From a record-breaking debut to legal battles with ADOR, NewJeans enters 2026 facing an uncertain future and possible lineup changes.<\/p>\n
\n NewJeans
\n ADOR\n <\/p>\n
NewJeans debuted in July 2022 under ADOR, a HYBE label. The group was initially launched with five members: Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein, created by former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin,\u00a0best known for having been the creative director of SM Entertainment from 2002 to 2019.<\/p>\n
NewJeans quickly stood out with a nostalgic sound and styling, the\u00a0so-called \u201cY2K\u201d theme, drawing from the late 1990s and early 2000s, finding immediate success with tracks from its debut EP, “New Jeans,” including \u201cAttention\u201d (2022), \u201cHype Boy\u201d (2022) and \u201cCookie\u201d (2022).<\/p>\n
NewJeans became one of K-pop\u2019s biggest breakout acts since its first EP, followed by hits \u201cDitto\u201d (2022) and \u201cOMG\u201d (2023). Its second EP \u201cGet Up\u201d (2023) included \u201cSuper Shy,\u201d \u201cETA\u201d and \u201cCool With You,\u201d and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making NewJeans the second K-pop girl group to top the chart following Blackpink. \u201cSuper Shy\u201d peaked at No. 48 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2024, NewJeans continued its global expansion with releases including \u201cHow Sweet,\u201d \u201cBubble Gum\u201d and the Japanese debut single \u201cSupernatural.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the group\u2019s future was thrown into uncertainty after a conflict between ADOR, HYBE and Min Hee-jin escalated in 2024. In November that year, the members announced that they were terminating their contracts with ADOR over alleged mistreatment, while the agency maintained that the contracts remained valid. The group later attempted independent activities under the name NJZ, but suspended activities in 2025 after court rulings barred them from promotions outside ADOR.<\/p>\n
In October 2025, a Seoul court ruled in favor of the record label, confirming the validity of the members\u2019 exclusive contracts with the agency. Haerin, Hyein and Hanni later returned to ADOR, while Danielle departed the group after the agency terminated her exclusive contract in December 2025 and subsequently sued her for breaching contracts, along with her family member and ex-ADOR CEO Min.<\/p>\n
As of 2026, Minji\u2019s future activities with the group have remained under discussion, leaving NewJeans in a transitional period as a possible three- or four-member act.<\/p>\n
BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From a record-breaking debut to legal battles with ADOR, NewJeans enters 2026 facing an uncertain future and possible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-541027","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\/541027","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=541027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}