As part of a big expansion of Shawn Mendes manager Andrew Gertler’s AG Artists, the company has signed fast-rising Canadian singer-songwriter Lauren Spencer-Smith and Arista’s JP Saxe, and Mendes’ longtime A&R Ziggy Chareton has joined as a partner on their management. Chareton will also co-manage Mendes.
Gertler and Chareton have a long history together: They met in the early 2010s when both were interns in Atlantic Records’ marketing department. In 2014, they brought a 15-year-old Mendes to Island Records, where Chareton had been hired as an A&R rep. Gertler had seen a YouTube clip of Mendes singing Great Big World’s “Say Something,” looped in Chareton, and convinced the young singer’s parents to bring him to New York to meet with Island’s then-CEO David Massey. Mendes signed with Island almost immediately and the rest, as they say, was history: Within a year Mendes became a major star, and within two a global superstar; he has 23 RIAA-certified multiplatinum or gold records to his credit. Yet this move is a major one for the company.
Powered by her smash single “Fingers Crossed,” Vancouver native Spencer-Smith has rapidly become one of the breakout stars of 2022, with nearly half a billion TikTok views and 100 million streams for the song and a new single, “Flowers,” is rising fast. She performed at the Juno Awards last month. Saxe, whose collaboration with Julia Michaels, “If the World Was Ending,” was nominated for the Grammy Song of the Year, received five Juno nominations and won Breakthrough Artist of the Year. (Incidentally, Mendes, Saxe and Spencer-Smith are all Canadian.)
“I’m so excited to welcome two incredibly talented new artists to our roster, Lauren Spencer Smith & JP Saxe, as well as to formally welcome Ziggy as a partner,” says Gertler. “I’ve always been dedicated to growing a small roster of best-in-class artists, so it only felt natural when the opportunity arose with both Lauren and JP. They are both top tier songwriters that fit our ethos of working only with the best clients, both as musicians and as people, and we are so fortunate to have them as part of the family.”
“I’m thrilled to welcome the incredibly talented Lauren and JP to the family. I’ve been a fan of both artists from afar so to have the privilege to work alongside them is a dream,” says Chareton. “We can’t wait for what the future holds for both of these stars and we are so fortunate to have them as part of the family.” Chareton has worked at Island Records since 2011, rising to be the company’s Head Of A&R, and now joining Gertler to grow a management operation together.
AG Artists also includes divisions Permanent Arts — a digital art studio and management venture that manages NFT artist Fewocious — and Permanent Content, a joint venture film & TV production company with Mendes that released his Netflix documentary “In Wonder” and is producing the upcoming TV adaptation of “Life Is Strange” in partnership with Legendary & Anonymous Content.