Even pop stars have their heroes. Katseye member Lara Raj proved it this week when she met Bollywood playback legend Shreya Ghoshal at the Recording Academy's Gold Music Alliance panel, Shaping the Sound: South Asian Music, Culture & Industry.
Lara, 20, joined Shreya at the Recording Academy's headquarters for a conversation about South Asian music, culture and the industry. The Gold Music Alliance is the Recording Academy's initiative, launched with Gold House and Pacific Bridge Arts Foundation, to support pan-Asian creators and open new pathways for emerging talent.
The Connecticut-born singer, born Lara Rajagopalan, rose to fame as part of Katseye, the global girl group formed through HYBE and Geffen Records' 2023 reality series Dream Academy. She has spoken before about how much it means for young brown girls to see themselves represented on a big stage.
Sharing the panel with Shreya, one of India's most celebrated and most awarded singers, clearly meant a great deal.
The real highlight came after the cameras stopped. Lara shared a photo on her Instagram Story from a backstage hallway that captured her reaction to meeting Shreya Ghoshal. Lara is bent over with her face in her hands, visibly overwhelmed, while Shreya leans in, hands on her head.
Lara kept the caption short. She said she got to speak on "a beautiful panel" about South Asians in music with "the bollywood queen" Shreya, and signed off with an all-caps "IM HONORED."
Shreya Ghoshal has spent more than two decades as one of the defining voices in Indian cinema, singing across many languages. Lara represents a newer generation of South Asian artists breaking through in global pop.
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