QUICK HITS: AWAL + Apollo • Songtrust • Marcie Allen Van Mol, Bebe Evans • Music Row’s Rising Women On The Row

Kobalt’s AWAL has signed long-term worldwide recordings deal with Omar Apollo. Apollo already has 45 million streams on Spotify and an extensive touring history. Apollo will perfrom at the AWAL House Showcase at SXSW.

Said AWAL President, North America, Ron Cerrito of the deal: “Omar has everything we look for in artist. He’s built his career from the ground up, has a loyal and quickly-growing fanbase and creatively, is always evolving as an artist, which makes it tough to classify but easy to distinguish him in the industry. Omar’s seminal work on recent projects has given him overarching credibility and amazing momentum to continue on this path of rapid growth. The AWAL team is very proud to be working together and launching him to the next level as an independent artist to take note of.”

• Label and management veteran Anna Bond has been appointed as Director of Business Development for North America by digital rights management company Songtrust. Bond joins with almost two decades in the industry, including roles in artist and label management at FatCat Records and Rough Trade US, where she worked with artists such as Warpaint, Parquet Courts, and the Twilight Sad. She also did stints at the indie distributor Secretly Canadian, and the digital music service eMusic.

• Marcie Allen Van Mol and her aunt, Bebe Evans, were honored at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’es annual Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum in Nashville Feb. 26.  The museum presents the forum every year, recognizing music industry leaders who continue the legacy of artist manager Louise Scruggs.

•  Amy Grant will be the featured speaker at MusicRow‘s Rising Women on the Row breakfast on Tuesday, March 26 at 8:30 a.m. at the Omni Nashville Hotel. She will be interviewed on stage by MusicRow Publisher/Owner Sherod Robertson. 

Previously announced Rising Women on the Row honorees for 2019 are Sandi Spika Borchetta (Big Machine Label Group, Sr. VP Creative), Janine Ebach (Curb | Word Music Publishing, VP), Kelly Janson (Manager, Kelly Janson Management), Meredith Jones (Creative Artists Agency, Agent), Lenore Kinder (Paradigm Talent Agency, Agent), and Jennifer Turnbow (NSAI, Sr. Director of Operations).