Lucy Dickins

Lucy Dickins, the highly respected agent of Adele, Mumford & Sons and Olivia Rodrigo who serves as global head of contemporary music and touring at William Morris Endeavor (WME), has been named this year’s recipient of the U.K.’s Music Industry Trusts Award (MITS). 

Dickins — whose clients also include Stormzy, Rex Orange County, SAULT, Little Simz, James Blake, Jamie T, Hot Chip, Bryan Ferry, Mabel and Laura Marling — will receive the award on Nov. 6 at a gala ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. The event will benefit U.K. charities the BRIT Trust and Nordoff Robbins. 

“I’m truly humbled by this recognition and honoured by the many colleagues and clients I’ve gotten to work with throughout my career and at WME,” Dickins said in a statement.  

MITS Award committee co-chair Toby Leighton-Pope said Dickins’ “impact on the industry is undeniable and her contributions continue to shape the industry landscape.”  

Dickins regularly appears on Billboard’s Women in Music, International Power Players and Power 100 lists. 

Previous recipients of the annual MITS award include Lucian Grainge, Ahmet Ertegun, Simon Cowell, Michael Eavis, Elton John & Bernie Taupin, Annie Lennox, Roger Daltrey, Rob Stringer, Emma Banks, broadcaster and DJ Pete Tong and Dickins’ uncle, legendary British music executive Rob Dickins. Last year’s MITS award was given to entrepreneur Jamal Edwards, who had died earlier in the year at the age of 31. It was the first posthumous award given in the event’s 32-year history.   

Dickins relocated to WME’s Beverly Hills office from London last year after being promoted to global head of contemporary music and touring at the agency, making her the first woman to lead a talent agency’s music division. Her responsibilities include overseeing all aspects of the agency’s contemporary live business.

Last year, Adele played two sold-out shows at London’s BST Hyde Park Festival in front of 130,000 fans. That was followed by her delayed Las Vegas residency, which began in November and has been extended to wrap this fall. In total, WME’s music division says it booked more than 40,000 live dates in 2022.  

Prior to joining WME in 2019 — initially as head of its U.K. music division — Dickins spent more than 20 years at International Booking Talent (ITB), the London-based agency that was founded in 1978 by her father Barry Dickins and his business partner Rod MacSween.  

Dickins’ lineage in the music business goes back to her grandfather, Percy Dickins, who created the weekly magazine New Music Express (NME). Her uncle Rob Dickins served as chairman of Warner Music UK for 15 years, while her brother, Jonathan Dickins, is chief executive of September Management, which counts Adele, Glass Animals and producer Rick Rubin among its clients.