For Immediate Release, July 20, 2022: Bright young star Hailey Benedict has signed with GPS Artist Management, a partnership between Sakamoto Agency in Canada and GrassRoots Promotion in Nashville. Manager Tera Lee Flaman will be handling day to day, with assistance from GrassRoots’ Nancy Johnson. GrassRoots Promotion’s Nancy Tunick and Sakamoto Agency’s Paul Biro are also actively involved in developing and facilitating the career strategy for this versatile and exciting new talent.
In 2021 a partnership between Sakamoto Agency and GrassRoots Promotion led to the creation of radio & digital promotions company GPS Promotion, also headed up by Flaman. GPS Artist Management extends this partnership to a new level, with an artist whose success with GPS Promotion contributed greatly to her explosion onto the Canadian country music scene. Hailey Benedict’s “Wanted You To” reached #25 on the Mediabase country charts, and earned her the achievement of highest-charting independent CANCON single by a female artist in 2021.
Currently working on writing and recording new music during trips to Nashville, Hailey also recently signed to Sakamoto Agency for live bookings and is playing shows across Canada this summer. She is nominated for both Rising Star and Interactive Artist of the Year at the CCMA Awards, and Country Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards both taking place in September. Her modest streaming catalogue recently crested 1.5 million streams across platforms.
Of her management signing, Hailey says “I am so very honoured to partner with GPS Artist Management!! As an artist who has always wanted to pursue both Canadian and U.S markets, this deal is even more exciting as it will be focused and based in both countries. Tera Lee Flaman and Nancy Tunick are two inspiring, hard-working and driven women. I am so grateful to get the opportunity to work alongside them and the entire GPS Artist management team to support and elevate my career!”
Manager Tera Lee Flaman is excited to help grow Hailey’s career, she says “We have loved working with Hailey Benedict over the past year on her indie smash ‘Wanted You To’. She is an extremely special young woman with such raw talent, a strong work ethic, and an undeniable likeability. Hailey is beyond a triple threat as an artist and has been captivating audiences for years. She leaves a little sparkle wherever she goes and inspires anyone in her path. We are so excited to be a part of her team as she continues to chase her dreams.”
Manager Nancy Tunick is also excited to work with Hailey, saying, “Hailey is that rare, true artist who brings to her audience, a genuine connection to her music. It is this connection that ignited our team when first meeting Hailey and watching her perform. It is her exceptional ability to sing, write and play as well as her shining personality that continues to inspire us as we help to develop her career internationally.”
GPS Artist Management Partner, and Sakamoto’s President & Operating Partner Paul Biro is excited to grow the GPS brand, saying “We are so excited to further expand our partnership with GrassRoots Promotion as we launch GPS Artist Management. It has been part of my vision for a long time to have a US partner in management so we can more effectively cover responsibilities in both US and Canada, to better serve the artist. We have great confidence in Nancy Tunick and her team, and with Tera Lee Flaman and the rest of our team in Canada, we are confident that we can collectively create and maximize opportunities for Hailey. Hailey Benedict is an amazing young artist and we are excited to bring all our influence, relationships, and experience to help her meet her career aspirations.”
For more info on Hailey Benedict please visit www.haileybendictmusic.com.
Press requests may be directed to Joelle May at [email protected].
MORE ABOUT HAILEY BENEDICT:
Recognized as a five-time North America Country Music Association International Youth winner, including Most Promising Female Entertainer & Songwriter, Hailey Benedict continues to make her mark as a rising talent in the Canadian music industry. She is the first artist to simultaneously secure the iHeart Radio Future Star and Stingray Trending track features, which catapulted her single, “Wanted You To”, to hit #25 on the Mediabase country charts and become the highest-charting independent CANCON single of 2021. Hailey went on to win both Horizon Female Artist of the Year and Horizon Single of the Year at the Country Music Alberta Awards in March 2022, and was named the Edmonton Music Awards Rising Star and ACMA Horizon Youth Artist of the Year in 2019. She’s garnered attention online with over 200K followers on Tik Tok, and recently secured a song cut for a feature film “Lanterns Lane”.
Hailey has had the privilege of opening for several internationally recognized country music artists such as Jason Aldean, Blue Rodeo, Lindsay Ell, Doc Walker and Gord Bamford. Most notably, Hailey captured international attention from her impromptu performance for country superstar Keith Urban and 20,000 fans on opening night at Roger’s Place. Urban shared the video and his appreciation on his social media accounts. Hailey’s diverse music talents have also seen her perform at the Alberta Country Music Awards, Big Valley Jamboree and K-Days mainstages, Canadian Finals Rodeo, and both the Bluebird Cafe & Tootsies in Nashville. A strong advocate for mental health and anti-bullying, Hailey supports charitable foundations such as The Stollery Children’s Hospital, CASA Foundation, Santa’s Anonymous, Jacks.Org, and the CIBC Run for the Cure. As a result of her achievements and philanthropic efforts in the community, Hailey was also honoured as one of the youngest ever Global Woman of Vision award recipients.
MORE ABOUT GPS ARTIST MANAGEMENT:
GPS Artist Management is a management partnership between award-winning companies Sakamoto Agency in Canada, and GrassRoots Promotion out of Nashville. Managers at GPS Artist Management include GPS Promotion’s Tera Lee Flaman, GrassRoots’ Nancy Tunick and Nancy Johnson, Sakamoto Agency’s Kate Howse, and Sakamoto Music’s Joelle May, currently working with The Abrams and Hailey Benedict, with more artists to be added to the management roster.
Sakamoto Agency is an award-winning booking, talent buying, and event programming agency in Canada. With over 100 years of combined music industry experience among staff, Sakamoto Agency is an industry leader, named CCMA Booking Agency of the Year in 2020 and 2021. Along with 25+ years of various nominations, VP and Operating Partner Paul Biro has also won CCMA’s Ron Sakamoto Talent Buyer or Promoter of the Year three times, from 2019 to 2021.Sakamoto Agency also launched subsidiary record label Sakamoto Music, in 2022, distributed by Warner Music Canada, and has received award nominations from the Canadian Live Music Industry Awards, and Western Canadian Music Awards for their 100 Homes: Concert Connections project, which provided over 300 personalized recorded concerts to care homes across Canada in 2020 and early 2021.
GrassRoots Promotion is an industry-leading radio promotion, music marketing and management company, working with both major labels and leading independent country music artists, celebrating 25 years in business in 2021. GrassRoots Promotion manages Aaron Goodvin’s career internationally along with their shared GPS roster and has been named Independent Promotion Company of the Year by Country Radio Broadcasters/Country Aircheck at CRS five times (every year eligible) from 2013-2021.