Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, has been elevated to superstar status on his current ‘Starboy Legend of the Fall’ tour
“I think some people are nervous about what we are doing. When you are ahead of the curve, sometimes it is misunderstood.”
DAVID LEVY Motivating this remarkable rate of expansion are impulses both modern and vintage. WME-IMG’s global power-broking strategy may be pure 21st century rapacity, but the knack of adapting to changing times in show business was what helped the original William Morris to thrive in the early 1900s, as vaudeville gave way to silent movies, then talkies, then radio and TV, and on and on. “Not to get teary-eyed about it, but that is the history of the company,” says Levy. “It’s a company that is 119 years old and if the other forms of entertainment have come since, of course it predates them. We have an ingrained belief in getting ahead of the curve.” WME’s evolutionary spirit is rife in the music division, where there are departments and more departments, among them international, sponsorship, festivals, electronic music and digital (ie social media-generated) talent – all aiming to find opportunities, and all feeding into the global WME hive mind. For traditionalists looking in, it might all appear faintly terrifying. But the tone within WME is mostly mild and measured. “It’s very difficult to change an established status quo and to be a little bit disruptive,” soothes Geiger. “But when we