KATSEYE: The new Spice Girls? Inside the rise of Gen Z’s favourite girl group

If the Spice Girls once made “girl power” the slogan of the ’90s, then one single word bottles KATSEYE’s energy today: gnarly.

The six-member multinational girl group is one you don’t just listen to, they’re something you live through.

Here, aspirational Spice Girls energy is reimagined with K-pop precision, then filtered through a cycle of relatable TikTok virality, and a sprinkling of Y2K nostalgia. In a hyper-digital, hyper-globalised world, KATSEYE don’t just perform for Gen Z – they embody it: bold, diverse, and unapologetically visible.

Since exploding onto the scene with Netflix’s Popstar Academy: KATSEYE, Sophia, Manon, Daniela, Lara, Megan, and Yoonchae have been doing more than chasing the charts. 

They’re, well, everywhere: fronting Fendi campaigns, dropping Glossier collabs, sneaking Jollibee merch drops, and even sparking viral dance challenges. 

With their global visibility, one might wonder when these 16-to-22-year-olds (yes – Yoonchae was born in 2007) even find the time to catch a handful of Zzzs.

But if modern pop stardom is less about hits and more about presence, KATSEYE has nailed the blueprint. 

Sound familiar yet?

KATSEYE, who?

Their story begins on screens, not stages – Netflix’s viral 2023 docuseries Popstar Academy: KATSEYE chronicled the making of what would become the world’s first “global girl group”. 

From 120,000 hopefuls, 20 contestants were selected for reality competition The Debut: Dream Academy and endured a year of high-intensity training in Los Angeles, modeled after Korea’s famously rigorous idol system.

Fans have been quick to call out the arrangement as exploitative – some even joked it “violated the Geneva Conventions” – but the intent was clear: engineer a new model of pop stardom, fusing K-pop’s drill-like precision with Western spectacle.

And it worked. When KATSEYE finally debuted in June 2024, their six-member lineup was as global as their ambitions.

Sophia (Filipino), Daniela (Venezuelan-Cuban), Lara (Indian), Megan (Singaporean-Chinese), Manon (Swiss-Italian/Ghanaian), and Yoonchae (South Korean) together embody Gen Z’s version of celebrity: multilingual, multinational, and digitally fluent.

Their breakout single Touch has been performed in Korean, Japanese, and Filipino versions – with a wink of signature humour – not just entering markets, but stitching them together.

For fans, this accessibility feels distinctly of its time: a chorus you can sing in your own language without losing the sense that you’re part of one global fandom.

Yet that very international scope sparked debate: are they Western starlets or K-pop idols? The group has leaned into both.

“We are a global girl group representing many different countries… that is something that isn’t really out there yet,” Manon told The Korea Times in 2024.

Sophia added, in the same interview, that while their methodology is unmistakably K-pop – synchronised choreographies, harmony as a team – the group’s chemistry is undeniable, and, in our words, refreshingly un-catty. 

Scroll through their TikToks and you’ll see what she means: lighthearted banter, playful teasing, the kind of intimate behind-the-scenes footage that reads less like corporate strategy and more like the ‘unfiltered’ access to a clique of ‘best friends’ – a feature Gen Z has come to expect in pop stardom.

Each member also arrived with their own resume – too many to list in full. From Lara starring in a Michelle Obama–backed girls’ education campaign, to a young Daniela making waves on America’s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance, the group was talent-driven long before KATSEYE even took shape.

In other words: six trajectories, all wildly different, converging into one prototype built for global resonance.

Hands off, Gabriela

So what exactly has propelled this eclectic group to meteoric fame? Let’s be real – KATSEYE aren’t exactly musical auteurs.

That’s not to say the members lack the drive. Beyond their backgrounds, just watch an episode of their docuseries and you’ll glimpse the gruelling journey they endured – and continue to endure – to become KATSEYE, as they’ve often recounted in interviews.

Yet as a collective, their musical identity is, arguably, far from distinctive.

Their catalogue leans more toward experimentation than cohesion; tracks could, frankly, appear under almost any rising pop act’s name.

By contrast, former Dream Academy trainee Adela Jergova – eliminated in Episode 5 – has already carved a more distinct sonic and visual identity in her rising solo career, unapologetically provocative and Gaga-meets-Tate McRae in her own production.

Take KATSEYE’s 2025 extended play BEAUTIFUL CHAOS as a point of comparison. 

Tracks like Gnarly, Gabriela, and Gameboy boast heavyweight collaborators: famed hyperpop songwriter Alice Longyu Gao, brat icon Charli XCX, and hitmaker Jacob Kasher, whose credits span Britney Spears to Tate McRae, respectively – a dream on paper.

On Spotify, though, it plays more like a grab bag, trading cohesion for a smattering of sometimes-generic instrumentals across a variety of genres – industrial synth-pop, R&B, and dance-pop, to name a few.

But here’s the twist: maybe the incoherence is the point.

Rather than shaping a singular sonic identity, KATSEYE’s discography functions like a laboratory – executives trialling genres with hooks optimised for circulation. 

Their second single, Touch, proves it: bubblegum pop melodies that are catchy, fun, and endlessly replicable on TikTok, yes – but mash it against NewJeans’ Super Shy or ILLIT’s Magnetic, and the seams start to show. 

Play

But that’s the brilliance: songs light enough to soundtrack a scroll, malleable enough for fans to make their own – from vocal and dance covers, to repost-able soundbites of the members poking fun at the lyrics.

Or, say, as a vocal stim for your months-old kid?

Straightforward earworms by design, it becomes more evident that it is less “identity”, more “formula”.

Dismiss that as hollow if you want – critics once said the same of the Spice Girls, deriding them as “manufactured fluff” before Wannabe rewired the pop universe. Like their ’90s predecessors, KATSEYE’s genius lies not in sonic distinctiveness, but in turning music into infrastructure for culture.

And the numbers prove it.

KATSEYE drew the largest daytime crowd of over 85,000 attendees at Lollapalooza Chicago 2025, and have already bagged a Coachella 2026 slot – all within the first year of their international debut. 

It’s ‘Girl Power’, reloaded

If the music sometimes feels like scaffolding, the visuals, however, cement KATSEYE’s dominance – a cohesive, all-in-it-together, girl-gang image.

Beyond the girls’ striking, picture-perfect looks, KATSEYE’s lyrics are distinctive, instantly catchy, and tastely crafted towards messages of empowerment and solidarity – even explicitly inclusive of the ‘T’ (or ‘Transgender’) girls. 

Crucially, vocals are often spread among members, so the power comes not from one “frontwoman” but from the collective surge – a logic that pop has flirted with since the Spice Girls, and which KATSEYE amplifies for a new era.

As aligned with their digital-first ethos, their choreography, crafted by Grant Gilmore and Sohey Sugihara, is too optimised for TikTok: accessible, snappy, endlessly replicable. The Gnarly audio alone anchors over 222,100 videos on Tiktok, with celebrity cameos from LE SSERAFIM’s Huh Yun-jin, TXT’s Yeonjun, and celebrity dancer Bada Lee, turning it into a cross-fandom event.

Also, whatever this was. Slay finbros!

Styling is equally intentional. Y2K low-rise jeans, baby tees, archival pieces, furs – fused with cultural markers like Lara’s bindi or Manon’s waist beads – give each member her own lane. Daniela gravitates toward cropped halters, Yoonchae toward street-style or angled silhouettes, Sophia toward simpler fabrics and elegant tailoring. 

Even hair and beauty become further canvases: bold colours, shifting textures, Manon occasionally in waist-length locs. 

And queer visibility threads throughout, too, with Lara and Megan officially out, and Lara and Manon making quite the statement during a recent festival performance.

If the Spice Girls smuggled feminist cheek into Britpop, KATSEYE embeds Gen Z’s politics of visibility and inclusivity directly into the performance itself.

But here, individuality is coded through race, queerness, and diasporic heritage as much as fashion – a widening of who gets to see themselves reflected in the media.

And, importantly, each look doubles as personality shorthand, echoing the way “Posh” or “Scary” once mapped out instantly recognisable identities. 

Their brand deals hit the same sweet spot.

From Fendi and Glossier to Jollibee, Gap, and Urban Outfitters, their partnerships feel less like sellouts and more like cultural affirmations of the group’s trend-setting, relatable-yet-chic vibe.

Individually, too, the KATSEYE girls are aligned with different labels. Megan, the brand declares, is “officially an UGG girl.”

Creative director and Gap alum Humberto Leon cites art and film as much as music for inspiration, highlighting the group’s distinctive multicultural and stylistic references.

“KATSEYE represents strength, diversity, and culture,” as Humberto put it, “really bringing to the forefront ‘you’, as yourself.”

Gap’s conveniently-timed “Better in Denim” campaign, choreographed by Robbie Blue to Kelis’ Milkshake, boosted streams of the 2003 classic by 179 percent in a week, after being met by overwhelming Tiktok virality.

Their endorsement of Jollibee, meanwhile, tied directly to Sophia’s Filipino heritage, signals that KATSEYE’s brand of cool is as diasporic – a global-local balancing act – as it is digital.

Here’s the clincher: these choices feel elevated yet attainable, aspirational yet accessible.

Which is why it matters that KATSEYE themselves cite the Spice Girls as a formative influence. On the show, one mission had trainees covering Wannabe – apt acknowledgement that the blueprint still works.

So while KATSEYE are unmistakably a product of the HYBE x Geffen machine, they’re also heirs to a longer girl-group lineage – proving, once again, that image and personality can be as potent as melody. 

If Spice Girls cracked the code with slogans and paparazzi personas, KATSEYE have daily TikTok updates, Weverse livestreams, loud-and-proud queerness, and diasporic cool. 

The slogans may have changed, but the spirit of ‘Girl Power’ hasn’t gone anywhere – it just logged on.

Everything’s gnarly

So when someone shrugs that Gnarly is nonsense? That’s precisely the point. 

Just as the Spice Girls once flipped the vapid into a manifesto (“Stop right now, thank you very much!”), KATSEYE turn irony into cultural presence – making Teslas, fried chicken, and boba tea feel like rebellion for the boring, dumb, b***h.

The Spice Girls gave us a movement – ‘girl power’. And, in turn, KATSEYE is giving us ‘gnarly’ – not just a word but a moodboard beginning to take shape, equal parts cheeky and sincere. 

Neither group is really about the music. They’re about the moment. 

And right now, the moment is f***ing gnarly.