Pollstar + VenuesNow 2022 Women Of Live: Carole Kinzel

CAA
Agent

In 2022’s early going, few agents have been more prominent than CAA’s illustrious Carole Kinzel, who booked the North American leg of ascendant pop superstar Dua Lipa’s long-awaited “Future Nostalgia Tour.”

The leg, which began in early February and wraps April 1, has taken Lipa, who as recently as 2017 was playing clubs, to most major U.S. arenas. And, after a spring European leg, Lipa will return to North America for festival headlining slots at Osheaga and Firefly.

“Just a few weeks ago we had the thrill of starting Dua Lipa’s first North American arena headline tour,” Kinzel says. “Dua reached superstar status during the pandemic and the somewhat smaller tour we originally planned prior to that turned into an enormous national arena sellout – including three sold-out shows in the NYC area and two sellouts in Los Angeles. And her performances are stellar!”

Lipa’s success, of course, is only part of the picture for the veteran agent, who has worked at CAA since 1991 and today counts legends such as Radiohead, Lana Del Rey, The Cure, Tori Amos, New Order and Tears For Fears among her stellar roster.

As touring restarted, Kinzel deployed her expertise to help clients navigate supply chain and staffing shortages and to book tours that capitalized on pent-up demand. Among them was singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy, who only had one week of shows left when the pandemic hit in 2020, but rescheduled those shows for 2021 while adding more markets in larger venues to his itinerary.

“I think, for all of us, the greatest victories [of the last year] were successful tours that played through with healthy artists and crews!” says Kinzel, who also touts artist development as a major pandemic-era accomplishment.

“At a time when our new artists could not even play one show, we participated in livestreams, virtual shows and branding opportunities that helped these artists to grow audiences in a world of no lockdown,” she explains. “We are so proud that artists like Gracie Abrams, Mimi Webb, Claire Rosinkranz and others are now able to do sellout shows due to the work that they put in during such a difficult time.”