Sabrina, Chappell, Olivia Dean, Lola Young: Island Records New Dynasty

Bad Bunny was unquestionably the exclamation mark at the 2026 Grammys, and deservedly so. But if there’s a single company that has dominated the buzz at Music’s Biggest Night in the past two years, it’s Island Records, a label that has seen a remarkable resurgence in the four years since Justin Eshak and Imran Majid took the helm as co-CEOs.

Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, with 12 and 8 Grammy nominations respectively in the past two years, led the way, and Carpenter’s eye-grabbing performance at the top of the show — not to mention Roan’s even more eye-grabbing outfit on the carpet — were among the hot topics of the night.

But a reliably consensus answer to the annual question, “Who were the most impressive artists that you didn’t know before the show?,” was two other Island acts: best new artist winner Olivia Dean, who’s had a remarkable slow-build in popularity that’s grown to a fever pitch over the past few weeks (her single “Man I Need” is currently at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 at iHeartRadio); and Lola Young, who has come back strong from a mental-health hiatus and dazzled the Grammy audience with a solo piano performance of her hit “Messy” and charmed virtually everyone with a joyous, off-the-cuff, F-bomb-dropping acceptance speech after she won the best pop solo performance Grammy.

Equally to the point, Island artists — Roan and Dean — have won the best new artist Grammy in two consecutive years, the first label in history to achieve that feat.

At a time when multiple major artists are bringing many of the traditional functions of a record label under their own roofs — everything from ownership to promotion and publicity — Island has emerged as a company that artists want to be on, with a profile and a personality to go with its success. It takes an old-school approach but through a contemporary lens, focusing on career artists with a strong live show and a genuine connection with their audiences rather than virality or streaming numbers. Label heads shoot off words like “authenticity” and “artistry” with a hammer-text ubiquity, but Island is walking the walk.

Of course, it’s all about the artists, the music and the team. But record companies need strong leaders, and Eshak and Majid, who first met in 2004 at then-tiny/now-massive Republic Records when both were in their early twenties, have built thriving culture at Island that is evident not only in the small but robust roster — which also includes rising stars like Gigi Perez, Jessie Reyez and Remi Wolf, established artists like Brittany Howard with Alabama Shakes, Demi Lovato, and Latin titan Carin León, and veterans like the Killers and Bon Jovi — but also in the small team of 37 dedicated Island staffers (with key assistance from parent companies Republic and Universal). The Island team is like a gang: You’ll see five to 15 of them at every show, and usually one or both CEOs, who are 46 (Eshak) and 44 (Majid) and both married with young families.

“We genuinely like to be around each other, and we genuinely like to go to the shows,” Majid says. “But people have to buy into your vision. When we took over, we looked at people within the organization who we felt were stars, and then we recruited others within each department that we felt really fit the culture, and we could put in front of the artists we want to sign.” The company’s department heads are Marshall Nolan (commercial strategy), Shahendra Ohneswere (digital/creative), Matt Palazzolo (analytics), Steve Rowen (international), Lauren Schneider (PR), Jay Schumer (marketing) and Jackie Winkler (A&R).

“We show up, we communicate, and we speak to our artists, even if there’s nothing going on,” Majid concludes. “I mean, I called Chappell before the holiday break, just to check in. It’s important for artists to feel comfortable with the label they chose, and we take that very seriously.”

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It’s a very long way from the state the label was in when the two took charge at the beginning of 2022. Its market share was a daunting 0.67% (and would dip to 0.62% a year later), according to Luminate, but more significantly, its roster had stagnated as well. The company still scored hits with Shawn Mendes and Lovato as well as the Killers and Bon Jovi, and saw a glimmer of hope in former Disney star Carpenter, who Winkler had just signed. But an uneven roster was a sad situation for a legendary label like Island, which was launched in 1964 by Chris Blackwell, one of the greatest record executives of all time, and helped build the careers of everyone from Bob Marley to Steve Winwood, U2 to Amy Winehouse, Grace Jones to Roxy Music.

“When we started, I thought artists were going to look at us like, ‘Why would I sign with that label?,’” Eshak recalls, “But Imran and I said, ‘It’s gonna work, or we’ll die at our desks trying.’ I attribute it to both of us having immigrant parents — I think we both have a bit of that immigrant hustle.”

Eshak, a native of Houston whose mother is Croatian, and proud New Jersey son Majid, whose parents emigrated from Pakistan, have very different personalities that mesh well; the former is more reserved where the latter is outgoing. “Imran is naturally more gregarious, and I grew up as an alpha’s twin brother,” Eshak says, referring to his brother Jonathan, a partner at Mick Management, which handles Maggie Rogers, the Marías, Leon Bridges and others. “So I’m very used to that sort of dynamic. Now, Imran and I will be talking to an artist and I might get a little technical about something, then he’ll come in talk about it from an emotional perspective and land it.”

When the two first met at Republic in 2004, the company had just 23 employees and a small roster. Eshak (who actually started his career working part-time at Island) was a junior A&R rep and Majid, then in his junior year at Rutgers, was an intern.

“I saw somebody who was willing to do whatever it takes,” Eshak recalls. “He was working at Lord & Taylor [department store] and would take the train to the city and show up and say, ‘Whatever you need.’ There’s lots of talk nowadays about people being entitled, but he was like, ‘I’ll do anything.’”

Majid was later promoted to be A&R head Tom Mackay’s assistant, and Eshak says he saw a glimmer of the future executive early on.

“At the time, Republic’s entire A&R department was Tom, me and Imran,” he laughs, “and even though Imran was Tom’s assistant, he closed this massive hip-hop deal. The artist ultimately [wasn’t successful], but it was really competitive, and as an intern he was able to identify the artist, pursue a huge deal and get it closed. A&R people have different skill sets: Some people are good at identifying things but they can’t sign them, or maybe they can identify and sign them but then they can’t A&R the record, or they can’t work it through the rest of the company. It really takes all those four things, and Imran was able to do it at a very early age.”

But at the same time, he was an assistant, an experience on which he places enormous value. “I was the kid in charge of making the monthly CD samplers of our priority songs,” he recalls. “I would burn the CDs and then have to insert the cover cards into the jewel cases, and they would sit on [Republic CEO and co-founder Monte Lipman’s] desk in a row: October, November, December, January, every single month. And if there was a bend in a card, even a slight bend, he would make me do it all over again.

“But he sat me down one day and said, ‘You understand why, right? When you look at these CDs, it shows that you give a shit about the details and presentation.’ It’s not superficial by any means — it’s a level of paying attention to things that most others don’t. And by the way, that was the key to the success of that label. We just cared more.”

After several years at Republic, the pair split when Eshak joined his brother in management, working with the late Justin Townes Earle and other artists, but they reunited five years later at Columbia Records.

Eshak recalls, “I was tired of management for a number of reasons, and [Columbia’s top execs at the time] Ashley Newton and Rob Stringer recruited me. Imran and I were still friends, and we were out for dinner one night and he said, ‘Yo, I’ve got to talk to you about something. Columbia’s been recruiting me.’ And I was like, ‘Me too!’ So Imran actually called Ashley and said, ‘Hey, it’s my understanding you’re also talking to Justin, you should hire him, he’s amazing.’ And Ashley said, ‘I actually want to hire both of you.’”

They joined Columbia in 2013 as vice presidents, but with an unexpected catch.

“For the first time in our lives we’re VPs, and we get to the Sony building at 550 Madison and they say, ‘Oh, by the way, you guys have to share an office,’” Eshak laughs. “The company was going to move [to its current base at Madison Square Park], so they couldn’t do any construction. We were like ‘Really?,’ but it actually worked. We found it was super helpful to be able to look across the room and say, ‘Am I thinking about this or that in the right way?’”

At Columbia, they found success with Hozier, Lil Tjay and others, but they also learned something more significant than that: how to run a company.

“When we walked in, Columbia’s roster had MGMT and Daft Punk and Pharrell and Adele, and that was another skill set that we learned from Rob — how to curate an art gallery,” Majid says. “And when Ron [Perry] came in [as CEO, in 2018], he brought us into the radio promo conversations, budget conversations. We could help him to shape and guide the company, because we were there before he was.”

Both agree that experience, combined with the unexpected bonding from sharing an office for several months, prepared them well for the roles they would find themselves in a few years later.

“I wouldn’t say we were super-obvious choices for the [Island] gig at the time — it’s very odd to hire two A&R people, it’s usually an A&R with a marketing or operations person,” Eshak says. “But this is where I give so much credit to Lucian [Grainge, UMG CEO-chairman]. He saw the dynamic: ‘I get this — it works because it’s the two of them, together.’”

Majid says, “I was so nervous to be an assistant; I was so nervous to be a full-time A&R; I was really nervous to be head of A&R — but I was not nervous to run a label.”

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However, the two did not have an easy start. Their appointment was announced in the spring of 2021, but they had to ride out their Columbia contracts for nine months before starting — during the last stage of the pandemic, no less. “It wasn’t like we could say, ‘I’m off to Chile for nine months!,’” Eshak laughs. “I did a lot of reading.”

Obviously, they also prepared for their new roles. “I think within an hour of Lucian presenting us with the job, we went on YouTube and watched the BBC documentary on the 50th anniversary of Island Records,” Majid says. “And you really got to see the Chris Blackwell way of building a company. He learned very early in his career that one-hit wonders aren’t really sustainable, but artists are.

“We really saw that with Chappell: Justin and I saw her at the Bowery Ballroom on a Thursday night, I think we were the only label there, and it felt like the place was about to explode. And with Sabrina, her [debut album for Island] ‘Emails I Can’t Send’ was well received, but it was the tour that made the difference — it really started moving after [she famously began coming up with different outros at each concert for the song] ‘Nonsense.’ The fans were real, you know?

“We realized that if the artist, the experience and the show are incredible, the rest will catch up,” he concludes. “Obviously Sabrina and Chappell were the first big hits, but Olivia and Lola are very much connected to that philosophy.”

And while only Roan, of those four artists, was signed under their watch — Carpenter was already at the label; Dean and Young were signed by Universal labels in the U.K. — there’s little question that the duo played a crucial role in their success.

“So much of it is timing, so much of it is luck — you never can predict when things are going to align,” Eshak says. “But Olivia, for example, is someone we identified as having this kind of potential a long time ago. I think where we were helpful was in bringing a dose of ambition — ‘We think we can do “Saturday Night Live,” we think we can have a Grammy campaign.’

“Lola wasn’t able to spend as much time here touring,” he continues, “but we were thrilled with her performance on the Grammys: People knew her more for ‘Messy’ than anything else, but when she performed it [solo, showing off the full range of her voice], people were like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s an incredible vocalist.’ And my guess is you’re gonna see a lot more of that from her in the future as she matures. There’s a whole other side to her that we’re going to discover.”

Republic’s Monte Lipman, who is again in an oversight role with the duo, tells Variety, “Something that’s critical to Justin and Imran’s success is they operate with a tremendous sense of independence and autonomy — the entrepreneurial spirit is a key ingredient to everything they do. I couldn’t be any prouder of all their success and their accomplishments.”

As for what’s next, the pair mention upcoming releases from new signings Suki Waterhouse and rapper Sunshine, as well as Gigi Perez, Alabama Shakes, Jessie Reyez, Dora Jar, two solo albums from Killers frontman Brandon Flowers (one of which was recorded in Nashville with Garth Brooks’ session musicians, the other Eshak describes as “Vegas meets Springsteen’s ‘Tunnel of Love’”), country-leaning singers Charley Crockett and Wyatt Flores, and Vietnamese-American star Keshi, who recently sold out Madison Square Garden. Eshak says Carpenter and Roan are “always working on music,” but shakes his head when asked if he’s heard any of it.

“We’re interested in artists who can break through culture,” he says. “Oftentimes that takes a little bit longer — but when it actually happens, the results are so much bigger.”