“Destiny’s child”. “The Spice Girls”. “TLC”. “Fifth Harmony”. “Little Mix”. “Blackpink”. And now, “Katseye”. Girl groups have existed for many decades, and we have seen the rise and fall of some of the greatest girl groups in history. The most popular groups in the west, “Fifth Harmony” and “Little Mix”, have lost a member and eventually stopped releasing music as a group. “Blackpink” became a worldwide sensation in the late 2010’s and early 2020’s but has lacked consistency with releasing new music. Since last year, the group has been focusing on their solo acting and music endeavors. While they did release one song as a group in July and have embarked on a world tour, many fans believe that this may be the last time we see this group together for a while as the members seem more passionate about their solo work.
Fast-forward to 2023, “Hybe”, a popular K-POP company that created groups like “BTS”, announced a collaboration with Geffen, an American label group. In this collaboration, Hybe and Geffen hoped to create a “Global Girl Group”, taking talented girls across the globe and training them under the K-POP trainee system. The group would perform like a K-
POP group, meaning having complex dance routines while singing, but would promote their music all around the world. While they would be based in LA and mainly sing in English, it was hoped that the diverse backgrounds of the girls would have influence in the music they released.
In late 2023, performances of the trainees started to drop under the YouTube series “Dream Academy”. Fans could vote for members they wanted in the group, and each week girls would be eliminated. The final 10 girls competed in a live finale on November 17, 2023. By the end of the finale, 6 girls were selected to be a part of the first ever “Global Girl Group”, “Katseye”.
The group released the first song “Debut” in June 2024, but their first impactful song was with “Touch”, a catchy soft pop song. Most notably the song “Gnarly”, which came out in April 2025, made waves due to the experimental sound and lyrics. This song has over 335 million listens on Spotify and 120 million views on YouTube. Their first large music performance was in August at the iconic “Lollapalooza” festival in Chicago. They amassed a record breaking 85,000 viewers, which is the highest number of viewers for an early daytime set. Most recently the group grew even more popular after the release of their “Better in Denim” campaign with Gap. This commercial shows the girls dancing in Gap denim to the song “Milkshake” by Kelis, and seemed to be a response to Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle jean ad that was released a month earlier. The “Milkshake” dance became trending all over social media.
They will be starting their “Beautiful Chaos” tour starting on November 15. Overwhelming demand led to the first 13 shows being sold out immediately when tickets dropped, and an additional 3 shows were added. Katseye will be heading to Boston at the MGM Fenway venue on November 19th. It was also recently announced that Katseye has been nominated for 2 Grammys. They were nominated for Best New Artist, and will be going against artists
such as Addison Rae, Sombr and Olivia Dean, as well as Best Pop Duo/Group performance for their hit song “Gabriela”, which has Latin influences. After only having released music for a little bit over a year, Katseye has absolutely entered as a breath of fresh air in the music world across the globe, and here is a brief overview of the group’s members.
Sophia
The leader of the group, Sophia, was a frontrunner throughout the entire trainee and survival show process. Sophia was born in the United States but raised in the Philippines. She was born in 2002 and is currently 22 years old. Sophia stands out for her princess like vocals and her leadership skills. She finished the show in 1st place
Manon
The main visual and queen of the stage, Manon was the only contestant with no formal training in singing and dancing. She was scouted for the show due to her striking visuals and ability to draw your eye and command a stage. Even though she never had formal training before entering the show, Manon immediately showed fast improvement in all aspects of her performance and finished 6th place, becoming the final member of the group. Manon was born in 2002 and is currently 23 years old. Ethnically she is Swiss, Italian and Ghanaian. Born and raised in Switzerland, Manon can speak 4 languages: SwissGerman, German, English and little bit of French.
Daniela
Known as the group’s dancing machine, you may have seen Daniela when she was very young competing on both “America’s Got talent” and “So you Think You can Dance”. Daniela was born in Atlanta, Georgia and is ethnically Venezuelan, Cuban and Italian. Shespeaks both Spanish and English fluently. Daniela competed and trained in ballroom dance for many years and stood out among the trainees due to her incredible dancing skills. On the show she finished in 3rd place.
Lara
The main vocalist. Lara was scouted for Dream Academy after posting her singing covers on Instagram and TikTok. Even though Lara was most known due to her stunning vocals,she was a fierce competitor that landed here for a second-place finish. Born and raised in LA, Lara is ethically Tamil and can speak English and Tamil. Lara was born in 2005 and is currently 20 years old. While Katseye isn’t considered “K-pop”, they are very K-pop adjacent and are half under a K-pop company. Lara made waves when she came out as bisexual in a livestream, and since LGBTQ+ Idols in K-pop are not common, Lara coming out was especially important to the community.
Megan
Megan is considered the group’s “All arounder”. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Megan is half Chinese and can speak basic mandarin and French. Throughout the show, Megan was solid in dancing, singing, and overall stage presence. Born in 2006, Megan is currently 19 years old. Megan is known for her funny personality by fans, and her talents brought her to a 5th place finish on the show.
Yoonchae
Yoonchae is the Maknae, or the youngest of the girls. Even though Yoonchae is the youngest member of the group, she is a force to be reckoned with. Born and raised in South Korea, Yoonchae can speak both Korean and English. She is only 17 years old and was born in 2007. Yoonchae is also an all-rounder, solid in both dance and singing as she trained to be a K-Pop idol for many years. She finished the show in 4th place.
I have been a fan of this group since Dream Academy, and I even voted live in the finale of the show. It has been absolutely incredible to see how much love and attention they have gotten in the last 2 years. There has been so much growth in terms of their dancing and overall stage presence as a group, which is very refreshing to see as I feel like lately there have been as many artists as possible who are known for their performance. The group is still very much figuring out their musical identity. Right now, most of their songs are very catchy and simple pop songs, but the members have mentioned wanting to put more RnB influence into their music. Many of the girls are also songwriters or producers themselves, so I hope we get to see them have more creative input in their music. I can’t wait to see what “Katseye” has in store for the future!