NEED TO KNOW
\nKATSEYE open up to PEOPLE about receiving their first two Grammy nominations”It’s literally just the biggest, biggest honor. I don’t think any of us were expecting it,” says band member Lara Raj KATSEYE is nominated for Best New Artist and Best Pop Duo\/Group Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards<\/p>\n
Between releasing massive hits and completely selling out their Beautiful Chaos Tour, KATSEYE<\/a>\u00a0have made it their mission to become the biggest girl group in the world.\n<\/p>\n Since the world watched them face-off \u2014 and eventually unite \u2014 on HYBE and Geffen Records\u2019 groundbreaking\u00a0Dream Academy\u00a0show (and later on the Netflix docuseries,\u00a0Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE) the six-piece band, comprised of Sophia Laforteza, Manon Bannerman, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel and Yoonchae Jeung, has just become more and more influential.\n<\/p>\n In the two years since KATSEYE released their debut EP SIS (Soft Is Strong), they have earned a cult following from their Y2K-inspired looks, their club-ready hit “Gabriela”<\/a> and the chiptune pop track “Gameboy”<\/a> and a buzzy Gap ad<\/a> that had the entire internet talking.\n<\/p>\n Now, KATSEYE has unlocked a new achievement \u2013 their first Grammy nominations. Not only is the group nominated for Best New Artist but Best Pop Duo\/Group Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n KATSEYE.<\/p>\n Julian Song<\/p>\n “When we found out, we were all in tears, screaming, crying,” Raj, 20, tells PEOPLE over the phone from Mexico City amid their Beautiful Chaos Tour. According to Laforteza, 22, the idea of being nominated didn’t even “cross our minds.”\n<\/p>\n In a group interview below, KATSEYE reflects on their banner year, the advice they received from Kehlani and how they plan to celebrate should they win at the Grammys this year.\n<\/p>\n PEOPLE: How did you react to finding out you had two Grammy nominations this year?\n<\/p>\n SOPHIA LAFORTEZA: We were all in disbelief because, to be honest with you. I can’t even remember what interview it was, but at some point a few months ago, a few weeks ago, somebody mentioned it to us. They were like, “There are possibilities of a Grammy nomination,” and then we laughed [in] their face. We literally were like, “Girl, what are you talking about?” It just didn’t cross our minds. It was one of the things that we’ve been dreaming about, but we weren’t [like], \u2018Okay, so next year we’re going to have that Grammy nomination.\u2019 When people started saying that, we were like, “I don’t think we’re there yet. That’s impossible. That’s just insane.” So, when we watched the livestream, we were just not expecting it, to be honest with you. When it happened, we died.\n<\/p>\n PEOPLE: What does it mean to you to be first-time Grammy nominees?\n<\/p>\n LARA RAJ: It’s literally just the biggest, biggest honor. I don’t think any of us were expecting it. It really took us by surprise, both of the nominations. When we found out, we were all in tears, screaming, crying. It means so much to be recognized among so many people that have been in the industry for so long \u2014 and people that we look up to. So many people nominated are the reason that [we are] artists in the first place. They inspired us to begin this dream and to be in KATSEYE. The fact that we’re recognized among them is just insane. It would just mean the world to us \u2014 not even just to win \u2014 the nomination itself means everything to us.\n<\/p>\n PEOPLE: How do you guys plan to celebrate if you do win at the Grammys this year?\n<\/p>\n RAJ: First, we’re all going to probably call our parents. That’s the first thing we’re going to do, call our moms and our dads and our siblings, because most of us are away from our families. And then, I don’t know, every time after we have a performance, we love to sleep. So, we might sleep. But I think if we win a Grammy, we’re going to need to have a party. We’re going to need to do some celebration, the six of us, for sure.\n<\/p>\n PEOPLE: Charli xcx<\/a> is one of the writers on \u201cGabriela.\u201d Have you considered doing a collaboration of the track on stage or recording a version together?\n<\/p>\n MANON BANNERMAN: I just recently met her, and I think we all really hope to work with her more in the future. She’s definitely a KATSEYE girlie, and we’re in love with Brat<\/a> and everything about her. She’s such an inspiration to us. We don’t know what the future holds, but we’re definitely, definitely super into that idea.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n PEOPLE: What is the most challenging part of being in a girl group?\n<\/p>\n YOONCHAE JEUNG: It’s definitely challenging. We came from all different backgrounds, so we have a lot of culture shocks with each other. At first, it was challenging, but we got used to it and now it’s so fun to know each other’s cultures. It’s good.\n<\/p>\n PEOPLE: Obviously, you came up through the K-pop style system and training. How has that prepared you for your work today?\n<\/p>\n LAFORTEZA: Going through the K-pop training for each and every one of us has definitely equipped us for a lot more than we could have ever expected. It\u2019s something that we are very grateful for, and as we go down in our journey, being in a group, having such demanding performances, facing this industry, and not only having influences from the Western side of the industry, but also the K-pop world, it’s really equipped us for discipline, community, teamwork and patience. It really was something that brought us together and also allowed us to find ourselves individually in what worked for us, because we really do take all of it with us as artists today. I feel like we wouldn’t be KATSEYE today if we didn’t have that training.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n PEOPLE: Who is the most surprising celebrity KATSEYE fan that you’ve discovered you have?\n<\/p>\n LAFORTEZA: Recently, we have had a lot of people that we look up to [in terms of] celebrities, and when we meet them, we introduce ourselves like, “Hello, we’re KATSEYE.” And they would be like, “I know, you guys are amazing.” It always shocks us every single time. We just had two nights in L.A., and even on the first and the second night we would be looking at the crowd and then we would see familiar faces of people with their kids. We had Dwayne Johnson<\/a>, The Rock, his kids were there. And then we had North West<\/a> in the crowd, which was so cute.\n<\/p>\n It was crazy to see a lot of people that we’ve looked up to and we know we were inspired by and grew up watching, bring their kids, trust us to be the inspiration for their kids and allow them to go to our concerts and meet with us. It’s a never-ending gag for us to meet people we look up to be fans of us as well.\n<\/p>\n PEOPLE: Is there an artist who has given you advice that’s stuck with you?\n<\/p>\n RAJ: Yeah. Recently, Kehlani<\/a> reached out to me, and I met her in person. She gave me a lot of advice because she’s been in the industry for so long. And she’s someone I really, really look up to. She’s such an R&B girl, and she gave a lot of advice about pushing through. I also think a lot of artists that we look up to have given us the advice to really stay in the present and enjoy real life. Not the internet or the things that aren’t in real life. Enjoy the performances, enjoy meeting the fans in person, things of that nature. Just stay present and enjoy every single moment. And I try to apply that to my every day. We all do. It has really, really helped me stay grounded and happy through this journey.\n<\/p>\n PEOPLE: Obviously, you’ve released a few EPs. Are you working on a full length for 2026?\n<\/p>\n LAFORTEZA: We’re definitely working on a lot of new things and a lot of new music, and we never really do want to spoil anything too crazy. All we can say is for [our fans] EYEKONS to standby and continue to hang on with what we’re going to release because we plan to do this for a long time.\n<\/p>\n PEOPLE: What are your dreams for the future of KATSEYE? Who do you dream of collaborating with?\n<\/p>\n LAFORTEZA: We have such big dreams for KATSEYE, and a lot of them are thankfully coming true next year, just like the Grammys, Coachella<\/a> and Lollapalooza<\/a>. But I think one of the things about those dreams is that we want to have them bigger, such as headlining these festivals. Or like you said, possibly a full length album.\n<\/p>\n JEUNG: Yes, and a world tour.\n<\/p>\n LAFORTEZA: A world tour in bigger stadiums, bigger arenas, and visiting more parts of the world, especially our hometowns. We plan to do a lot. We plan to advocate for a lot of things as well, things beyond music and performance. We really plan to use our platform in the best way that we can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW KATSEYE open up to PEOPLE about receiving their first two Grammy nominations”It’s literally just the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-390524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}