awards always seeks to recognise and celebrate the widest spectrum of talent, and we are delighted to reveal our final four awardees: Paloma Faith, one the UK’s most iconic and celebrated voices, Riverman Management, Milk & Honey’s Ant Hippsley and Finesse Foreva. Between them, they represent the best of British music and innovation, and we can’t wait to celebrate their achievements on the 21st November.”  

Finally, this year’s ceremony will also see the introduction of a new award – the Secret Weapon Award – that recognises a critical member of a management company who has made invaluable contributions behind the scenes.  The shortlist is as follows, with the winner being revealed on the night: 

2024 Secret Weapon Award Shortlist 

Fifi Holley, September Management – Day to Day Manager

Tatum Van Dam, Young Artists – Social Media Manager

Marusa Ojstersek, Raw Power –  Digital Marketing Manager

Hope James, Atlas Artists – Junior Manager

Seb Wheeler, One House – Digital Strategist

As previously announced, the 2024 Artist & Manager Awards will recognise the long-term partnership between Pet Shop Boys and their manager Angela Becker with an award sponsored by PPL, as well Chase & Status and Sophie Kennard’s huge successes over the past 12 months as our Artist & Manager Team of the Year (sponsored by TuneCore).  

Elsewhere, our Fan Champion Award will be received by Yungblud and his team at Special Projects Music, we have a posthumous Pioneer Award for SOPHIE and an Originator Award for Cymande. 

As always, our shortlists for Breakthrough Artist (sponsored by TikTok) and Breakthrough Manager (sponsored by Amazon Music) feature some of the UK’s most exciting upcoming creative talent and entrepreneurs. Similar to our Secret Weapon, winners of those two categories will be revealed on the night.

Our host for the evening is BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Remi Burgz.

Final tickets for the 2024 Artist & Manager Awards are available now – please find details here.