Christine McVie is known as a songwriter as well as one of three lead vocalists and the keyboardist for Fleetwood Mac. Christine joined the band in 1970. McVie co-wrote one of the bands popular songs “Little Lies” in 1987 with her then-husband Eddy Quintela. The song reached number 4 in the UK singles chart and remains one of the bands well-known singles.
McVie left the band in 1998 following the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and her win of a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 1998. McVie remained in semi-retirement for 15 years and rejoined the band in October 2014. The singer has announced that she has now sold her 115- song back catalogue to the company Hipgnosis.
Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie Sells 115-Song Catalog to Hipgnosis https://t.co/8XFgoERUvs
— Variety (@Variety) August 9, 2021
Hipgnosis was founded by Nile Rodgers and Merck Mercuriadi in 2018 and has also successfully obtained songwriting rights from the band’s Lindsey Buckingham. McVie follows in the footsteps of the co-founder of the band Mick Fleetwood who secured a deal with BMG and Stevie Nicks who has a deal with Primary Wave. It is reported that the deal with Hipgnosis includes ownership of McVie’s songs, financial interest, and writers shares of her songwriting credits (Inclusive of McVie’s solo work) and worldwide copyright.
McVie expressed her excitement and stated, “I am so excited to belong to the Hipgnosis family, and thrilled that you all regard my songs worthy of merit”.
Mercuriadi’s from Hipgnosis has hailed McVie as being one of the greatest songwriters. Hipgnosis has amassed a market value of £1.4 billion and has also acquired the catalogue rights to other big artists such as Shakira, Michael Buble, Neil Young, Mark Ronson and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Mercuriadis speaking of the deal said “Christine McVie is one of the greatest songwriters of all time having guided Fleetwood Mac to almost 150 million albums sold and making them one of the best-selling bands of all time globally,”
McVie thanked Hipgnosis for their deal and expressed that she wishes to maintain their relationship in any way that she can. In the wake of increasing streaming numbers, the song “The Chain” that McVie co-wrote with Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie and Stevie Nicks has been streamed 1 billion times.
