We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Pamela Charbit Toledano a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Pamela, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

One of the biggest risks I’ve taken in my life, but also one of the most rewarding, was moving to LA from France with nothing lined up here. I come from a small town near Paris, people don’t move to the other side of the world to purse music there and I never knew anyone who did it. While I was studying for my bachelors, I started a music magazine that became pretty big in my country and I knew I wanted something bigger than what the music industry in France could have offered me. My dream was to be in the mix with artists, writers, producers and creatives in general. I wanted to be a part of the making of a song. I worked two jobs, in addition to my studies and my magazine, in order to save up money to come to America. I originally came in a student visa, which doesn’t really allow you to work in the country for a while, so I had to save before coming in order to provide for myself and I paid every single bill, rent, visa, school tuition by myself in order to make it work. I’ve never been to LA before moving there nor I had any friends, family or industry connection. It felt crazy to to do that at the time and everyone around me thought I was but I knew deep down that it was the right choice to make for my future.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am originally from France and now lives in LA. I work as Director of A&R at Warner Music Group here. My journey in the industry started at school when I was burning CDs for my friends, recommending new songs and hiding in the restroom to listen to Eminem during breaks (I was in a pretty strict school where we couldn’t use phones or Ipods inside/during breaks). At the time I didn’t know there was more to the industry than being a singer and manager. We didn’t have any music business education at the time in Paris, but after I spent a year in law school studying French, British and American laws in hopes to become an entertainment lawyer, I started a music magazine named On The Move, which was a blog at first. It was centered on music discovery and highlighting new upcoming artists. I was very picky with the artists I chose to write about, as I wanted quality over quantity. Slowly but surely, the blog turned into a magazine, I had a great team of writers and photographers and we were writing bigger and better interviews and content. While doing it, I was studying marketing and communication. At some point, even while working with so many people in the music industry in France, I wasn’t fully satisfied. I love writing, I adore editorial but I noticed that my real passion was discovering those new artists, I knew I was good at it as this got proven with the magazine. So many people we wrote about, who were unknown at the time, are now superstars. The French music industry is pretty small and I wanted more. I wanted America. I decided to move there at the end of 2017, first studying at UCLA in Music Business, hoping to get a job after and stay.
I’ve been in my company for over four years I started as a consultant right before Covid-19 hit, I love my job and my artists. My roster is really diverse and I get to work with so many incredible people everyday. The amount of talent some people have will always fascinate me and I am very grateful that I get to do what I love every day with people who trust me. I worked so hard for this and came such a long way from my little city in the north of Paris and I am proud not to have given up. I really think people can accomplish anything if they put their mind and heart to it. So many people would try to discourage you, but this is just a reflection of their own insecurities. Don’t give up!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

As an A&R my goal is to help my artist achieves their vision and guide them creatively. People working in the shadows like managers, A&Rs and other executives don’t really often get their flowers for their hard work but what is really rewarding for me is to see people reacting to a song you worked on or connect with an artist you discovered and say that the artist changed their lives. Music really changed my life in ways I couldn’t explain and so are specific songs that are attached to memories I will cherish forever. Being able to be a part of something that make people feel good or change people’s lives is just incredible. I just love the process of making a song from scratch and studio sessions, to being played in shows and festivals. When I go to concerts and hear people singing the words of a song you worked on for months and months, the feeling is just incredible. Another thing that I love is to be able to connect the dots. I get to work with lots of different types of creatives that I often need to connect and pair together to make magic happen. I would sometimes get messages from collaborators who tell me that they made a best friend out of those connections, or signed a publishing deal through that, or worked with so and so. It makes me so happy and it’s really rewarding for me.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

One of my missions is to help people achieve their dreams, the other one is to leave a legacy while doing so.
I have plans for both. To be continued…

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @pamcharbit