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Jessie J settles with former manager

By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 29 April 2013

Jessie J will reportedly pay her ex-manager a million pounds to end a long-running legal battle relating to his sacking ahead of her deal with Universal Music.

Raymond Stevenson of management firm 141a said that he originally discovered the singer while she was still attending The BRIT School, and helped her develop the style and persona that delivered so big once she signed to the mega-major.

And while he was already out of the picture by the time that deal was struck, he reckoned that his efforts to put the singer in front of industry execs on both sides of the Atlantic played a crucial role in her subsequent successes. He also said that he put £70,000 of his own money on the table to buy J out of her deal with Gut Records when that company went under in 2008. J then moved her management allegiances to Crown Talent before signing with Universal, which released her debut album ‘Who You Are’ in 2011.

The dispute between J and Stevenson has been rumbling on for two years, but both sides in the squabble have now issued a joint statement that says, simply, “the parties have reached an amicable resolution”. Stevenson added: “141a is very proud of Jessie’s achievements – she is a very talented artist”.

The terms of the settlement are not known, but The Sun says Stevenson will get £1 million, said to be about a fifth of the earnings of ‘Who You Are’. The paper quotes a source as saying: “This is an absolutely massive payout. Jessie is signed to the type of huge label who usually just get what they want. Ray is extremely well respected, but he runs a relatively small operation and Jessie’s people thought he would just roll over”.