Q’s With Jbeau Lewis, UTA Partner & Agent: The Ascención Historica Of Karol G

Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Joni Mitchell weren’t the only women to make history at the Grammy Awards earlier this month. One artist was nice enough to introduce herself to the crowd at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles after becoming the first woman to win the Best Música Urbana honor.

“Hi, everybody. My name is Karol G. I am from Medellín, Colombia. This is my first time at [the] Grammys, and this is my first time holding my own Grammy,” said the Latin star, who went on to thank her fans and promised them that she’d give them her best.

But anyone in the industry knows that she’s been keeping that promise for quite some time, especially in 2023 under the guidance of manager Noah Assad of Rimas Entertainment. Karol G jumped into stadiums last year and grossed $144.57 million, according to Pollstar’s Boxoffice.

There’s no stopping Karol G’s forward momentum as she goes global with her “Mañana Será Bonito Tour” visiting Latin America and Europe this year. Jbeau Lewis, partner and agent at United Talent Agency, chatted with Pollstar about his client’s success and what makes her a “one-of-a-kind” talent.

Pollstar: 2023 was a record year for many in the music industry. How was it for you?

Jbeau Lewis: We came out of the pandemic in ’21 and into ’22 and business was strong. There was an element of people thinking this is just a bounce-back from the pandemic. And then ’23 was incredible, and people were like, “Oh, maybe this is real and here to stay.” We’re in this generationally special period in live music right now where it’s never been easier to consume music and the demand to do things in real life has never been higher, whether it’s because of the pandemic or everybody spending too much of their lives behind their screens and they want to go do real things. And the economics of our business are finally syncing up because we’ve figured out how to price tickets and it’s resulting in this perfect storm of the live music business.

Karol G had a remarkable year with her stadium tour. Why did her team feel it was the right time for her to go into stadiums?

Karol is a one-of-a-kind, generational talent, the kind that anybody in our position is beyond fortunate to have an opportunity to work with.

Entering 2023, the plan was not to tour because she had done her first tour in theaters in the fall of 2021 and followed that up with an arena tour, the “Strip Love Tour,” in the summer of 2022. We all thought, let’s let her breathe for a second and come back later. But then a year ago when Mañana Será Bonito came out and was received so well, I think we all, with her at the forefront of it, looked at each other in March 2023 and thought we’d be crazy not to go out there. Based on the trajectory, demand and how she had grown, stadiums were the logical next step. We all aligned very quickly that it was the thing to do, and it worked.

There’s no doubt she’d find success in the U.S. and Latin America, but what made you and her team feel it was time to go global and visit markets such as Switzerland and Belgium?

Karol is an indisputable global superstar. As much ink as there is, appropriately so, around Taylor Swift or Beyoncé, Karol deserves to be talked about in the same breath as those women or what they’ve accomplished on the road. Karol, while the demographic may be slightly different, is speaking to an audience everywhere. One of hers and our goals is to use this platform she has to take Latin music around the world.

We were confident we would have success in Spain and in other places where romance languages were spoken, like France, Italy, etc. Yes, there are some Spanish speakers in Cologne, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium, but we also know that her reach is beyond that. People are coming to the party of Karol G who may not even speak a lick of Spanish. They’re inspired by who she is and what she’s about. She’ll be the first Latin artist to ever play two sold-out nights at the O2 in London. … I think it’s a testament to who she is and where she’s going.

She’s not the only stadium act out there. Were there any challenges when it came to routing the tour and booking the shows?

The biggest challenge is one of timing. At the stadium level, you’re generally routing your tours a year-plus in advance because [pro sports] leagues have holds on dates. We effectively started working on her tour in March of last year and the dates began in August. We had five months to do it.

Any chance she extends this year’s tour?

We’re really focused on the global part of the tour for 2024. Beyond that, of course, there will be another run for Karol G. When it will be, we’ll have to wait and see.

It really is remarkable to see what Latin acts are doing nowadays, and you’ve been a part of it working with Bad Bunny and Karol G. Does it still surprise you to see these acts doing so well?

I would say that I’m most pleasantly surprised by how the success of these artists is opening people’s eyes to how much bigger the world is, what’s next door to us or what’s here in America. People are realizing how deep and fertile the marketplace is in Latin America, not just for Latin artists, but for every genre. It’s realizing that artists who don’t speak the native language can go to these countries in Europe and have success. And we’re going to push it beyond that also, and I think it’s a great eye-opening moment for anybody who does what we do for a living to make them think bigger than what they may have been doing otherwise traditionally in their careers.