In the past few weeks, conversation has skyrocketed on the new global girl group, KATSEYE. With their recent MTV Video Music Award win, EPs topping the charts, and national tour starting soon, lets take a look back and see how all of this success was gained in the span of just over a year.
KATSEYE was formed in 2023 under the American branch of HYBE music, a K-POP music company, in collaboration with Geffen Records. The group members were not set in stone however. HYBE and Geffen started a survival/competition show, The Dream Academy, with open, global applications to pick their group members. There would be six slots open for six different types of members: The leader, the group visual/face of the group, the main dancer, the main vocalist, the all rounder (skilled in everything), and the maknae (K-POP term for the youngest member, helps with group image balance). With over 120,000 applicants and weeks of competition, the final six members were announced in November 2023: Sophia Laforteza (the leader), Meret Manon (the visual), Daniela Avanzini (the main dancer), Lara Raj (the main vocalist), Megan Skiendiel (the all rounder), and Jeung Yoonchae (the maknae). With their girls set, it was time to start building up KATSEYE’s brand.
KATSEYE doesn’t work like your traditional girl group. Using the same marketing and branding tactics as K-POP groups instead of American ones, KATSEYE has a dedicated fanbase even before their debut song. Building up hype before its release and ways for fans to connect with the girls, success was already secured. Their debut single hit streaming in June of 2024, followed by a second a month later, and their first EP and a Netflix release of Dream Academy in August 2024. The aesthetic of their debut, SIS (Soft is Strong), was filled with soft pastel colors and lace, flowy outfits, setting a nice, sweet first impression of their brand. The EP and singles were doing well too, making it onto the Billboard Top 200. While this era was extremely important for KATSEYE’s success, however their most important stepping point would come in 2025.
In April of 2025, KATSEYE released their next single, Gnarly. Chances are, the first time you heard this song, it might have turned you off a bit. I’ll admit, it sure turned me off. It was a complete pivot away from the songs on SIS, a loud, chaotic song, with lyrics that didn’t match their previous ones at all. But as time went along, and repeat listens happened, people started to notice, hey, thats kind of the whole point! Gnarly was a song to just let loose to and party out. As streams started skyrocketing, garnering almost 300 million streams on Spotify, KATSEYE announced a second EP, Beautiful Chaos. They had another huge breakout single before the EP too, Gabriela, a Spanish inspired track lead by Daniela, a latina member of the group. Fans began to appreciate how KATSEYEs songs were also meant to highlight the diversity of the group, different songs in different cultural styles of the members (a past single, Touch, had a very K-POP vibe to it, with their Korean member, Yoonchae, leading that track).
The success of Gnarly and Gabriela only ensured the victory that would be Beautiful Chaos, which also made it onto the Billboard Top 200 on its debut. However, KATSEYE members would especially see the effect of their fans when they would headline at Chicago music festival, Lollapalooza. Their show broke Lolla’s record for largest crowd at a daytime performance, a record set only a year before by Chappell Roan. After this, the brand deals started pouring in for the girls, with companies such as Lush and even Monster High flocking for partnership. However, their biggest and most popular brand deal was yet to come.
Chances are, you’ve already heard about what I like to call “The Great Denim War of 2025.” This was started when popular actress, Sydney Sweeney, partnered up with American Eagle for a brand deal with their jeans. In this ad, the focus was made on Sweeney’s body and how it looked in the jeans, taking a very male centered view for the ad, and even possibly promoting Euro-Centric beauty standards (Sweeney is a very typical blonde hair blue eyes girl, and the ad makes a focus on how good here jeans/genes are). After the outrage response, other denim brands began flocking to hop on the trend, such as Levis with Beyonce, and, what we’ll be focusing on right now is Gaps ad with KATSEYE.
A few weeks after American Eagle’s ad dropped, Gap responded with their own denim ad with KATSEYE. The ad was a choreographed number to Milkshake by Kelis, where the girls danced in their Gap denim with backup dancers. The ad took a focus on showing the skills of the girls’ dance, with a fun 90’s aesthetic and female centric view. Fans immediately showed their love for the ad, and appreciation for the diversity of the girls (the group is made up of 2 East Asian girls, 1 Southeast Asian/Filipino girl, 1 South Asian/Indian girl, a Black girl, and a Latina). The perfect timing of this advertisement helped secure the girls their first award show win, for Push Performance of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards. They’re also now in heavy consideration for GRAMMY Award nominations. And with their Beautiful Chaos tour starting up in November, it’s safe to say, even a little over a year into the game, KATSEYE has an incredibly bright future ahead of them.