Viral Rookie Girl Group Gets Slammed For Alleged Anti-Korean Sentiments Of CEO

HANA, a rookie girl group that debuted earlier this year through an audition program, has been met with some polarizing responses in Korea amid their rising global fame.

The group, produced by Korean-Japanese artist Chanmina, has received high praise for its fresh concept, sound, talent, and styling. One of the biggest appeals of the group is the fact that the audition program through which it was created had no weight, age, or appearance requirements. Due to the open audition process, people from all over the world participated for their chance to debut as a part of HANA, including the group’s only Korean member, Jisoo. Another member auditioned remotely from New York and ended up on the debuting lineup.

HANA’s latest release, “Blue Jeans,” has brought them high praise from global audiences. K-Pop listeners have been especially invested in the group’s discography, given the undeniable influence of the genre on their music despite it being predominantly in the Japanese language.

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However, as the group has been gaining recognition both in Japan and globally, Korean netizens are left feeling torn. After a recent viral post on Theqoo highlighted HANA’s rise to fame and their unique appeal, many netizens left comments criticizing fellow Koreans who supported the group over the alleged anti-Korean attitude of the CEO of HANA’s agency.

• “A product that came out as a result of patriotic marketing and as a counter to K-Pop.”
• “Was the CEO anti-Korean?”
• “All the girls have nice vocal tones.”
• “They all sing live really well, and the Korean member’s vocal tone is so good. I saw that song pop up on Shorts too and ended up looking it up a lot lol.”
• “Wow, daebak.”
• “I didn’t know — they’re anti-Korean?”

HANA is singed under BMSG, which is helmed by rapper SKY-HI. While it is unclear what prompted Korean netizens to perceive the him as anti-Korean, the rapper has previously spoken about the success of K-Pop and expressed his wish for Japanese music industry to emulate the same.

Despite the backlash, HANA seems to be off to a promising start. Their “Blue Jeans” music video has garnered over 17 million views in less than a month, while the special performance video for the song, which was uploaded only a week ago, has already recorded 2 million views!

You can check out the group’s other releases here: