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“Being A Working Mother Is another beast altogether”: Lucy Dickins Honored With Music Industry Trust Award 2023
WME’s global head of contemporary music and touring, Lucy Dickins, won this year’s prestigious Music Industry Trust Award. Her brother, and fellow industry leader, Jonathan Dickins presented her with the award in a room full of peers at a gala ceremony in The Great Room, Grosvenor House Hotel, London.
“I’d like to thank each and every one of you for this moment. May we continue to nurture, support and empower great talent and may we continue to live and love in music. I’m truly humbled to receive this award tonight and I hope that in some small way I’ve inspired the next generation of women in music, which translates into the live music business in the future. Thank you, all,” Dickins, who represents Adele, Mumford & Sons, Olivia Rodrigo, Stormzy, Little Simz, Hot Chip, Loyle Carner, and more, said when accepting her award.
After inviting her two children on to the stage to help accept her award, Dickins added, “Life in this industry, as you know, is extremely busy. But being a working mother is another beast altogether. I have so much respect for you mothers who are fighting the fight because it is not easy. We’re constantly feeling that we’re sacrificing one part of our life for another. So whatever way you look at it, you have guilt. And it’s really, really hard to balance it all and often people say ‘I don’t know how you do it all’. But you absolutely can’t do it all. All you can do is just do your best. That’s what I tell everyone.”
During the tributes, many artists and colleagues sent their congratulations to Lucy Dickins including Adele and Little Simz. Adele recalled the time she and Lucy met, “I started going on about being a singer and I whipped a demo right out of my bag and I said ‘You’re gonna be my agent’. I didn’t hear back from her for quite a while and my details were on the demo. But I told my manager, who I was newly managed by, I told him that I found my agent. And he was like, ‘Great, what’s their name?’, and I was like, ‘Lucy Dickins’, and he said, ‘That’s my sister!’. So, we met separately and they’ve both worked with me since I was 18 years old.”
Little Simz said, “There’s no one that’s more deserving, that works as hard as you do, and that really cares, and believes and backs their artists 100%, and I’m so glad you’re a part of my journey. I’m happy to be a part of yours!”
Before presenting her with the MITS Award, her brother and founder of September Management, Jonathan Dickins, told the crowd, “I’m really proud because I think I’ve learnt one thing, and that is that I have a newfound respect for what it means to be a working mum. Anybody that holds a career, and especially the level that she does, and happens to be a present parent is…I’m in awe of that. And that, to me, goes well beyond any achievements in music.” And he added, “She’s a fierce negotiator, strategic, loyal, and most importantly, the greatest sister I could possibly ever have.”
Dickins has won many industry accolades during her 25-plus year career, which began working as a junior product manager for independent UK record label PWL, before joining International Booking Talent (ITB), the company formed by her father Barry Dickins and Rod MacSween. After rising through the ranks at the world-renowned agency, she joined WME four years ago, where her rapid rise continued. Today, she’s at the helm of all aspects of the agency’s contemporary music and touring business across Beverly Hills, New York, Nashville, London, and Sydney. Dickins is a two-time Pollstar Impact 50 honoree, as well as a two-time Women of Live honoree. As 2023’s MITS winner, she joins previous recipients including Annie Lennox OBE, Kylie Minogue, Emma Banks, Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Rob Stringer, Sir Lucian Grainge, Ahmet Ertegun, Michael Eavis, Pete Tong, and Roger Daltrey. The Music Industry Trust Award also serves as a fundraiser for two of the UK’s vital music charities, The BRIT Trust, and Nordoff & Robbins.