[5][6] Born Lucian Charles to parents Cecil and Marion Grainge, he grew up in a Jewish family in North London.

[9] Grainge left Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys at the age of 18, and began working as a runner at MPC, a talent scout company in 1978.

[13] As chairman and Chief Executive of Universal, Grainge has also sought to increase the group's international digital expansion via distribution partnerships with technology companies, including Apple, Spotify, Facebook, Tencent, and YouTube.

[30] In 2015, Vivendi announced that Grainge had agreed to extend his tenure as UMG's chairman and CEO until at least 2020, stating he was key to its strategy.

[33] In 1993, Grainge's first wife, Samantha Berg, experienced complications while giving birth to their son Elliot, and fell into a coma from which she never recovered.

[40] In March 2020, Grainge was admitted to intensive care for a month in Los Angeles after contracting COVID-19, subsequently fully recovering.

Universal Music Group and Grainge strongly denied any wrongdoing, describing their involvement in the claims as "offensively false."

Grainge was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to the creative industries.

That same year, UMG was honoured with a SAG-AFTRA American Scene Award, recognising the company's commitment to diversity as exemplified by its "entire catalog and roster of artists.

In October 2016, Variety presented Grainge with its 2016 Empowerment Award for overseeing a "noticeable shift in the demographics of the industry leader’s C-suites" with women occupying some of the highest executive positions at Universal Music Group.

[54] In May 2017, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity announced that Grainge would be honored as the 2017 Media Person of the Year, the first music executive to receive this honour.

[55] Philip Thomas, CEO of Ascential Events, organizers of Cannes Lions, praised his "bold investments in music and technology that helped return the industry to growth, while continuing to foster an environment that puts artists first".

[65] Irving Azoff called him "the great hope for the music business" and Jimmy Iovine commented that Grainge "is working to restore [a] spirit of risk-taking and innovation" by being "willing and open to entrepreneurship and that kind of thing the record industry has gotten depleted of.

"[66] In January 2020, Grainge was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with UMG artists including Beck, Justin Bieber, Birdman, Lewis Capaldi, Tori Kelly, Sam Smith, and Hailee Steinfeld in attendance.