Craig Kallman

CHAIRMAN/CEO, ATLANTIC RECORDS

Julie Greenwald

CHAIRMAN/COO, ATLANTIC RECORDS

The past year “was about making sure we were able to provide artists the time and the resources to help them go to the next level,” says Greenwald. “Because of COVID-19, people pushed things back.” That resulted in a goal post-shaped year, with peaks at the start and at the end. Pooh Shiesty’s breakthrough debut, Shiesty Season, arrived in February, while the fourth quarter was full of album releases from many of the label’s major players: Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Roddy Ricch, Meek Mill, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and the Bruno Mars/Anderson .Paak duo Silk Sonic. In between, says Greenwald, there was the chance to “focus on our babies. Because that’s all you want: to make sure your babies have all the sunlight and oxygen and water to grow.” Case in point: Dallas-born 17-year-old singersongwriter GAYLE. Signed at 14, she released her first single, “abcdefu,” three years later; it reached No. 11 on the Hot 100 and No. 2 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. “So many people talk about how we have to find things through research and TikTok. But she’s a real artist-development story of finding someone young and giving them the time they need to hone their craft and work on writing and performing,” says Greenwald a week after seeing GAYLE perform at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory. “She’s 17, and she can rock the fuck out and manhandle an electric guitar. This is all you dream of.”

FOR FELLOW 2022 BILLBOARD POWER LIST HONOREES, SEE PAGE 76.