2023 Women of Live: Cindy Agi

Global Tour Promoter | Live Nation

The trope of going from the mailroom to a corner office is persistent in the stories America tells about itself. These Horatio Alger-type tales are treated as cliche at best and downright mythological most frequently. “Oh that never happens,” we cynics say. 

Except sometimes the stories are true.

Cindy Agi got her start in the mailroom at WME in 2009. By the time she departed for Live Nation in 2021, she’d risen to be the agency’s co-head of hip-hop and the agency’s first Black female partner, having represented Rihanna, Big Sean, Andra Day, Demi Lovato, Jazmine Sullivan, 2 Chainz and many others.

In her role as global tour promoter, Agi connects international artists with Live Nation and books major international tours.

“My biggest initiative right now is to continue doing my part in building out the live entertainment industry within Africa and the African diaspora,” she tells Pollstar. “I want to see more African artists on stages across the globe.”

Her 2022 highlight spoke to that goal.

“Last year, it was really amazing to see Afro Nation in (Accra) Ghana. Afro Nation is the world’s largest Afrobeats music festival and it was all the more special to see it taking place on home soil for a lot of the artists,” she says.

This year, she’s looking forward to Afro Nation’s mainland North America debut at Miami’s LoanDepot Park May 27-28.

Agi’s particular career arc is uncommon, even if the appeal of the story is universal.

She’s a groundbreaker and a ceiling-shatterer holding on to hope that she’s a harbinger of change and diversity in an industry that’s not always been open to change and diversity.

“There will always be more strides to be made for women’s inclusion and racial diversity in the industry. I’m always looking forward to seeing more female executives on this side of the business. I’d also love to see more diversity onstage and behind the scenes, like seeing more female promoters, agents, managers, (and) production managers,” she says.