Swedish House Mafia Signs With The Weeknd Manager Sal Slaiby

EDM supergroup Swedish House Mafia has hired Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, The Weeknd’s manager, to manage the group as it continues its comeback.

Slaiby, founder and CEO of SALXCO and XO Records, took over for Patriot Management’s Ron Laffitte, with whom the band parted ways late last year.

Recently the EDM trio also amicably broke off ties with its label, Columbia Records, after signing a deal in February 2019 that sources say was worth more than $3 million.

Slaiby is the latest in a string of managers Swedish House Mafia has worked with amid its recent comeback attempt. In late 2018, Laffitte took over for longtime on-again-off-again manager Amy Thomson, the architect of the band’s rise to superstardom in the early 2010s, when it released a series of era and genre-defining tracks including “Don’t You Worry Child,” “Save The World” and “Greyhound.”

Thomson parted ways with the group in mid-2018, shortly after Swedish House Mafia stunned the dance music world with a surprise performance at Ultra Music Festival 2018 in Miami — five years after the trio of Steve Angello, Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso split up. (Thomson has since joined Hipgnosis Songs as its chief catalog officer.)

Along with The Weeknd, Slaiby has a roster of artists, producer and songwriters that include Doja Cat, French Montana, Bebe Rexha and Ty Dolla $ign. Variety named Slaiby manager of the year in 2020 and Billboard featured him on the cover of its Change Agents issue in January.

The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” finished 2020 as the top song on the Billboard Hot 100. It has spent a record 56 weeks in Hot 100’s top 10. The Weeknd’s tours have grossed $98.5 million, selling 1.24 million tickets, according to Billboard Boxscore, with his 2017 Starboy: Legend of the Fall tour averaging $1.14 million per night, up 5% from 2015’s The Madness Fall Tour.

Swedish House Mafia split up in 2013 following its 53-date One Last Tour, then reunited for a show-closing performance at Ultra Music Festival 2018, where the group teased a full-on reunion with member Axwell announcing to the crowd, “It’s Swedish House Mafia for life this time.”

In the three years since, the group has played about a dozen dates in Europe, Asia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia, with these shows containing new, as-yet-unreleased music.

Swedish House Mafia’s song catalog has 449.9 million on-demand streams in the U.S., according to MRC Data. While it has yet to release a full studio album, all six of the group’s singles have charted in the top 10 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. “Don’t You Worry Child,” the trio’s biggest crossover hit, reached No. 2 on the Pop Airplay chart in 2012 and No. 6 on the Hot 100 that same year.