The group, composed of Sophia Laforteza, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Manon Bannerman, Megan Skiendiel, and Jeung Yoonchae, was formed under a joint partnership between South Korea\u2019s Hybe Corporation, the company behind BTS and NewJeans<\/a>, and US label Geffen Records. <\/p>\n \u201cI try to tell myself it doesn’t matter, but if 1,000 people are sending you death threats<\/a>, it’s jarring. Even if it’s not going to happen, it’s heavy,\u201d Raj told the BBC. <\/p>\n Raj, an American citizen of Indian and Sri Lankan heritage, revealed that she deleted her X account after she was falsely reported to immigration authorities for allegedly living and working in the US illegally. <\/p>\n \u201cI realised I am not the audience for other people\u2019s opinions,\u201d she said, adding that the comments she saw were incredibly sexist and \u201cdystopian\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople see us as women to rank. They\u2019ll grade us based on how pretty we are, our singing skill, dancing skill, and then add it up and give us a percentage.\u201d<\/p>\n Laforteza said: \u201cOur career has been really short, but I feel like we\u2019ve already had a lot of things said to us, to our families. We know that we signed up for being so public. We know it\u2019s a part of fame. But it doesn\u2019t change the fact that we are human.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Daniela, Manon, Yoonchae, Lara Raj, Megan, and Sophia of Katseye (Getty)<\/p>\n Katseye were conceived in 2023 with the explicit goal of creating what the producers called \u201cthe first truly global girl group<\/a>\u201d. The project began with an international talent search in 2022 that drew over 120,000 applicants from across the world, culminating in a Netflix reality competition series titled The Debut: Dream Academy. <\/p>\n Over several weeks, contestants were trained and evaluated through a blend of K-pop<\/a> and Western pop performance systems before six were chosen \u2013 Raj, who lived in New York; Laforteza, who is Filipino; Bannerman, who is Swiss-Ghanaian and lived in Zurich; ballroom dancer Daniela Avanzini, a Venezuelan-Cuban American from Atlanta who had appeared on America’s Got Talent and was a top 10 finalist on So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation; Megan Skiendziel, a Chinese-Singaporean American dancer and vocalist from Honolulu; and South Korea\u2019s Jeong Yoonchae, who had spent five years training to be a K-pop idol. <\/p>\n Trained in Los Angeles under a system modelled partly on K-pop\u2019s rigorous choreography<\/a> and vocal standards, they officially debuted in June 2024 with the single \u201cDebut\u201d, followed by their first EP SIS (Soft Is Strong) two months later. <\/p>\n Their English-language follow-up single \u201cTouch\u201d went viral on TikTok and earned them early chart placements in both Asia and the US, while \u201cGnarly\u201d became their first Billboard Hot 100 entry. <\/p>\n They have since been nominated for two Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, and have appeared at major festivals and in global brand campaigns, including a viral advert for the clothing brand Gap<\/a>.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Katseye have been nominated for two Grammy Awards (Getty Images for MTV)<\/p>\n In a short docu-series that followed the group\u2019s tour in Asia released in November last year, Raj talked about the \u201cbittersweet\u201d nature of the tour for her because she\u2019d begun to get a lot of hate on social media. <\/p>\n \u201cSocial media has started to affect me badly. I think, especially since the documentary came out, I\u2019ve been getting a lot of hate recently,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n She continued, saying she broke down the day they performed in the Philippines because she saw a lot of \u201ccrazy stuff\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw death threats that day.\u201d<\/p>\n In September this year, former Smiths frontman Morrissey<\/a> had to cancel two shows due to a \u201ccredible threat on his life\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Daniela,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2234206849.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Katseye](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2234220020.jpg\")
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