Imagine seeing an online casting call for a new girl group being formed by HYBE Entertainment and Geffen Records. Now imagine being selected as one of the six applicants who will lead the group from an entry pool of over 100,000 applications from around the world. Sounds like the making of a TV show, right?

When it comes to KATSEYE, it was.

As a new global girl group based in Los Angeles, the early beginnings of what is to be the next big thing in music came in the form of a reality competition show called Dream Academy, attracting worldwide viewers (and securing the group’s loyal fanbase at the same time). Since the show’s debut in 2023, the world has gotten to know Sophia Laforteza, Lara Raj, Yoonchae Jeong, Megan Skiendiel, Daniela Avanzini, and Manon Bannerman who were the lucky six finalists in the competition selected to form KATSEYE. After training under the K-Pop star blueprint for a year (and having their first hit single and debut EP SIS documented in the Netflix series Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE), the newest kittens of the global sonic scene are ready to leave their claw marks on stages around the world.

V MAGAZINE: You guys made such a splash at New York Fashion Week, especially at the Coach show on the Highline. Was this your first collective fashion week experience?

DANIELA: Yes, it was amazing! We met so many people, and the show itself was beautiful; the clothes, the shoes, everything about it was so cool. Being in New York was so fun.

MANON: We also met Anna Wintour, which was just crazy. She liked our outfits!

V: That’s all you need, really! You’ve all been bouncing from country to country since Fashion Week, right? Are you all exhausted, yet excited? What’s going on where you are in the world right now?

DANIELA: It’s like a mix of everything. Right now, we’re in the Philippines. We arrived from Korea literally just a few hours ago this morning. Our sleep schedules are all over the place. So we’re trying to find our groove with the time changes, and how much sleep we need, and when we can sleep. This is the life now, and it’s really exciting.

LARA: I think something that’s been helping is just the excitement of everything, especially performances. We’re just all so grateful to be here. It’s been keeping us going.

V: It’s the life of a rock star, and you’ll get used to it in no time. How are you all prepping for these shows? Are there vocal exercises you guys do pre-show or any specific things you need on your riders?

LARA: Tea is a must! We do a lot of vocal warm-ups together and with our performance directors, and we always do this thing we saw on TikTok to get into the groove. Should we do it? Let’s do it!

ALL: [chanting in unison] 12345678! 2345678! 345678! 45678! 5678! 678! 78! 8!

V: Whoa! I love this!

LARA: We also like to hold each other’s hands and give each other energy, especially when it’s exhausting.

MANON: We like to hype each other up too. Sophia, literally the other day, looked at me, and she was like [whispers] “You’re a pop star.”

V: [laughs] Amazing. You need that boost in life sometimes!

LARA: Another thing we all love to do is just drink coffee all the time. Coffee, matcha, anything we can get our hands on.

V: Wait, what’s everyone’s coffee order?

DANIELA: My go-to is an iced vanilla latte with oat milk.

MANON, MEGAN, YOONCHAE: Same!

MEGAN: I like it with whole milk!

SOPHIA: I like a caramel macchiato too, though. MANON: With like an extra shot of espresso.

LARA: Or like a cold brew with cold foam.

ALL: Oooo!

V: Love all of it but whole milk is wild! But we’ll move on.

ALL: [gasp] What!

LARA: No whole milk slander allowed here!

V: Alongside all the pep talks you guys give each other, which are so sweet, it’s been a whirlwind year for you all since the show and the EP dropped, and your viral single “Touch” is literally on everyone’s for you page on TikTok. How has that experience from zero to 100 been for all of you, from being relatively normal girls to now being pop stars and just living out your dreams?

DANIELA: It’s such a surreal experience that our single is on everyone’s For You page, and we see all these posts, all these comments, and all these fans and “Eyekons” supporting us. It’s so unbelievably crazy. I’m so grateful, and we wouldn’t be anywhere without our Eyekons. It’s a pinch-me moment every day.

MANON: I feel like a lot of the time we’ll look at each other and just be like, “What the heck! Wow.” Literally today, we got to the airport and people were waiting and taking photos of us at the airport, which was just like, wow.

SOPHIA: Sometimes in the moment while I’m signing something, I’ll look at Lara and I’ll be thinking, “Wow, we’re signing our album right now.” The little girl comes out in all of us, where we’re all living our Hannah Montana and Britney Spears dreams—especially since we dance with those Britney headsets.

V: Oh yeah, I would feel like such a bad bitch.

MANON: For all of us, collectively, we always knew that this was going to be our life. Back in the day, when other people would call us delusional for having these dreams, I can now say that this is our reality, and it’s really happening.

MEGAN: We’ve been working up to this for so many years, and to see it finally happening and finally being able to put music out there, and having people support us online is crazy.

V: Do you guys remember what it was like when you joined to be part of this journey? I read somewhere that there were over 100,000 people who applied, and it came down to six, which is crazy.

MEGAN: It’s been a long journey and it’s really cool to see, especially with the Pop Star Academy documentary that came out. Watching it back over, and seeing the journey with all of us… it’s just so cool to see the growth that we’ve all gone through and that we’ve worked on for these years.

V: Were you guys a bit nervous to have this chapter in your life documented for millions of people to see?

LARA: Yeah, definitely. Going into it, we didn’t exactly know what the vibe of the documentary was. I didn’t know if it was like Baddies West or what, so I was scared there were going to be hidden microphones, so I was watching my every move when I got into the program. But I think by then we learned that it was actually just, very real. They were filming us through our training, like fly on the wall. Being so vulnerable on camera for so many people to see is, really scary, but I think that the documentary did really well, and we’re so grateful that we had the opportunity. 

V: Do you remember who stuck out the most when you all met each other?

MANON: When I moved into the house, Daniella was having a play fight with someone else to try to scare me off and I was thinking ‘Oh my god these girls are…yelling.’ and I had just gotten off a 12-hour flight.

DANIELA: We did it on purpose to scare her—and it worked. [laughs]

MANON: For Lara, I just remember she walked in and I was gagged.

SOPHIA: I looked at Lara and my jaw dropped. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, so pretty.’

DANIELA: I met Sophia and Megan on the first day, and I was intimidated because these girls are gorgeous. Sophia took me to the trainee house, and everybody was there, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is like a sorority.’ I grew up not having any sisters, or any siblings, so living in a house with so many girls was weird to me but I ended up loving it. 

YOONCHAE: From my first impression [of meeting everyone], I remember Sophia. I was a bit nervous, and she came to me and she started talking fast, I couldn’t understand. 

SOPHIA: I was just yapping away at her! I remember that moment. It was in the middle of rehearsals during training. I remember I was so sweaty, and they were like ‘Yoonchae’s here!’ and then I went outside and I was like, “Yoonchae!!”

V: Do you all remember that interview process for the audition and what you performed?

MEGAN: I did a freestyle. At the time,  I really could not dance but I loved to move, and I loved to perform, so I was just kind of flopping around, and I found this Tiktok dance, took it, and tried to freestyle off of it—it was just a mess. I think I sang the “Cup Song” by Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect.

MANON: I sang “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa.

LARA: I sang “POV” by Ariana Grande.

SOPHIA: I sang “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid. [laughs] And I was so theatrical with it too! Like, when Ariel says “Walking around on those, what do you call ’em? Oh! Feet.” I did that.

MANON: Did they ask y’all who your musical idol was? I said Freddie Mercury because I was trying to be different.

DANIELA: You were like Frank Sinatra, Freddie Mercury—

KATSEYE: [giggles]

V: But who are your actual pop icons that aren’t old men?

LARA: Britney Spears for all of us.

KATSEYE: Yeah!

LARA: I also think The Pussycat Dolls, Spice Girls, and Blackpink are the groups we look up to. And Lady Gaga and Beyonce, as well.

V: Okay now we’re just naming everyone but it’s fine! Now a few months out with your debut and the single is going crazy, what are some of the dream goals that you guys want to accomplish in the next few months? Do you have any music collaborations that you want to do with other artists and groups?

DANIELA: Every single artist that we get inspired by we want to do something with. We’ve been on a good streak of feeling everyone’s passion that we’ve encountered and it inspires us a lot.

V: Are there any other genres that you all might want to dabble into? I feel like you would be good with R&B.

KATSEYE: R&B!

V: I knew it!

LARA: A full R&B meets pop vibe, or go full Aaliyah and experiment with it.

MANON: Also, maybe some rapping.

SOPHIA: Yeah like a little rap verse and having rappers featured on our tracks would be fire.

MANON: Maybe even mix in some futuristic, Grimes, Arca, FKA Twigs vibes.

SOPHIA: Grimes actually just followed all of us on Instagram!

V: Shut up!

MANON: It’s such an honor. I’m obsessed with her. 

SOPHIA: The gasp she let out [when Grimes followed us] was insane.

LARA: Another big goal that we have as a group is doing some sort of big fashion deal with a brand. Coach was our first taste of getting into the fashion world, and we’re so grateful because it’s an iconic brand.

SOPHIA: Having Humberto [Leon] by our side, who is our creative director and like our father, is so special. He took care of us during New York Fashion Week like we were his daughters, even when we went to the Usher concert. We also saw how cool he was [in the fashion scene], because he knew everybody, and everybody knew him.

MANON: When I saw Anna, I just saw the bob, and was like ‘No, there’s no way.’ And then I looked again and I was like ‘Oh, my God. Humberto, don’t turn around, but Anna is there.’ He was like Oh, Anna, let’s go say hi!. We’re so grateful for him because he’s just so caring. We can just tell he cares so much about us, and we love working with him, 100%.

SOPHIA: We also want to go to the Met gala. That would be so awesome.

V: Well now you know Anna [Wintour], so that invite is surely coming soon.

KATSEYE: [giggles]

This story appears in the pages of V151: our upcoming Winter 2024 issue! Be sure to subscribe now at shop.vmagazine.com to secure your copy before it hits global newsstands this November!

Photography Alvaro Beamud Cortés

Fashion Liv Vitale

V Magazine Editor-in-Chief / Creative Director Stephen Gan

KATSEYE Creative Director Humberto Leon

Makeup Charlotte Willer (Home Agency)

Hair Shin Arima (Home Agency)

Production viewfinders

Digital technician Christopher Glover

Lighting director Simone Triacca

Fashion coordinator Liv Vitale

Photo assistant Héctor Adalid

Styling assistants Alice Almeida, Angelina Khachaturyan

Location Untitled NYC