The diverse ensemble, <\/a>based in Los Angeles but made up of six young women from countries across the globe \u2014 members hail from the United States, Switzerland, the Philippines and South Korea \u2014 told the BBC that internet scrutiny is a burden they bear.<\/p>\nSecond-generation Indian-American Lara Raj, 20, admitted that online abuse takes a toll on the band, saying, \u201cIf a thousand people are sending you death threats \u2026 even if it\u2019s not going to happen \u2026 it\u2019s heavy, and it\u2019s jarring.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rest of KATSEYE nodded agreement, before the interviewer, Mark Savage, asked the women if they\u2019d all received threats of this nature.
Without hesitation, all six members of the group confirmed death threats were a common occurrence, chorusing \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cso many.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now a K-pop phenomenon, Raj and bandmates Daniela Avanzini, Manon Bannerman, Megan Skiendiel, Sophia Laforteza and Yoonchae Jeung all earned their place in KATSEYE after an arduous 12-week audition program, \u201cThe Debut: Dream Academy,\u201d which was streamed on YouTube.<\/p>\n
Modeled on the K-pop artist development process and organized by K-pop entertainment leader HYBE and US label Geffen Records \u2014 the partnership behind the US distribution and promotion of megastars BTS \u2014 the hopefuls completed missions requiring them to choreograph, rehearse and perform for hours a day.<\/p>\n
Netflix followed the 20 contestants from beginning to end, releasing a docuseries on its platform in August 2024.<\/p>\n
Laforteza, who is 22 and originally from the Philippine capital, Manila, told the BBC the training program was \u201cvery rigorous, very demanding,\u201d adding that it \u201creally equipped us for where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band, which received Grammy nominations last week for best new artist and best group performance, shared their concerns about the power of the internet.<\/p>\n
Laforteza and Raj said social media allows them to see how they are perceived by swathes of people from around the world, something none of the band believes to be safe; reading comments can be \u201cterrorizing on the mind,\u201d according to Bannerman.<\/p>\n
She described the \u201cconstant comparison between all of us,\u201d before the other band members explained how they are often ranked online and pitted against one another in a points-based system they said considers factors including how pretty they are, how they sing and how they perform. \u201cIt\u2019s so dystopian,\u201d Raj said.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, KATSEYE are undeterred. \u201cWe\u2019ve all come from different places with different cultures and upbringings yet we\u2019re able to come together and create magic through music,\u201d Laforteza said.<\/p>\n
The-CNN-Wire
\u2122 & \u00a9 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Charlotte Reck, CNN (CNN) \u2014 KATSEYE, the global girl group propelled to stardom through the 2024 Netflix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-131353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}