On November 18th, 2023, the sensational global girl group, KATSEYE, was born from a survival show hosted by Hybe x Geffen. Since their official debut in 2024, the group has taken the world by storm, generating millions of streams and their fair share of controversy. Just over a year after their debut, they are now nominated for Best New Artist and Best Pop Group Performance at the Grammys— and will be making their Grammy performance debut.
With the Grammys just over a week away, let’s dive into KATSEYE’s history and the sensationalism that brought them to the world stage.
The group is managed by Hybe x Geffen, a collaboration between Hybe, a K-pop powerhouse, and Geffen, a wildly successful American music production company. In November of 2021, Hybe x Geffen began hosting global talent auditions, receiving more than 120,000 submissions from countries around the world. At the conclusion of the tryouts, just over a dozen girls were invited to Los Angeles to begin their training.
The company wanted to use the K-pop method of training idols to create global artists and break into the Western market. As a result, the girls underwent a rigorous training and development program that lasted around two years. In August of 2023, twenty finalists were introduced to the world with the survival show Dream Academy. The show featured three missions, each showcasing the contestants’ talents to the world, and the eliminations were based on executive votes and popularity. During the live finale in Los Angeles, Sophia Laforteza, Lara Raj, Manon Bannerman, Yoonchae Jeung, Megan Skiendiel, and Daniela Avanzini were introduced to the world as the final lineup of KATSEYE.
This would only be the beginning of their fame.
In June of 2024, the group released their debut single, Debut. Their second single, Touch, followed in July of 2024 and ranked 22nd on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, gaining worldwide attention through TikTok. Then, in August of 2024, they released their first EP, SIS (Soft is Strong), featuring five tracks that showcased the girls’ vocals.
Later that month, Popstar Academy: Katseye was released on Netflix. This eight-episode documentary gave fans an inside look at the intense training and heartbreak behind the final lineup. The series followed all twenty Dream Academy contestants, along with a few new faces, starting from their first day of training and development in 2022 and ending with the formation of the group.
While the group had an incredibly successful debut year, no one could have predicted what 2025 would bring.
In early 2025, KATSEYE was added to the Lollapalooza lineup, which was a huge accomplishment so early in their music careers. Then, on April 30th of 2025, they released a single that would completely change the trajectory of their rise: Gnarly. The song debuted in the Billboard Top 100 but received a polarizing response from listeners. Despite this, Gnarly went viral on TikTok, with countless creators attempting the choreography. The exposure from the song catapulted KATSEYE’s popularity into the stratosphere.
Later in 2025, KATSEYE released another single, Gabriela, with a music video featuring Jessica Alba, as well as their r second EP, Beautiful Chaos. Gabriela, saw major success, peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. In November of that year, the group began their Beautiful Chaos Tour, where they debuted a new song: Internet Girl.
Recently, KATSEYE was announced as part of the Coachella 2026 lineup and received their first-ever major award show nominations. On November 7th, 2025–just 497 days after their debut–they were nominated for two Grammys and will perform at the 68th Grammy Awards on February 1st, 2026. As an avid KATSEYE listener, I am constantly amazed by how far they’ve come since the first time I watched them on YouTube. All six members are incredibly talented, and I can’t wait to (hopefully) watch them win a Grammy. The group has helped pave the way for the comeback of girl groups, as several other global girl groups debuted or will debut. KATSEYE has clearly served as a trendsetter. They are without a doubt the group to watch in 2026.