COOL HEADS PREVAIL

RCA joint venture Keep Cool is celebrating no fewer than four Grammy nominations for rookie artist Lucky Daye. It’s a fitting capper to a big year for co-founders Tunji Balogun, Courtney Stewart and Jared Sherman.

Right Hand Music Group CEO Stewart balances multiple spinning plates, managing superstar act Khalid in addition to serving as part of the Keep Cool core. A&R hitter Balogun and marketing wiz Sherman maintain their roles at RCA—where Balogun works such key acts as Khalid, Bryson Tiller, SZA and SiR—while developing Keep Cool into a tastemaker’s hub and a preferred destination for artists.

Star-in-the-making Normani was the first artist inked to the JV label. Sharing vocals with Khalid, she saw out 2018 with one of the biggest tracks of the year, the giant duet “Love Lies.” In 2019 she scored another hit with the smash Sam Smith collab “Dancing With A Stranger.”

The accolades are likely to keep pouring in for the collective in 2020. Stay tuned.

Balogun, Stewart and Sherman learn that there's a fine line between "Cool" and "arctic" when they visit the frigid offices of HITS and pose with anything-but-chill denizens Simon Glickman, Lenny Beer and Todd Hensley.