Power 50 - #16: Mark Holland

You would have noticed Troye Sivan absolutely blowing up throughout 2017. Well, EMI A&R guy Holland is the man responsible for discovering the South African-born Australian ‘slashie’: singer- songwriter/actor/YouTube personality. But Sivan’s just one new artist, could he really change the greater status of the label? Yup. Let’s take a look at how far the Holland and Sivan train travelled this past year.

There was a slew of awards: Breakthrough Songwriter Of The Year (APRA Music awards), Stephen F Kolzak Award (GLAAD Media Awards) and a couple of Project U’s You’ve Done Well Awards (Best Music Video for Heaven, International Song Of The Year for There For You). Ellen DeGeneres announced she was a big fan (Sivan performed on her birthday special and the star tweeted about her love of his latest My My My! single).

Sivan – who has already performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon twice and also The Late Late Show With James Corden – kicked off 2018 with an appearance on an episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Jessica Chastain in January.

And as for Sivan’s YouTube channel, last time we checked he’d attracted 4,856,410 subscribers. He’s also become a fantastic role model for LGBTQ+ youth, encouraging young people to be unapologetic about who they are and celebrate what makes them unique.

Gone are the days of talent scouts wearing themselves out by attending back-to-back gigs in search of the next big thing. Holland’s staff pro le on the EMI website says it all: “Mark raids the net, gig listings, and your personal music collection tirelessly to deliver the undiscovered talent of Australia to the nation’s headphones.”

His achievements are not limited to Sivan, beating out the competition to sign indie pop hopefuls Middle Kids to Australia and New Zealand, as they enjoyed a prosperous 2017, touring the US with Cold War Kids and selling out bigger and bigger venues locally. They join his stacked roster that also includes 360, Meg Mac and Evan Klar.