Kim Petras presented Republic Records’ founders Monte and Avery Lipman with the label of the year award at Billboard‘s Power 100 party Wednesday night (Feb. 1) at Los Angeles’ Goya Studios.
“I strongly, strongly, deeply agree with this assessment. Republic Records — best label ever,” said the “Unholy” hitmaker in front of the executives who made Billboard‘s 2023 Power 100 List. “It’s changed my life, period. I thought I was gonna perform on tables in gay clubs for life, but these guys saw something in me and I’m grateful they did. My life has changed so much. Thank you so much for supporting artists and believing in artists and pushing artists to make the best art they can possibly make. I didn’t think a label like you guys would exist.”
Republic topped all three of Billboard’s leading year-end label rankings in 2022: Top Labels, Billboard 200 Labels and Billboard Hot 100 Labels. And under the Lipmans’ leadership, the label placed 72 albums on the Billboard 200, including five No. 1 and 23 top 10 albums, and placed the most overall entries (119), top 40 hits (60), top 10s (21) and No. 1s (five) on the Billboard Hot 100 than any other label last year.
After Petras encouraged the “starlets” to finally join her on stage and accept their honor, Monte turned the praise toward the evening’s previous speakers Clive Davis, who introduced Scooter Braun who presented the Clive Davis Visionary Award to HYBE chairman Bang Si-Hyuk, and Sir Lucian Grainge, who gave opening remarks to kick off the party. “In 1986, my very first job was Arista Records, I was making $150 a week. I am very proud to announce almost 40 years later, I make a lot more money,” he joked. “Thank you Lucian Grainge and the incredible, incredible team at UMG and all your support. And just on Lucian for a moment, I can’t tell you how much we appreciate and how indebted we are to you that you encourage us to operate with your entrepreneurial spirit. We operate with autonomy. You remind us to remain curious, and that’s really the core of all of it, so thank you so much.”
Monte also had something to say to the “competition”: “We recognize you, we respect you and we’re in this together.”
He then turned it over to his younger brother Avery, who joked about everyone witnessing the “kinder, gentler Monte Lipman” and then alluded to Bad Bunny‘s heartfelt speech to his “big brother” and manager Noah Assad, who was named Billboard‘s executive of the year. “Bad Bunny, if you’re here, I also have a big brother. I work with my brother. And I’ve never actually said this, but I love you like a brother,” he said.
He also alluded to Braun’s speech about Chairman Bang being previously denied meetings in the U.S. 15 years ago before starting his own highly successful international entertainment company, which is home to chart-topping superstars like BTS. “Chairman Bang, we have something in common: A lot of people don’t know this… we have our own story, but we effectively had the same story. We were told to wait in the lobby and wait and wait and then told, ‘Get the hell out of here.’ Just for anyone in the room, if you have a young person who’s ambitious, you might want to see them. You might want to take the time, because that fuse still burns for us.”
Avery concluded his speech by praising the hard-working people at Republic who support their superstars day in and day out. “We’re really all about artists and artistry and, more than that, the people at Republic, the team, the men and the women who bring them to life. We’ve all been through a lot and the team is just, the sacrifice, what they put in, the passion just to bring these artists home, to bring their music to the marketplace, it’s just incredible,” he said. “And, of course, to everybody in the room, I do like the warm and fuzzy feeling here. We all are in this together, and we all create great music and we all put it out there and I appreciate everyone, so thank you very much.”