Singer Jessie J is to hand over £1million to the manager who discovered her to bring a two-year legal battle to an end. Raymond Stevenson discovered the star when she was a 15-year-old student at the Brit School and says he helped to guide her through a ‘self discovery’ when she was a teenager. Now The Voice judge must hand over 20 per cent of her £5million earnings from her triple-platinum selling debut album Who You Are to Stevenson.
He landed a record deal for the Essex-born singer, who has had two number one singles, when she was 19 and paid £70,000 of his own money to get her out of it when the label went bust.
Mr Stevenson, who owns management company 141a, previously said: ‘I don’t think there is a dispute about our involvement and what we did for her over five years, and 20 per cent represents that.’
Stevenson helped Jessie – real name Jessica Cornish – get signed by a major record label in the US after British music bosses turned her down. She was then signed by Crown management, who also manage Union J, who got her a deal with Universal Records. A music industry source told The Sun: ‘Jessie is signed to the type of huge label who usually just push people around and 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.’
A joint statement from Jessie J and 141a to the newspaper said: ‘The parties have reached an amicable solution.’ Stevenson also said: ‘141a is very proud of Jessie’s achievements – she is a very talented artist.’
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