When I speak to Katseye over Zoom a few days after the Palladium show, they’re in Mexico City, the final stop of their Beautiful Chaos tour, which hit 14 North American cities in about a month. All are, by now, a little worse for wear. Avanzini had hoped to see Bad Bunny play the Estadio GNP Seguros that night, but she was battling a virus that had already knocked out Skiendiel, who was on bed rest.
Of course, the toll of pop stardom hasn’t been only physical; for every adoring Eyekon there’s a vicious, faceless critic ranking the girls by their talent or their looks. (When, in February, Hybe and Geffen Records announced that Bannerman would be taking a “temporary hiatus” from the group to “focus on her health and wellbeing,” fans alternately blamed burnout and internet trolls.) “We really do our best to be supportive of one another,” Laforteza says. “If any of us are going through anything, we will lock all six of us in a bathroom until we feel fine.” Between the crush of daily rehearsals, public appearances, and performances, they’ve dutifully attended therapy together too.
“We have been with each other every single day for the past two years,” adds Avanzini. “We’re learning about our different cultures and the way we work, but what we love brings us together—like the fact that we all love singing, dancing, and just performing.”
Their ethnic and cultural diversity is no small thing: Avanzini was raised by Cuban and Venezuelan parents in Atlanta; Raj, the daughter of Tamil immigrants, grew up in New York City; Skiendiel is Chinese Singaporean American by way of Honolulu; Jeung hails from Seoul; Bannerman is Swiss Ghanaian; and Laforteza grew up in Manila. Where many K-pop groups prioritize a certain conformity, Katseye projects a vision of pop globalism.
That’s a point of pride for its members. Unlike intraditional K-pop, Katseye sings predominantly in English, but for “Gabriela”—the second single from their 2025 EP, Beautiful Chaos—Avanzini contributed a verse in Spanish. (The song earned the group one of their two Grammy nominations this year, for best pop duo/group performance and best new artist.) The other girls are keen to do versions of the same. “Seeing Dani rep her culture, then seeing how much it blew up, was a good sign that the global factor works in our music,” says Raj. “We all want to put our cultures into our songs. Bollywood was used so much in the 2000s by Timbaland and Pharrell, Britney Spears, even Gaga. So there’s a lot of room to show our sauce.”
