KATSEYE: how HYBE and Geffen’s new girl group are merging K-pop and western pop to become a truly global act
“A few months before I auditioned, I suddenly became a big K-pop fan,” Sophia, a 21-year-old from the Philippines, smiles. It was BTS’ ‘Butter’ that first got her hooked, the strutting disco-pop song opening up a rabbit hole for her into the kaleidoscopic scene. “I was learning all these things and absorbing all this knowledge [about it].” It turned out to be a life-changing learning curve for the music fan.
After subscribing to HYBE’s – the label behind BTS – YouTube channel, Sophia saw a video announcing something huge. The agency was teaming up with Universal Music Group’s Geffen Records to create an “unprecedented” new girl group, with wannabe artists around the world encouraged to apply. Only 20 candidates were chosen from over 120,000 submissions to enter The Debut: Dream Academy, a new take on the survival shows that have spawned many a K-pop group.
Given K-pop’s explosion internationally and the incredible fan power behind it, it was really only a matter of time before the tricks of the Industry were deployed by Western labels on their own artists. But HYBE and Geffen are going one further than simply lifting the K-pop blueprint and instead uniting to create a global girl group using knowledge, techniques and experience from both the Korean and American ways.
Throughout the course of the programme – and now as KATSEYE move forward into the world – the girls worked with Humberto Leon, co-founder of fashion brand Opening Ceremony and now the creative director of HxG (the name for HYBE and Geffen’s joint partnership). “I’ve been a huge fan of girl groups through the years and I’ve also felt the absence of a new one [in the west],” Leon tells NME. “When I was told [about The Dream Academy], I thought it was probably the best way a new girl group could be formed.”
In November 2023, Sophia and five other Dream Academy contestants – Lara, Daniela, Manon, Megan and Yoonchae – were chosen as the six winners of the show in a live finale. They’re now preparing to take their first step together as KATESYE and will officially debut sometime this year. As in K-pop, the group’s name comes loaded with meaning. “Cat’s eye is a crystal and every single one is different,” explains 17-year-old Megan. “It really represents your femininity, being confident and tapping into who you are. I feel like that’s so us.”
Long before the young women were introduced to the world on Dream Academy, they were all brought to LA to undergo pop star training – Korean style. Those who were still minors had to fit schooling in around rehearsals to comply with minor labour laws, otherwise their days were jam-packed with singing and dancing. “We would have rehearsal at 8am and that would be for three or four hours,” Megan says of a typical day. “Then we’d have lunch and have another three hours of rehearsal. It was just a heavy training day.”
The intense workload might have taken some getting used to – except for 16-year-old Korean member Yoonchae, who was previously a trainee at CJ E&M – but the members of KATSEYE have felt the benefit of that year since. “We all came into this system with our strengths and weaknesses,” reasons Sophia, but they could look to the other hopefuls around them for help and inspiration. “I came in as a vocalist and my dance experience wasn’t as much as Dani, Megan or Yoonchae – every time I would see them in rehearsals or take a class with them, I would learn so much just being in the room with them.”
Grinding in the practice room day in, day out also made it clear to the girls that they were on the right path, regardless of where they would finish in the competition. “I really figured out that this is really what I want to do,” 21-year-old Manon shares. “Even through the hard times in the programme, it was always super worth it. I had so much fun – and still do – and was really set in my decision of becoming an artist.”
Leon will help develop KATSEYE’s artistry on the creative side, taking the K-pop scene’s lead and playing a much more hands-on role than creative directors in the Western music industry might. “Whether it’s if the girls can paint their nails this colour or what’s the music video for their launch, I’m involved in every single aspect of it,” he explains. “We’re working very closely together and really trying to hone in on each of their individual styles and cultures and trying to embrace those things while unifying them as a group.”
Unlike Sophia and Yoonchae, the rest of the group weren’t big K-pop fans before they auditioned for Dream Academy. Since being accepted, their bandmates have been teaching them about the scene – something they’ve been taking new inspiration from as they move towards their debut. “K-pop feels like Western music, but just elevated because of how perfect everything is, how fine-tuned the dancing is,” muses 18-year-old Lara. “I feel like that is really gonna be taken into KATSEYE as we merge the Western and K-pop elements. It’s going to be very grand and elevated – and something non-K-pop fans can enjoy.”
“We’ve been training for two years and doing hardcore dancing and training our vocals, and we’re just gonna mash those two together and make something different and something new,” 19-year-old Daniela smiles. “It’s going to be really, really cool.”
During the mission stage of Dream Academy, KATSEYE and their fellow competitors got the chance to see the other side of their inspiration IRL when they headed to Seoul to train. There, they got to rehearse at HYBE, met LE SSERAFIM and had their own fan meeting. “I feel like we all got to take away so much from being there and actually being in the facilities over there with other trainees,” Manon says.
“Seeing the dedication and determination from the peers around us was really, really cool to see,” Megan agrees. For Yoonchae, the trip was particularly special. “Going back to my home country, it was very meaningful to be with these girls and train together,” she says softly. “But I do wish we had more time – I wanted to take them around my favourite spots in Korea!”
Although the Dream Academy process and the resulting group have and continue to take inspiration from the Korean music scene, for Leon, there was also an element of going against the K-pop grain. “I used it as something to push against and say, ‘Okay, well, I see what they’re doing, but how do we make it different? How do we bring something new and fresh from that perspective?’ I want KATSEYE to be part of the history and the future of Western culture – but through the eyes of a global sensibility. We don’t need to reference anything; we can create something from scratch.”
The key to KATSEYE isn’t just K-pop, then, but the melting pot of backgrounds and cultures that each member brings to the group. Alongside Filipina Sophia and Korean Yoonchae, Daniela and Megan were both born in the US but have Venezuelan-Cuban and Singaporean-Chinese heritage, respectively. Manon, too, is Swiss-Ghanaian, while Lara is Indian-American. “We’re all representing a different culture and we’re all very, very passionate about representing where we’re from,” the latter explains. “It’s just so important to tie in elements of our culture into our music, the fashion, the styling – all of it.”
Although the members of the new girl group are young and are just getting a taste of being in the spotlight, they’re aware of the responsibilities they hold as representatives of where they come from. “Sophia is the first Filipino person under HYBE, Manon is the first Black girl, I’m the first brown girl,” Lara continues. “It’s never been done before and we’re very underrepresented so I think there are a lot of eyes on us. It’s so important that we constantly talk about our culture and make it very evident that we’re proud of where we’re from. We want young people growing up to be as proud as we are to be from where we are.”
“We want to let them know that anything is possible – it doesn’t have to be a girl group,” Sophia adds. “If you want to be an astronaut, you just go for it. Doing this confidently is what I feel is gonna make us as inspirational as we can be as artists.”
Being a part of a global girl group means more to KATSEYE than its members hailing from different parts of the planet. It also means sisterhood and the power of music. “It shows that no matter where you come from, music is a way to connect,” Sophia says. “I love K-pop and I barely understand Korean, but it just makes you feel a certain way. No matter where you’re from, anybody can enjoy it and anybody can feel something from it.”
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Rhian Daly
NME
