Over the weekend, the global girl group KATSEYE gained mass attention thanks to the launch of the Netflix reality docu-series, Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE.
The series is premised on the quest of two entertainment industry giants—South Korea’s HYBE and America’s Geffen—to create the first K-pop-style girl group that featured members from across the world.
Throughout the series, we follow a group of 20 hopeful young women who go through a rigorous training and development programme (T&D), as well as a survival show, hoping they will eventually debut as pop stars in said global girl group. Only 6 members can end up in the group.
While the Netflix series has just been released, the journey undertaken by the 20 international trainees—all the way up to the selection—has been broadcast to fans in the 2023 YouTube reality series, Dream Academy: The Debut.
KATSEYE has lain relatively low since Dream Academy, in preparation for their recent formal debut. It’s no coincidence that the debut has been synced with the release of the Netflix series, TBH!
If watching Pop Star Academy has fuelled your curiosity about KATSEYE, then here’s everything you need to know about the girl group and fun facts about its members.
Contents
| Name | Hometown | Age | |
| Jeong Yoon-chae | Seoul, South Korea | 16 | @y0on_cha3 |
| Megan Skiendiel | Honolulu, Hawaii, US | 18 | @meganskiendiel |
| Lara Raj | Los Angeles, California, US | 18 | @lararajj |
| Daniela Avanzini | Atlanta, Georgia, US | 20 | @daniela_avanzini |
| Sophia Laforteza | Manila, Philippines | 21 | @sophia_laforteza |
| Manon Bannerman | Zürich, Switzerland | 22 | @meretmanon |
While the project to create a global girl group has been in the works since 2021, KATSEYE debuted officially on 28 June 2024. Their first single is aptly named “Debut”, and is the the song you hear in the introduction to the Netflix series.
“Debut” currently has 5.8M streams on YouTube.
Their EP, SIS (Soft Is Strong) launched on 16 August 2024, and features 5 songs, “Debut”, “Touch”, “My Way”, “I’m Pretty”, and “Tonight I Might”.
“Touch” is the second single, and currently has 9.2M streams on YouTube.
As with every K-pop group, KATSEYE also comes with a fandom name: EYEKONS. The news was released four months ago, and fans online seem to love it so far.
Megan revealed she’s half-Chinese and half-American in the Netflix series, though further digging reveals that the pop star’s mom is actually Singaporean!
Bonus fact: her middle name is Mei Yok (“美玉” in Chinese). She speaks basic Cantonese and a bit of Mandarin.
Sophia ranked at the top of the Dream Academy reality show, what with her Filipino fans showing up in droves for their local starlet. Because of this, Sophia has been dubbed the leader of KATSEYE.
Manon has been a fan favourite from day one, thanks to her “it girl” quality. Since the debut of Dream Academy, Manon has amassed fans on Instagram and TikTok. Currently, she has 362K followers on Instagram—the most out of the group.
Except for Manon, most of the KATSEYE girls have had extensive backgrounds in the performing arts since they were kids. Daniela is one of them. She has been dancing as a child, primarily training in ballroom dance. She joined several reality TV shows to get her dance out there, from America’s Got Talent to So You Think You Can Dance.
Before Lara Raj debuted in KATSEYE, the powerhouse singer-dancer was actually a part of Michelle Obama’s Global Girls Alliance public service announcement. In the PSA, Lara starts off the video singing “Think” by Aretha Franklin. The former First Lady then enters the video, rounding off the promo by holding hands with Lara and the other girls.
If you’ve watched the Netflix series, you would’ve seen how gruelling the trainees’ schedules were. Yoonchae, having joined the training programme at 14, had to juggle all of that on top of having to still go to high school! In fact, she just graduated in June this year. Huge respect for her discipline.
While HYBE, who are responsible for several huge K-pop groups like BTS, Le Sserafim, and New Jeans, are one of KATSEYE’s parent companies, the girls have stressed in interviews that they’re not trying to be a K-pop group. Instead, they’re merging the American girl group formula with K-pop sensibilities, which comes through in their singles and their choreography, as well as their group identity.
Here are just some facts about KATSEYE now that the girl group has been getting more attention on social media. They’re definitely a novel concept in the music industry, and we’re interested to see how their career shakes up moving forward.
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