Chrysalis Songs Benelux is led by Lucas van Slegtenhorst (Pictured/age 38) who gained experience in the Dutch music industry starting as a radio plugger for BMG Records in 1994, scoring radio hits with: “Mmm mmm mmm mmm” Crash Test Dummies and “Welcome to tomorrow” by SNAP. Two years later he made the switch to Roadrunner records/Edel in which he transformed himself from a product manager for EDEL to A&R manager for Roadrunner records signing JUNKIE XL (who later scored a worldwide hit with his remix for “A little less conversation” used in a worldwide NIKE advert.) Then Warner Chappell Music Publishing approached him for a job as creative manager which he took and where he signed rock band Within Temptation who have sold over a million albums worldwide and perform on all big festivals throughout the world. Since 2002 van Slegtenhorst is working for the Chrysalis Songs Benelux office and he is responsible for several successful local signings (MOKE, KRAAK & SMAAK, YONDERBOI, KYTEMAN, EMMA HEWITT) and the administration and exploitation of the international Chrysalis catalogue which resulted in many great synchronisations from out of Amsterdam (including a worldwide Heineken advert for MOLOKO and a European campaign for Heinz using BLONDIE.)    

The roots of Chrysalis as a worldwide ompany stretch back to a tiny flat in West London in 1967, when former university social secretaries, Chris Wright, then 22, and Terry Ellis, 23, linked their flair for managing and booking bands to form the Ellis Wright Agency. The duo quickly established themselves as significant entertainment providers for British colleges and swiftly transferred to an office in London’s West End. Among the duo’s early management clients were blues rockers Ten Years After, whom Wright had snapped up in Manchester when they were known as the Jaybirds, and a Blackpool soul band that evolved into Jethro Tull. After a couple of experiences trying to release Ten Years After and Jethro Tull records via other companies, Wright and Ellis began thinking in terms of their own label. In 1968, they signed a licensing deal with Island Records with the proviso that, should Wright and Ellis’ acts log an agreed number of hits, then the pair would be awarded a label in their own right. The appropriate tally was logged within a year, and a new independent record company – Chrysalis, an amalgam of Wright’s first name and Ellis’ last – was born. In the early seventies, with hit albums from Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, Procul Harum and others, Chrysalis established itself as a highly individual folksy/bluesy/rock label and as the seventies continued Chrysalis responded to the arrival of punk and new-wave by signing Generation X and, out of New York, Blondie, who had phenomenal success with hits such as “Atomic” and “Call Me” After buying out Terry Ellis in 1985, Chris Wright sold the Chrysalis Records label to EMI in 1991. He did, however, make the very wise decision of retaining the music publishing business Chrysalis Music Ltd.  From successes with acts such as original and diverse as Aphex Twin, Portishead and David Gray over the last decade to cutting edge new signings like the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, The White Lies, The Gossip, Rumer and Gnarls Barkley, Chrysalis is proving that to succeed you need to be able to move quickly. As well as recording artists we also have a large roster of writers who’ve had major hits with James Morrison, Kylie Minogue, The Sugababes and last but not least ADELE, to name a few.

Chrysalis Songs Benelux is joint-venture with Cloud 9 Music Holland. Cloud 9 is a music publisher and record label. As a publisher they represent many writers and producers including no.1 DJ Armin van Buuren and as a record label they have the biggest market share on compilations of all the independents in Holland. Currently they are releasing the singles and albums for Voice Of Holland finalists Shary An and Leonie Meijer (produced by Daniel Gibson known from his work with Within Temptation.)

please click the ‘What we do’ button at the left top of this page to get more info about our activities

To view the websites of the various Chrysalis offices please go to: www.chrysalis-music.com