Fans may be familiar with multi-hyphenate Reneé Rapp from her starring role as Regina George in Mean Girls on Broadway or as Leighton in the HBO Max comedy The Sex Lives of College Girls.
On Friday (June 3), Rapp is stepping into her latest role: music artist. The singer-songwriter has signed a record deal with Interscope Records and a management deal with Adam Mersel, Billboard can exclusively announce.
John Janick, chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M, says it was clear from the first time he and his team met with Rapp that they had to sign her. “She is a force of nature, incredibly talented, driven and is truly a star. We are thrilled to welcome her into the Interscope family.”
Adds Sam Riback, executive vp/co-head of A&R at Interscope: “Reneé is an enormous talent, an artist who we feel will have a very long, successful career.”
To celebrate the deals, Rapp, 22, released her debut single “Tattoos,” a ballad on which she flexes her impressive range and vocal strength while singing of heartbreak and the anxiety it brings about. She says never feeling like she had to apologize for being herself while meeting with Interscope was a huge selling point in signing with the label.
“The second I met John [Janick], Steve [Berman], Sam [Riback], Michelle [An] and the entire Interscope team, I immediately knew they were the perfect family for me,” she says. “They heard me and embraced every bat shit crazy thing I said. I happy cried three times in our first meeting, and was met with pure love and support.”
As Mersel says, “Interscope is all about supporting artists in a way that builds long term, meaningful careers, and Reneé’s debut single only scratches the surface of what she’s capable of musically and as a multi-hyphenate across the entertainment business.” Mersel’s own Immersive Records signed a joint venture with Interscope Geffen A&M last year.
“Tattoos” previews an in-the-works debut album, expected to arrive later this year.
