Rhea Raj just got the first Republic × HYBE joint deal
The older Raj sister signed the first joint Republic × HYBE America deal, with 5 Junction Management in the room. Lara is already at HYBE × Geffen. Rhea spent a decade getting there on her own terms.
Mina Park
Rhea Raj named her dream labels out loud. Republic. HYBE. She got the joint venture.
On September 15, the 26-year-old Indian American pop artist signed the first Republic Records × HYBE America deal, with Anjula Acharia’s 5 Junction Management in the alliance. First single under the paperwork is due in the coming months. Lollapalooza India is already on the 2027 calendar.
Our read: Lara Raj reached the HYBE America roof through KATSEYE. Rhea just walked in through a different door, after ten years of building the room herself.
Dallas living room to Clive Davis
Rhea Sri Rajagopalan was born April 5, 2000, in Stamford, Connecticut, and grew up in Dallas. Her mother, Kavita, is Tamil Indian; her father, Sri, is Sri Lankan Hill Country Tamil. Kavita taught Bharatanatyam out of the house. Rhea started dancing at two.
At 15 she cleared the American Idol Season 15 audition stage, then got cut in Hollywood Week. After high school she founded Misschief Records, studied at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute, and ended up in rooms with songwriter Jacob Kasher Hindlin, later signing to his Livelihood company as a writer and producer.
The climb was slow on purpose. Early singles found TikTok. Spotify x Gold House named her Artist of the Year in 2023. Hunter landed in 2024. Commotion followed in 2025 with “Haute Couture” (with Aliyah’s Interlude), a first headline tour, and a Lollapalooza Chicago set. She also took a songwriting credit on Maroon 5 and Lisa’s “Priceless.”
Acharia had answered a cold email from Rhea’s mother a decade earlier, then watched the fandom grow until a packed New York show made the bet obvious. In January 2026, Rhea became 5 Junction Management’s first client. When Acharia asked for a dream label home, Rhea said Republic and HYBE. Dinner with Monte Lipman followed. Isaac Lee, HYBE America’s CEO, called the joint venture a no-brainer.
Two sisters, two HYBE doors
Lara, 20, is already inside HYBE × Geffen with KATSEYE. Wild opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last month. Rhea’s lane is Republic × HYBE: different partners, same American umbrella.
They call each other best friends and trade demos constantly. Lara’s path ran through The Debut: Dream Academy and a global girl-group machine. Rhea’s ran through Clive Davis classrooms, bedroom releases, costume sketches she designs herself, and a manager who has spent years trying to put South Asian artists on North American top 40.
HYBE’s Mumbai unit is also running India girl-group auditions, with a Final Call window open into late October. Lee has said the company is seriously investing in India. Rhea sits in that bet as a diaspora act who already writes, produces, and keeps Bharatanatyam in the choreography, including a dance break her mother set for “Hunter” on the Commotion tour.
Our take
The labels will sell the next single as a launch. Keep the quieter receipts under it: the Idol cut that forced a longer route, the Misschief years, the manager who came back ten years after that first email, then the artist who asked for Republic and HYBE by name.
Watch whether that first cut keeps the South Asian sample language already teased for the rollout, or sands it into generic turbo-pop for the broadest playlist. Our verdict: the machine caught up to a career that was already moving. The Raj sisters now share a corporate skyline. Rhea still has to make the record sound like the world she has been designing herself.
