Katseye Is Ready to Talk About Manon, Coachella, and Everything Else
Bannerman is Swiss Ghanian. An aspiring artist with a notable following even before joining the group, she was scouted on social media to join the competition midway for a spot in Katseye. The nearly three-year-old group was born out of a cutthroat competition orchestrated by Hybe—the multibillion-dollar South Korean powerhouse behind the biggest boy band on the planet, BTS—and the American label Geffen Records. Their objective: build an international girl group in the K-pop mold that could conquer the Western mainstream. Only 20 of the 120,000 young contestants from around the world who auditioned for Katseye were chosen to battle it out in a grueling, tear-inducing 12-week boot camp. They were ruthlessly ranked and judged by a panel of industry experts ahead of each elimination round as Netflix documented the entire journey. “Now, when I think about it, I’m like, ‘How did I do this?’” says Jeung, who was just 15 when she moved to LA to join the competition. “But that journey also made me more mature.” Since then, the grind hasn’t slowed down. …
