KATSEYE on First Single ‘Debut,’ Life After Dream Academy, & Their ‘Special’ Bond

KATSEYE's debut has been a long time coming. Brought together via The Debut: Dream Academy, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Manon Bannerman, Megan Skiendiel, Sophia Laforteza, and Yoonchae Jeong had been training together long before audiences got a peek at their dynamic via last year's competition show and even longer before they selected as the final six KATSEYE members in November of 2023. Now, their blood, sweat, and tears are finally materializing in their first single song, aptly titled "Debut."

Written and produced by Ryan Tedder, among others, "Debut" is KATSEYE's official introduction to the world and sees the group taking mainstream pop head-on. However self-explanatory the title might seem, the lyrics tell another story. "We can run it, run it, run it, no, this ain't a debut / Love me once, I know you'll love me twice / Love me once, the naughty turns to nice," the girls sing in the chorus.

"The main theme of 'Debut' is confidence," Lara explains to Teen Vogue in a call from Los Angeles, KATSEYE's now permanent home, roughly a month before the song's release. “It's about our unity as a group because we've just been through so much together. Our journey has been very public for people to see, so, yes, this is our debut, but also, we have been building this sisterhood for a long time now, and we want to share the message that we are very much stronger together with each other.”

"We want people to hear the song and want to join us and want to be with their girls and unite with their friends and their sisters," Lara adds. "It's really just about sisterhood and being confident and strong and powerful and the best version of yourself."

Lara Raj

 Rahul Bhatt. Courtesy of HYBE x Geffen.

Going from singing alone in your room to recording with Ryan Tedder is no easy feat, and Sophia, the leader of KATSEYE, is quick to give the producer his flowers for bringing out the best in them. "When we stepped into [his] studio, we got a little pep talk from him," she recounts. “He put each and every one of us in a head space that was just, 'Go for it. You're a star. Imagine you're on the stage, and the whole crowd is there, and you're singing to them.' He really helped us tap into our artistry.”

"The one thing I remember so well that he told me that just stuck with me forever is that when I recorded was, "Do it again, but do not be afraid. You're not going to break the mic. Go for it.'" Sophia continues. “You know, sometimes when you're in the studio, you can get intimidated by the mic and how crisp your vocals are, the headphones, everything, and the people around you, but he just made [us] feel so comfortable.”

Megan Skiendiel

 Rahul Bhatt. Courtesy of HYBE x Geffen.

Megan agreed that stepping into the studio was intimidating, partly because the expectations are stacked for their debut and partly because of Tedder's presence. "He's a legend, so I was a little bit starstruck," she says.

Of course, this is not the first time the girls have set foot in a studio, but something felt different. "During Dream Academy, when we would record our songs and do things like that, we still had it in the back of our mind [that it was] competition [and] you never know what can change," Lara says, "but now it's like, 'This is our music. This is it, and this is going to live on forever.'"

Being in the studio is almost like therapy for KATSEYE. "It's always such a good vibe in there," Lara adds. “We get to try a bunch of different things and experiment. It's very no judgment and fun. We hype each other up in the studio, so I think for me personally, that's been my favorite experience through this process so far.”

Daniela Avanzini

 Rahul Bhatt. Courtesy of HYBE x Geffen.

Accompanying the release of "Debut" as a track is also the release of "Debut" as a music video, which was shot by French-born, Lisbon- and Los Angeles-based filmmaker Gregory Ohrel, who was nominated for Best Music Video at the 2018 Grammys. The video was shot in Medellín, Colombia, so KATSEYE got to go on their very first work trip together as part of the experience. (Previously, the girls and her fellow Dream Academy contestants had gone to South Korea to record a special mission for the show.)

Looking back on the experience, Megan can only land on "surreal" to describe it. "The styling was so, so cool. We got to travel all together as KATSEYE for the first time. We got to do together and do amazing choreography. [Everything] just aligned so perfectly," she gushes. "The shoot went amazing and just being there with my girls, was so, so cool. I just had a vision on set, being, 'This is going to be us for the next years to come, and it's just that I'm going to be spending the rest of my life doing this with my favorite people ever.' That's the first of many, many, many to come." (Lara also admits the sextet couldn't hold back the tears as filming wrapped. "We got so emotional," she says, covering her mouth, almost as if reliving the experience again.)

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Manon adds. “It's our first music video and it was very intense. We had long shot shoot days, very early call times, but it was so worth it. Gregory made us also so comfortable and he actually was like, 'Oh, and if you guys have any ideas, let me know. Maybe we can change some things up.' We all felt really involved.”

"I think one of my favorite parts is when someone would be filming their individual scene, and all the girls would be hyping her up behind the camera, being like, 'Let's go. You're killing it. Oh my God, you look so good.' It was just such a positive environment. The entire team was so supportive," Megan also notes.

The members of KATSEYE were selected from over 120,000 submissions for The Debut: Dream Academy. First, there were 20 contestants; then, 10 finalists; and, at long last, six final members hailing from all corners of the world. On the U.S. front, Daniela comes from Atlanta, Lara from LA, and Megan from Honolulu. Manon, Sophia, and Yoonchae, the international members, are from Zurich, Manila, and Seoul, respectively.

Before their journey as KATSEYE began, the members all relocated to LA to train to become "the first-ever global girl group formed using K-pop artist development methodologies," as HYBE and Geffen describe it. That year-long process, part of which was already shown on The Debut: Dream Academy, will be documented on Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, an upcoming documentary directed by Nadia Hallgren set to premiere this summer on Netflix.

"LA is where the Dream Academy started. It's where I met all the other members. This is where we're going to have our activities as a group, so it's a really meaningful and important place for me," Yoonchae says. "LA it's a place with a lot of great memories and a place that we're all going to build more memories in the future."

Yoonchae Jeong

 Rahul Bhatt. Courtesy of HYBE x Geffen.

Despite having closed their Dream Academy chapter months ago, KATSEYE still feel a special connection with their fellow contestants. "I definitely have kept in touch with some of the girls," Daniela says with a smile. “It's hard not to because some of them became my best, best, best friends, especially my roommates. They're always checking up on me, and I'm always checking up on them. They're definitely supportive.”

Manon adds that all of the contestants had "mutual respect" and "only love" for each other. However, being part of the final six has made the bond even deeper for KATSEYE. "I think we always try to keep saying that we're sisters because it genuinely feels like we are," Manon says. “We all live together. All six of us are going through this very unique journey that no one else really can relate to, so that gives us this special bond, and it's amazing, I mean, to always have five girls who know exactly what you're going through.”

And they know what they are going through 24/7. Since the show ended, the sextet have practically spent every second of the day together in their new LA home, sharing rooms grouped in pairs.

"Honestly, it's so much fun being in the house with all my members," says Megan. "Being surrounded by such positive people just makes me so much more motivated to keep going and do my best every single day. And when I have a hard day, they're always there for me, or if I just want to watch a movie, they're always there. Just going into each other's rooms at night, just to have a little debrief at the end of the day, is just so much fun."

Anyone who's had any roommates in life knows communal living is not for the faint of heart, but KATSEYE are still very much in the honeymoon phase. "I think honestly the hardest part [has been] going to bed at a reasonable time," Manon says between laughs, "because we stay up late and talk so often, and so usually it gets really late, and then we're tired the next day."

"We do have our differences, [but] we have gotten used to them and used to each other's habits," Daniela adds in a more earnest note. "We all go to bed on our own time. One girl will go to bed later than the other girl, or we have to figure out who's going to take a shower first or who's going to use the laundry. So it's definitely at times a little difficult, but I feel like since we have been living with each other already for a good bit, we got used to it. We're sisters. We figure it out every time."

Manon Bannerman

 Rahul Bhatt. Courtesy of HYBE x Geffen.

When KATSEYE speak of each other, they seem bonded for life, so it's not surprising to learn they think of each other as their best support system. However, they also share HYBE and Geffen provide them with all the help when needed. "We are going to be here for each other for the rest of our lives [but] the company does provide so much support for us," Sophia says. “We will always have somebody to talk to. Even if we're doing something on our schedule where it's just us and we don't have the girls, they're always checking up on us. Even on any set that we're on, anybody on set is always checking up on our physical and our mental.”

"[Between us], there's this deeper type of comfort that just never fails, and I think that just comes from our sisterhood and the experiences we've had with each other. I really cannot imagine going through this alone, especially this specific unique project that we're in," Sophia adds. “I feel so much better, so much weight off my shoulders.” However, there's still some weight.

KATSEYE fans, affectionately known as EYEKONS, have been waiting for over seven months for their first release, and the members know the wait has been arduous.

"It definitely feels like it's been a while," Lara says, "but I think that we take it very seriously that we want to give out the highest produced quality content that we can. Everything is so detailed down to the creative, the styling, the details of our dances, and the delivery of when we record our songs; we wanted to get everything to the best place that it could possibly be where we are right now. I think that's why it's going to benefit us and benefit everybody that we took our time with it."

Sophia Laforteza

 Rahul Bhatt. Courtesy of HYBE x Geffen.

"To EYEKONS that were waiting, we're so grateful for their patience," Lara continues. “It's been so cool and heartwarming every day to see that through this journey and through Dream Academy to now every single day, they'll be like, 'When is debut? When is debut?' They're just so proactive and so excited and always online asking us questions. They've just really stuck on this journey with us, so we're so grateful that they have, and we promise that we won't disappoint them.”

Musically speaking, EYEKONS have been famished, and "Debut" is the first appetizer KETSEYE is serving. The full course is still waiting and will arrive on August 16 in the form of the debut EP, SIS (Soft Is Strong), via HYBE x Geffen Records.

"The main thing that we wanted to showcase with this debut album truly is our confidence," Sophia teases about the upcoming project. “The whole concept of SIS shows that relatability, but you're still going to see the uniqueness of KATSEYE and what we want to show to the world. A lot of that comes from our chemistry with each other, and mainly it ties down to our sisterhood, and feeding in our passion. It's going to be a lot of outward energy that I feel like a lot of the EYEKONS and the world is going to see. I want our music to touch every single part of the world, and I think that's the best part about being a global girl group, it's that we get to have such a wide range of people that we can connect to.”

"One of our biggest missions through this whole project and with being this global group is to represent our people," Lara adds. “Each of us has such a specific group of people that look up to us and feel like they can relate to us [and] I think that's so beautiful. I'm so excited to actually see that in action and be able to influence people and make people of our cultures feel seen through our music. To really be that representation is our mission.”