UNIVERSAL MUSIC JAPAN HIRED SPOTIFY JAPAN PRESIDENT ICHIRO TAMAKI TO LEAD DIGITAL STRATEGY. THE MECHANICAL LICENSING COLLECTIVE NAMED KRIS AHREND CEO.
I
N JANUARY 2014, SELENA GOMEZ
was in Park City, Utah, to promote her
role in Rudderless at the Sundance Film
Festival. At the time, she was looking for
the next step in her career, after growing up as an
actress on a series of Disney shows and releasing
four albums on Hollywood Records. Through her
co-star Billy Crudup, she met Aleen Keshishian, one
of Hollywood’s most formidable talent managers,
whose star clients include Jennifer Aniston, Mark
Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow and Paul Rudd. Three
months later, Keshishian signed Gomez and within a
year helped broker a new record deal with Inter-
scope and shepherd the release of Revival, which
debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and produced
Gomez’s first three Mainstream Top 40 No. 1s.
After a decade at Brillstein Entertainment
Partners, Keshishian launched Lighthouse Manage-
ment & Media in 2016. The power broker has come
to understand the nuances of working with artists,
whom she treats like family. “Being a representative
for artists, whether you’re their manager or agent
or producing partner, you really put their needs,
desires, goals and aspirations first,” she says.
With Lighthouse, Keshishian has aimed to “con-
nect the bridge” between music, film, TV, fashion,
branding, literary, art, digital, investments, band and
music consulting, and philanthropy. “We work in all
of those verticals, and we didn’t feel like there was
a company that was doing that,” she says. That has
made her an ideal partner for Gomez, who in addi-
tion to her music career is a producer on Netflix’s
13 Reasons Why and involved with campaigns for
UNICEF, Coca-Cola, Louis Vuitton, Pantene, Coach
and others. And in Hollywood, Keshishian leveraged
her own casting clout to elevate Gomez’s film/TV
pedigree, aligning her with screen legends — Robert
Downey Jr. (Dolittle), Bill Murray (The Dead Don’t
Die) and Rudd (The Fundamentals of Caring) — and
veteran directors like Woody Allen (A Rainy Day in
New York) and Adam McKay (The Big Short).
Lighthouse was also enlisted by Billie Eilish co-
managers Danny Rukasin and Brandon Goodman to
broker the sale of Eilish’s forthcoming documentary
to Apple TV+, alongside Submarine’s Josh Braun,
for $26 million, says Keshishian — the largest ever
sale of a music documentary in TV history. (The
music-doc business is in Keshishian’s blood: Her
brother, Alek Keshishian, directed Madonna’s
iconic 1991 Truth or Dare film.)
Meanwhile, Gomez is enjoying a career peak,
landing her first Hot 100 No. 1 with “Lose You to
Love Me” in December, while her first album in
five years, Rare, just debuted on the Billboard 200.
“My parents are immigrants,” says Keshishian, photographed Jan. 9 at Lighthouse Management & Media in Los Angeles. “There was
always this feeling of taking risks and following your passions, putting in extra hours and doing things that most people wouldn’t.”
FROM THE DESK OF
ALEEN KESHISHIAN
Founder/Owner/CEO,
Lighthouse Management & Media
BY NICK WILLIAMS
PHOTOGRAPHED BY MICHELE THOMAS
42 BILLBOARD • JANUARY 25, 2020
HAIRBY^PRISCILLA^VIVANCO