Fans praised the group for “serving looks”.
KATSEYE arrived at Spotify’s 2026 Best New Artist Party looking less like newcomers and more like pop’s next global power players.
The Los Angeles event doubled as a red-carpet moment and a victory lap for a group engineered over years by HYBE and Geffen.
Fresh off earning two Grammy nominations, the six members stepped into awards week as proof that their ambitious experiment has officially paid off.
At Spotify’s Best New Artist party, KATSEYE walked in less like underdogs and more like the algorithm’s chosen six.
For many fans, this appearance marked the end of their “experiment” phase and the beginning of their Best New Artist era.
KATSEYE is a six-member multinational girl group created through HYBE x Geffen’s joint global girl-group project.
The group is built on K-pop-style training but based in Los Angeles, blending Eastern discipline with Western pop ambition.
Their final lineup was selected from more than 120,000 applicants through the survival series The Debut: Dream Academy.
The show positioned KATSEYE as a proof-of-concept for exporting the K-pop system to a Western base.
The members are Sophia Laforteza, who is Filipino-American, Manon Bannerman, who is Swiss-Italian and Ghanaian, and Daniela Avanzini, who is Venezuelan-Cuban-American.
They are joined by Lara Raj, who is Indian-American, Megan Skiendiel, who is Chinese-Singaporean-American, and Yoonchae Jeong, who is Korean.
They officially debuted in June 2024 with the digital single ‘Debut,’ following a live Dream Academy finale.
@enews Obvi’, obvi’ KATSEYE looks amazing at the Spotify Best New Artist party. ? #AwardsSeason ? original sound – Lorelei
During that finale, HYBE founder Bang Si-hyuk and Geffen executives highlighted the group as a boundary-breaking collaboration.
Spotify’s 2026 Best New Artist party brings together Grammy-nominated newcomers and streaming darlings during awards week.
KATSEYE attended as one of the most talked-about rising acts in the room.
Spotify spotlighted their trajectory “from becoming a group on ‘Dream Academy’ to earning two Grammy nominations,” underlining how fast their rise has been.
Fan and stan-page coverage also stressed that KATSEYE ranked among the most-streamed girl groups on Spotify in late 2025.
That streaming dominance helps explain why the platform is pushing them so hard during its Best New Artist celebrations.
In many ways, they represent the streaming-era answer to the classic girl group.
They are algorithm-proven on Spotify, reality-tested on YouTube and TikTok, and now validated on the Grammy stage.
Social clips from the night showed KATSEYE lighting up the red carpet with effortless charm.
Fans praised the group for “serving looks” and “absolutely owning” the event.
@popcrave @KATSEYE at the @Spotify ? Gnarly – KATSEYE
Coverage highlighted their coordinated but non-uniform styling, which reflects their core themes of diversity and sisterhood.
Videos also captured looser, TikTok-friendly moments, from smiling into phones to quick dance moves and playful camera interactions.
Fashion-wise, KATSEYE leaned into a polished, globally aspirational pop-star aesthetic.
At the same time, each member’s background and personality still peeked through.
Their journey began long before Grammy week.
HYBE and Geffen announced their joint venture in 2021, pitching it as the first US-based girl group built with a K-pop-style training system.
Auditions launched later that year, eventually feeding into The Debut: Dream Academy.
The series followed 20 finalists through missions in Los Angeles and Korea.
A live-streamed finale then selected the six current members, blending fan voting with label evaluations.
After debuting in 2024, KATSEYE released songs that fused K-pop choreography and precision with Western pop hooks.
They quickly built a global fandom spanning North America, Europe and Asia.
For South Asian fans, Lara Raj’s presence carries particular weight, adding Indian-American visibility to a group defined by global identity.
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