{"id":226292,"date":"2025-03-17T14:11:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T14:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=226292"},"modified":"2026-03-26T19:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T19:39:12","slug":"ive-spent-every-day-since-ive-known-lola-believing-that-it-was-going-to-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/ive-spent-every-day-since-ive-known-lola-believing-that-it-was-going-to-happen\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I\u2019ve spent every day since I\u2019ve known Lola believing that it was going to happen.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MBW\u2019s World\u2019s Greatest Managers series profiles the best artist managers in the global business.\u00a0This time out, we talk to Lola Young’s manager Nick Shymansky about where the fast-rising UK star can go from here, plus what he learned during his time managing Amy Winehouse and much more.<\/span>\u00a0World\u2019s Greatest Managers is supported by Centtrip<\/a>, a specialist in intelligent treasury, payments and foreign exchange \u2013 created with the music industry and its needs in mind.<\/p>\n

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It was a classic breakthrough moment. A rising British pop star with an incredible voice and a larger-than-life personality, singing a career-defining song, on the biggest stage of all.<\/p>\n

Anyone watching Lola Young\u2019s performance of Messy<\/em> at the 2025 BRIT Awards would have been in no doubt that there is now a new star in the UK\u2019s fading musical firmament. Some may even have been reminded of similarly charismatic turns by another true British original, Amy Winehouse.<\/p>\n

And, indeed, Young\u2019s manager, Nick Shymansky, has been here before. The artist manager, label exec and co-founder of Day One Entertainment, has been one of the 21st century\u2019s foremost unearthers of musical talent. He was Winehouse\u2019s manager up until the release of her multi-platinum Back To Black<\/em> album; he found and broke La Roux in his label days; and has now guided Young to her current status as British music\u2019s hottest property.<\/p>\n

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Not that Young\u2019s journey has been straightforward. First signed to Island back in 2019, she soundtracked the John Lewis Christmas ad in 2021 and featured on the BRITs Rising Star shortlist in 2022, but never quite broke through until Messy<\/em> belatedly picked up traction late last year, six months after it was first released (\u201cNever judge a record on its first six months, let alone its first six days,\u201d sighs Shymansky). Suddenly, TikTok celebrities were lipsyncing to it and Young found herself participating in sofa banter with Jimmy Fallon and Graham Norton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent every day since I\u2019ve known Lola believing that it was going to happen,\u201d Shymansky chuckles as he greets MBW<\/em> at Day One\u2019s King\u2019s Cross office. \u201cThe irony is, when it blew up, I looked at it in disbelief like, \u2018What\u2019s the catch, what\u2019s going on, is this real?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gone through this Lola journey questioning what is taste, what is instinct, what is belief, what is intuition?\u201d he adds. \u201cI\u2019ve picked it apart and put it back together and it\u2019s been fascinating, because it\u2019s the greatest feeling in the world when you believe. You can\u2019t fake belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve literally been weeks away from losing my house, there\u2019s been pressure. But I always felt I\u2019m going to be alright and I can do it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That faith in his charges has kept Shymansky going through the occasional dark times in his remarkable career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably a defence mechanism but I\u2019m happy I\u2019ve got it \u2013 all the time I wasn\u2019t successful, I didn\u2019t actually feel unsuccessful,\u201d he laughs. \u201cYou notice it is slightly different when you\u2019re having a moment, but I\u2019ve never once come to work and thought, \u2018I\u2019m so cold\u2019. I\u2019ve been skint, I\u2019ve nearly lost the business, I\u2019ve literally been weeks away from losing my house, there\u2019s been pressure. But I always felt I\u2019m going to be alright and I can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Shymansky has now been doing \u2018it\u2019 for almost 30 years. Having dropped out of school, he started in the business in 1996 as an intern at Nicki Chapman and Nick Godwyn\u2019s promotions company, Brilliant!, after an attempt to hit up his uncles \u2013 aka the Grainge brothers Lucian (now CEO of Universal Music Group) and Nigel (the renowned A&R who passed away in 2017) \u2013 for industry advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hang off their every word,\u201d says Shymansky. \u201cThey\u2019d have these arguments over Friday night dinner or Sunday lunch and I thought it was the greatest thing ever \u2013 they had this connection, but rivalry. Both had great taste but Lucian was always about the hits, the excitement of the industry, and Nigel thought everything was shit if he didn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember going up to both Lucian and Nigel separately at 16 and going, \u2018How do I become an A&R person or a manager?\u2019 and them going, \u2018You find talent\u2019. \u2018How do you find talent?\u2019 \u2018Go fucking figure it out!\u2019 That tough love was actually brilliant \u2013 although at the time it felt horrible. I remember thinking, \u2018You arseholes, I\u2019m going to show you I can do it\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Years later, having followed that advice, Shymansky didn\u2019t have much more luck when he tried to pitch the fledgling Winehouse to Lucian, by then running Universal Music UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so excited to play it to him and he went, \u2018Don\u2019t put it on\u2019,\u201d Shymansky recalls. \u2018He went, \u2018If you think it\u2019s incredible, I\u2019m sure it\u2019s incredible. But the worst thing that can happen for you and me is, if I think it\u2019s great and sign this. I need my people to tell me it\u2019s great and then we\u2019ll do a deal\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I look back and think, \u2018That was so cool\u2019. Because what he was saying was, \u2018If I give this to you, you\u2019re never going to be taken seriously, she probably won\u2019t get taken seriously and I won\u2019t be taken seriously\u2019. I didn\u2019t get it for years, but he was so right. He knew you have to find your own path and figure it out, for him, for me, for her, for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Shymansky has certainly never been afraid to plough his own furrow. After Brilliant!, he moved to 19 Management with Simon Fuller (\u201cA brilliant guy, he\u2019s been amazing to me\u201d) where he found Winehouse. After the split with Amy, he worked in A&R at Polydor and Island, before launching Day One with Nick Huggett just before the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Huggett is now stepping back from management, although he remains involved in the Day One Songs publishing company, home to Young collaborators Conor Dickinson and Will Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cNick\u2019s been a huge part of everything that we\u2019ve done,\u201d says Shymansky. \u201cHe\u2019s my best mate, we still talk but I just have a slightly different vision of how I want to do artist management and so, for the foreseeable future, I\u2019m not going to manage artists with him. But hopefully we\u2019ll still be partners on other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sofia & The Antoinettes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The management company is certainly in good shape, with Young, Kenya Grace (who scored a 2023 No.1 with Strangers<\/em>) and the hotly tipped likes of Sofia And The Antoinettes, Kid 12 and Bug Eyed making for what Shymansky calls \u201cthe greatest roster of young talent in this country\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he also has Day One Pictures \u2013 a successful TV\/film production company that made the Disney+ Camden<\/em> documentary, and has a number of big projects in the pipeline \u2013 and he\u2019s launching a label, after an earlier attempt was scuppered by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of two things could happen,\u201d he declares. \u201cI\u2019m either going to be a successful manager who blew it all on trying to be a label, or I\u2019ll have a bit of both.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an Arsenal supporter,\u201d he adds. \u201cIn those years when we were winning, I thought it was always going to be like that. But it\u2019s healthy to realise it\u2019s never always one thing. In your twenties, you give it large like you know it all, when you haven\u2019t got a clue. Now, I actually do know what I\u2019m doing, so hopefully it\u2019s going to be a purple patch that keeps going\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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Why is it happening for Lola Young now after a few near misses?<\/h6>\n

It was always going to happen, because there\u2019s a depth, a character and a talent that is undeniable.<\/p>\n

We made a pact. I\u2019ve been saying the whole time, \u2018We get to decide if this happens or doesn\u2019t happen\u2019. When Lola\u2019s lost her momentum or belief, I\u2019ve always said to her, \u2018The only way this doesn\u2019t happen is if you stop. But if you keep making music, playing shows and being you and we keep trying stuff, you\u2019re going to be huge\u2019.<\/p>\n

I was saying that from experience but also out of total belief, blind belief almost. But there\u2019s also a logic to it \u2013 if someone is great and they keep trying, it just increases your chances. Why wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve been around for a minute, you really do know when something\u2019s special. I\u2019ve never seen her get up in a room or do a meeting and not leave a massive mark. You go and see accountants and she\u2019ll leave a mark. You can go to a pub where no one knows her or put her on a festival line-up or a gig and she\u2019ll leave a mark.<\/p>\n

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