They’re one of the world’s most famous girl groups, but are they about to implode?

Katseye: Wild Hearts wants you to know the kids are alright. Chronicling Katseye’s rapid rise, the new documentary is as flashy and upbeat as their concerts, marvelling over how they went from obscurity to the world’s biggest girl group.

But their story has a darker underbelly, one the Disney+ documentary appears at pains to conceal. While the six-piece’s fame skyrocketed, two members, Manon Bannerman and Sophia Laforteza, went on hiatus. Their hiatuses began five months apart, and both cited mental health and wellbeing concerns.

Beyond a brief reference to therapy, this is absent from the documentary, which dropped last week. It begins and ends on a promising note, assuring fans (known as “Eyekons”) that Katseye is only getting started. But with a third of the group missing in action, could their future be bleaker?

What is Katseye?

Katseye is the first multinational girl group formed using K-pop methods. Its six members – Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, Daniela Avanzini, Yoonchae Jeung, Bannerman and Laforteza – were selected by the public (along with judges’ scores) on The Debut: Dream Academy, a 2023 YouTube competition series run by American label Geffen Records and Hybe, the K-pop behemoth behind best-selling boy band BTS. K-pop is therefore woven into Katseye’s DNA.

“They have tightly synchronised dancing and the polished look of K-pop artists, combined with many Western pop-culture touchpoints and global references due to the diversity of their members,” says Dr Sarah Keith, senior lecturer in media at Macquarie University.

What’s behind their rapid rise?

Just 2½ years after forming, Katseye topped the Billboard 200 and commanded more than 34 million monthly listeners on Spotify. The group performed at Coachella, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and on Saturday Night Live, and launched the Wildworld tour. This was all before the eldest member turned 25 (the youngest joined at 15).

Their “unabashed pop” drove this swift success, Keith says. “While solo artists are concerned with things like authenticity and maintaining a stable image, Katseye skip between different genres, sounds and trends really quickly.”

They went from SIS, a more conventional, “demure” album, to Beautiful Chaos, an “aggressively weird” EP with hits like Gnarly. Then came Wild, a TikTok-coded Gen Alpha treat. Such willingness to adapt keeps existing fans on their toes and attracts new audiences along the way.

Katseye has heralded the return of the girl group in Western pop music, an industry now largely dominated by solo artists. The outfit’s formation was documented in another carefully crafted documentary, Netflix’s Pop Star Academy: Katseye.

“They tapped into the reality-competition show audience. Many people were invested even before the group debuted,” Keith says.

Are cracks beginning to show?

In February, Katseye’s labels announced Bannerman’s temporary hiatus from group activities to “focus on her health and wellbeing”. Shortly after, Bannerman assured fans she was taking care of herself, and that “sometimes things unfold in ways we don’t fully control”.

This caused some Eyekons to speculate about whether Bannerman had been quietly sidelined by the labels and whether her Swiss-Ghanaian heritage played a part. Rumours of tension within the group and with the labels intensified when Bannerman reportedly liked a social media post referencing the systemic mistreatment and racism faced by Black members in girl groups.

The remaining group members have since said the situation had nothing to do with race. “We can definitely say that in our situation, in no way was it about race,” Laforteza told Vanity Fair in June. “That goes against everything that we stand for.” However, some fans still called for a boycott of Katseye pending Bannerman’s reinstatement. There’s been no mention of when this could be. Hybe and Geffen have been contacted for comment.

Five months after Bannerman’s break began, Laforteza went on hiatus over mental health concerns. It has since been announced that she will return to Katseye in January, but the absences point to underlying issues within the group. Every member has said they’ve experienced racist or misogynistic abuse online, including offensive polls that rank them in order of “attractiveness”. Raj, an American with Tamil-Indian heritage, said she was falsely reported to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other members have received death threats.

“Looking back at the 00s and 90s, celebrities definitely had to deal with tabloids, but the internet is just so accessible and in your face, especially because we’re on there, too,” Megan told Dazed in August.

Alongside online toxicity comes the general pressures of working within K-pop, which demands perfection. The documentary outlines Katseye’s dusk-till-dawn rehearsals, the occasionally brutal feedback from label executives, and Skiendiel’s chronic back pain.

These instances reasonably trigger concern among fans, Keith says. However, many of the girl groups that came before Katseye similarly evolved, including Destiny’s Child and the Pussycat Dolls.

But Katseye has been subject to extra scrutiny, Keith notes, mainly from those curious whether the “K-pop-American-pop” crossover will work. “Any stumbles by the group or its members will likely be interpreted as a sign of this experiment failing.”

What could this mean for Katseye’s future?

Hiatuses may not be ideal, but they’re sometimes inevitable, especially in K-pop.

“One of the ways K-pop has dealt with these shifting line-ups is to create subunits,” Keith says. “For example, if we have a four-member group, we might release a mini-album featuring a duo. For Katseye, four members would probably be sustainable, but it would be difficult if they had to operate with any fewer than that.”

Katseye may be fine, but the struggles of its members could diminish the initial optimism around “hybrid” groups from crossover cultural backgrounds.

“K-pop agencies and Western artists and labels have been collaborating for decades, and Katseye is one of their biggest successes to date. But that doesn’t mean that any global group trained in the K-pop style will automatically succeed … I’m not sure whether we will see another hybrid group soon.”

Katseye: Wild Hearts is available to stream on Disney+ now.

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