Rhiannon Giddens Signs With WME (EXCLUSIVE)

Grammy- and Pulitzer-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens, one of the leading artists in the roots and Americana realm, has signed with WME for representation in music worldwide, she and the agency announced Tuesday.

The move comes as Giddens prepares to unveil her seventh studio album, “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers,” on Sept. 18 on Nonesuch Records, a release that was first announced and previewed with an interview in Variety.

Giddens described the forthcoming album as a sort of culmination — or “a punctuation point” — to “20 years of me being a roots and Americana artist.” She explained, “I feel so beautiful about so many things, amidst the just horrible nature of what’s going on in the world right now. So it’s a weird position, but I just will just continue to fight all of that with joy and kindness.”

Giddens’ shelf of honors includes the Pulitzer Prize for Music she was awarded in 2023 for her opera, “Omar,” written about Omar ibn Said, a Muslim scholar in Africa who found himself sold into slavery in the 1800s. She has also won the National Humanities Medal, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and two Grammys.

Her collaborative efforts in pop culture have included appearing on the “Sinners” soundtrack — and being in the band that represented that music at the Oscars — and playing banjo on Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

She has been a proponent for expanding awareness of the African American roots of the banjo. Those efforts have included live extravaganzas like her Biscuits & Banjos Festival in her native North Carolina last year, as well as a Hollywood Bowl concert, “Rhiannon Giddens: American Tunes,” in 2025 that featured guests including Steve Martin and Our Native Daughters, her all-female, all-banjo playing supergroup.

This summer, Giddens embarked on a short concert series titled “American Tunes: Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” celebrating the American songbook with guests including Mavis Staples, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Hurray for the Riff Raff. Apart from that, she has continued to do concerts with the Silkroad Ensemble.

Her books range from “Go Back and Fetch It: Recovering Early Black Music in the Americas,” written with Kristina R. Gaddy, to a children’s book.

Giddens recently filmed her first lead role in a motion picture, “An Ode to Mary Joe,” afilm on which she also serves as executive producer and music supervisor. She stars in the movie alongside Ed Helms, Jason Isbell, Steve Earle, Regina Taylor and John Sayles.