Atlantic MD and president of promotions Damian Christian has spoken about the key role of radio in Charli XCX’s career.
Atlantic won back the Promotions Team trophy at the Music Week Awards last month. Christian has won the trophy many times over the years, including three on the trot from 2021-23, but lost out last year.
“It feels brilliant and you never take it for granted,” he told Music Week. “You never know when you're going to win it. We didn't win it last year, so the pressure was on to win it back. So it feels really good, I’m very proud of the team.”
During the Music Week Awards, the success of Charli XCX’s Brat campaign was represented in multiple categories, including wins for PR Campaign, Artist Marketing and Manager Of The Year.
Brat marked a global breakthrough for the UK artist on her seventh album. Christian credited the long-term support of UK radio since 2012.
“She's had nearly 30 playlists at Radio 1,” he said. “She’s been played across all the major stations, and they've stuck with her. Charli said herself that without the airplay, then maybe she wouldn't have got as far [in her career] to do Brat. So I think that was a big part of it, they kept it going way before Brat happened.”
While commercial radio has supported Charli XCX, Christian said that “Radio 1 has been the big one with Charli”.
Charli XCX is now seeing Top 20 success with catalogue track Party 4 U.
“She's still so hot,” said Christian. “Last year felt like she was the biggest star in the world for a minute. It feels like she can do almost anything at the moment. So you’ve got to take advantage of that.”
Atlantic also had the biggest airplay hit of 2024 with Teddy Swims’ Lose Control – prompting some tongue-in-cheek comments at the awards by Christian about the prospect a one-hit wonder.
“To start with, we couldn't get the other records moving,” said Christian. “When you have a big monster like Lose Control, it’s sometimes hard [for other tracks by an artist]. We thought he’s too good to be a one-hit wonder. [Ultimately] he had three Top 10 hits and Lose Control was the most played last year. And that’s from a standing start as well.”
Christian collected the award with Mel Rudder (pictured), who previously worked at Atlantic for a long spell and then started her own promotions company, Three Thirty Music. She continues to work with the Atlantic team.
“I wanted to pay special respect to Mel,” said Christian. “She worked with us in promotion, she's helped with radio, TV, she’s done everything. She feels a massive part of our team and a part of Atlantic Records. We're super proud of her.”
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