The members of KATSEYE are speaking out about the death threats they face online.
In a new interview with BBC News, the newly Grammy-nominated girl group shared that members have been receiving thousands of death threats directed at the artists and their families.
“It can get really heavy,” said singer Lara Raj near the 4:20 mark in the video linked above. “I think as time goes on, and the stakes just get higher and higher … I try to tell myself sometimes, ‘It doesn't matter’ and ‘What people say, it doesn't matter.’ But we're humans, and if a thousand people are sending death threats, it's jarring.”
When asked if they had received specific threats, the group members audibly agreed in unison. Sophia Laforteza explained that while they expected some level of public scrutiny, the scale of the harassment has been difficult to process.
"Our career has been really short, but I feel like we've gotten a lot of things already said to us about us, to our families, and it's something that we know that we signed up for being so public ... but it doesn't change the fact that we are human," she said. “I think a lot of people don't really see celebrities that way.”
Manon Bannerman said the members rely on one another for emotional support and often remind each other to step back from social media when it becomes overwhelming.
"If someone's feeling a bit down, or reading too many comments online, we're like, 'Maybe get off your phone a bit more often,'" she said.
Despite the intensity of public attention, the artists emphasized the importance of their bond.
Raj reflected, "It is the most valuable beautiful gift because we're not going through those pressures alone ... there's nobody else on this earth that will understand what it feels like at all."
Looking ahead, KATSEYE said they plan to write their own music, with Raj expressing a desire to tackle the toxic side of online culture.
"I really want us to have a song about the internet," she said. "But in a way where it's a universal experience that women go through. We're always getting compared to each other, right? But then being in a girl group it's like, people see us as women to just rank, and it's so bizarre to me.”
She continued, “Sometimes on the internet, we'll get lettered grading based on how pretty we are, our singing skill, dancing skill, and then they'll rank it up and give us a percentage … To me, I think that that's so dystopian. It's such a weird concept and we see it so much.”
“It's an interesting concept to make a song about. It resonates with us really deeply, but it can also be super universal because people are always getting compared, and women are always getting pit against each other,” Raj concluded.
KATSEYE—which consists of members Raj, Bannerman, Laforteza, Yoonchae, Daniela Avanzini, and Megan Meiyok Skiendiel—was assembled after successfully competing on the K-pop inspired competition Dream Academy (later chronicled on the Netflix series, Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE).
The group formally made its debut in 2024 and soon had its breakthrough with the single “Touch.” The band continued its streak of success with the EP BEAUTIFUL CHAOS, which features viral hits “Gnarly,” “Gabriela,” and “Gameboy.”