Universal Music Group (UMG) has announced an exclusive international recording agreement with Kris Wu, one of Asia’s biggest stars.
Under the agreement, Wu's future music will be released internationally, excluding Japan and Korea, through a partnership of Universal Music China, Interscope Geffen A&M in the US and Island Records in the UK, as well as UMG’s operations in more than 60 countries.
The 27-year-old music producer, singer/songwriter and actor was born in Guangzhou, China, and in October 2017 became the only Chinese artist to reach No.1 on the US iTunes Chart with the single Deserve, featuring Travis Scott, which has racked up more than a billion streams to date.
Sir Lucian Grainge, UMG’s chairman and CEO, said, “Kris is an incredibly talented recording artist, songwriter, actor and entrepreneur. I’m thrilled that Kris is joining the UMG family and honoured that we will have the opportunity to build upon his remarkably successful career.”
Wu said, “It‘s my pleasure to be part of this collaboration with Universal Music Group. I'm enjoying the time to share creative and vision of my music. As a singer-songwriter and producer, the album I’m working on now is elaborately produced and rounded by me and I will keep working to deliver more beautiful works to all my audiences around the world.”
Sunny Chang, chairman and CEO of UMG’s Greater China operations, said, “We are thrilled to partner with Kris and our sister companies to launch new global hit songs from Kris, who is a genuine musical talent. As one of the industry’s top producers and singer-songwriters, Kris has global ambitions and he’s fluent in Mandarin, English and Korean, allowing him to uniquely overcome any language barrier. As China grows into one of the world’s biggest music markets, Universal Music China will continue to develop Kris Wu as well as the very best Chinese talent and position its artists for success both in the local market and across the globe.”
John Janick, chairman and CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M, said: “Kris is an incredible talent. There are literally and figuratively no boundaries when it comes to his musical and cultural reach. We are looking forward to working alongside Kris and his team to bring his vision to global scale.”
Darcus Beese, president of Island Records, said, “Kris is a fantastic talent who represents the incredible opportunity of the modern music business – one without borders, where hit songs can come from anywhere in the world and seamlessly translate into great success whether in Asia, North America or the UK. We’re thrilled to work with Kris and excited about everything that he has in store for fans.”
